Well the holiday season has come to an end. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas for those of you who celebrate it. I had a big gathering this year and that meant a lot of boots at the entrance. Even after I had moved all our personal boots and shoes out of the front hall closet downstairs to make room for guests winter wear, I knew I’d still need additional floor mats in the foyer that would keep the melting snow from pooling on the tile. In Alberta we take our shoes or boots off at the entrance to whatever home we are at – wet tiles is a recipe for wet socks or worse, a slip and fall. My solution? Convert the plastic reusable shopping bags I purchased at the Dollar Tree. Not only did this idea work out great, I discovered several other additional ways to use them.
The light weight plastic makes it water proof and easy to wipe off and the bags come in lots of colors and patterns so you can match to your decor or season. I just have Christmas bags right now but I’m planning on changing things up with the seasons, I’ll keep you posted!
Supplies
Plastic Reusable Shopping Bag
Scissors
Instructions: Cut out both side panels and handles. You are left with a rectangle that can be used for all sorts of things.
#1 Boot/Shoe Mat
You can simply lay it out on the floor for a boot or shoe mat or cut to size to use as a lining on a shoe rack or for the bottom of the closet
#2 Pet Mat
I also used one of the bags by the patio door where the dog goes in and out. We are still working on getting him to stay by the door until I wipe off his paws. I had a regular little house mat there before but I actually prefer this, it’s easy to wipe off and keep clean.
# 3 Pet Food Mat
These work great for under the pet food water and food dishes! It’s so easy to cut and clean
# 4 Plant Mat
These also work well for under indoor plants! You can change the bag to match the season or holiday and its very affordable and re-usable too!
#5 Table Runner or Cover
These red and white bags had such a nice design, they look lovely just about anywhere! Again like the checkered bag I just cut out the side panels and cut off the handles.
#6 Cupboard Liner
Because they are light weight plastic they work great for cupboard or pantry liners and perfect under the sink!
There are just endless possibilities! For under $2.00 you have a durable, colorful, waterproof mat. I’m excited to watch for different bags to change things up for spring!
Starrcreative.ca 
So awesome!! Thank you!!!
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Thanks Kelley – I’m looking forward to spring colors and new ways to use them. Under the dog dish has been the best thing ever, they wipe off so well.
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Love all your creative ideas!!❤️️❤️️
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Awe – thank-you! They sure work good for a lot of things!
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Thank you!
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This is one of those ….” Why didn’t I think of that!” ideas.
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Smart!
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Thank you!
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Such a great idea! 👌🙄👍
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Big thanks! Your kind comment is appreciated! Always fun to find new ways to use things.
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splendid post!
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Great idea!!!
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Great Idea!!!! I am definitely going to do this (& make place mats for our table from the cuter bags I have)!!!
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There are some good ideas here to be able to reuse the ones I have where a handle has ripped off. I feel bad just throwing them away.
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Thank you!!
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What fantastic ideas!!!!! Thank you!
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Thank you Pete – yes the dog bowl one works great! It’s cold one day and warm the next – it can’t seem to make up its mind but very little snow and no blizzards so hurray for that! I really enjoy your blog. Stay warm and safe out there.
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All great tips for using bags that might otherwise be discarded. I will use the pet bowl one, for sure. Many thanks for following my blog. I hope it isn’t too cold in Alberta! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thank you
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Great ideas
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I get your idea but how does t stay in place since plastic tends to slip and slide.
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Thank you
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Very creative ideas!!
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Oh my goodness! Such clever uses for reusable shopping bags. I love it!
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This is genius! I never would’ve thought of it but they’d be so simple to clean up too. Great idea.
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Very welcome!
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Thank you!
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Awesome ideas!!!
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Yes things can get kind of messy around the pet dishes so this works good.
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These are great ideas. I always have such a mess around our cat dishes. I just stored all my Christmas up in the attic. I will have to visit my mother-in-laws garage. She stores everything and loves to pass things out to her family.
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Yeah – that’s a long long trip to the store! lol I never really paid attention to them either until the plaid ones caught my eye. Best of luck in your search!
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I’m afraid the nearest Dollar Tree store is about 8500 kilometres away from here 😀 I’ll look for them in my local stores, they might have some – I just probably never noticed them as I didn’t really need them.
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That’s a great idea!! The fold up so nice too – easy to tuck away when you’re not using them – you could have a good selection on hand without taking up a lot of space. Dollar Tree has a great selection – I’m just itching to see what they come out with for spring time – the colors are so vibrant.
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Who would have thought that a simple table cloth could look that good as table runner! That gave me an idea to maybe try and use them as background for food photos… I just need to find decent looking shopping bags!
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Thank-you! I was amazed how versatile they are!
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This is a simple and great way to reuse an item. Fun Post!
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Dollar stores liqudation stores and thrift stores! My faves
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Thank you! Yes – we have Dollarama and Dollar Tree but Dollarama is getting a wee bit expensive lately! I love dollar stores – you just never know what you’ll find.
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Great ideas. Love the pet “place” mat idea.
In Ontario we had some snow on Xmas but its all gone once again. Also I love dollar tree were everything is 1.25 lol. Dollarama is still great too, I enjoy hoping around to all of them truth be told. Do you guys have the Dollar n More chain out west? We got our first last year and its had many visits lol.
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Right back at you – its always wonderful to find new folks to share wonderful ideas with – looking forward to reading more of your blogs!
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thanks for following my blog.
I checked out yours and really liked it.
I look forward to using your upcycling ideas.
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