ReUsies Reusable Snack Bags – Product Review

If you know me or have followed Pandora’s Deals for any length of time you’ll know that I have a slight obsession with reusable snack bags.  My daughter started kindergarten this year and I started packing lunches almost every day.  I very quickly realized that I would be going through a ridiculous amount of plastic baggies each day between packing her lunch and sending her with a morning snack.  Not only did that seem like a huge waste of money, but it seemed like a huge amount of unnecessary trash.  If the snacks and lunches I was packing for one kid resulted in throwing away about 10-15 plastic baggies each week, what did that look like for her whole class?  For her entire school?  YIKES.

Now, I’m not an extremist tree hugger, but I do believe that we can all do something to make a difference to Mother Earth.  Knocking off the plastic baggie habit was something I could easily do.  So I hunted down a deal on reusable bags and that’s where I discovered ReUsies.  I have 6 of these bags now and they’re well-used, well-loved.  That picture above is my collection.

Things I love about ReUsies:

• The designs!  My kids love using these bags.  They’re colorful and cute.  My daughter likes her purple flowers, my son likes his baseballs.  Me?  I like the black skulls.  😉
• They’re not plastic.  I have read so much about the chemicals that seep into your food from plastics that I try my best to limit our use of plastics in the kitchen.  ReUsies are free of BPA and phthalates. They are also CPSIA compliant and FDA approved which makes them safe for everyday food use.
• They come in two different sizes.  One is perfect for snacks like crackers and nuts and the other is just the right size for a sandwich.
• They are nylon-lined so you can put wet foods in them like grapes or carrot sticks without making a soppy mess in your kid’s lunch bag.
• They velcro close and nothing leaks out.  Even better: there’s a velcro strip on the back so when you flip them inside out to wash them, you can seal up the velcro and not find your baggies stuck to your socks in the washing machine.
• They’re super easy to take care of.  You can turn them inside out, attach the velcro and stick them in the washer.  I always air dry mine.  Just clip them to a skirt hanger and give them a couple hours to dry out.  Or, you can handwash them which is what I’ve started doing all the time now.  One of my daughter’s most beloved purple flower bags started getting a tad bit loose in the stitching because of repeated washings.  So now I give them a quick scrub in the sink, lay them on a dishtowel to dry and they’ll last much longer this way.  Plus I don’t have to wait for a full load of dirty laundry to get them back in the drawer.  (ha!  Wait for a full load of dirty laundry…  Good one, Lindsay.  😉 )

There are lots of things to love about ReUsies.  They’re such an easy, inexpensive, and FUN way to pack up a lunch or snack without having to create a bunch of unnecessary trash.  Check out all the fun and funky designs from ReUsies here and consider grabbing a set for yourself or your own kids.  I really do love them and think you will too!

One lucky reader is going to have the chance to win a set, one small bag and one large bag,  of their choice of ReUsies bags!  Go here to enter the giveaway.  It’s available to U.S. residents and runs from February 29 to March 6, 2012.  See additional details on the giveaway post.  Good luck!

I was provided with a set of ReUsies Reusable Snack Bags to facilitate this review.  The opinions in this post are 100% mine.  You can read my full disclosure policy here.