Waste Not - Mesh Produce Bag Pot Scrubbers

I sometimes buy oranges in red plastic mesh bags.

Then I eat the oranges. Yum. Tasty sunshine, water, vitamins and minerals from California.

Back in the old days, I would dispose of the empty mesh bags.

Regulation pot scrubber

Then I would go to the store and buy pot scrubbers.

Until, that is, I noticed that the red mesh bags that I was disposing of looked an awful lot like the pot scrubbers for which I was paying good money. All of a sudden it felt like a waste to dispose of red plastic mesh bags, then go and buy red plastic mesh scrubbers.

It was an epiphany, albeit a small one. "Henceforth," I decided in a sudden fit of frugality, "I will make my own pot scrubbers."

I thought I was being quite creative, but now I see that converting plastic mesh produce bags into pot scrubbers is a fairly common project on simple/frugal/green living blogs. Something else I could see is that everyone else ended up with better looking pot scrubbers than I do.

Homemade pot scubbers that look way better than mine

The first time I converted a mesh bag to a pot scrubber I used needle and thread to make a more secured, uniform product that resembled the store bought ones. Lately, in my efforts to simplify further, I just wad up the mesh bag in my hand in total disregard for pot scrubber etiquette.

The dirty dishes don't notice my messy, non-conventional scrubbers, and they get pots just as clean as the proper looking ones.

If you are interested in not buying pot scrubbers ever again, but like the look and feel of the puffy round ones, check this website that gives an excellent explanation of how to do it properly.

If not, wad 'em up and start scrubbing, saving money, and wasting less resources.

Or if you have a dishwasher, think about using old produce mesh bags as handy reusable produce bags at the grocery store instead of using the film plastic bags for your fruit and veggies.

Do it yourself reusable produce bag