Do you wash your reusable grocery bags?

Well, I kept meaning to, but just never got around to it.  Until today.  I was either really bored or really ambitious!  I remember reading a long time ago that the things were loaded with bacteria, but I guess we like to think we're cleaner than the next guy.  Welllll, maybe not.  I actually forgot to take a close-up pic of the dirt on the outside of the bags, but here's my jumbled mess hanging on a door hook.  I have about 10 of these babies and I really didn't realize just how acky they were until I inspected them better.

First, I removed the plastic inserts from the bottoms of each and cleaned them well with my homemade Schwindex.  Ugh!!  I had NO CLUE there was (what appears to be) dried blood on one of them! Blech!

I then washed the bags in hot water and bleach in the washing machine.  I used bleach because I wanted to kill any germs, not really caring if it changed the color of the bags (it didn't). It was easy to fit them all in the machine but I did find that I had to smash them down a few times because of air bubbles that were trapped inside.  The bags have somewhat of a water-proof quality to them, too.  When they were done, I dried them on low in the dryer for about 20 minutes.  They came out a little less stiff than they used to be, but I don't think that will matter much.  I put the inserts back in and folded them all.

Here's a quote I found online about reusable bags...
"There's no doubt they are a more eco-friendly choice than plastic, but reusable grocery bags have a shaky health history. In 2010, a study found that over half are contaminated with bacteria, some even with E. coli, because 97 percent of shoppers say they never wash their totes." 

I also found an article that said you should wash your bags EVERY time you use them, but that just seems silly to me.  Come on, people, it's not like I'm spilling blood in them every day.  Well, except for that one bag, ah-hem.  This same article said that bags should never be kept in the car because the warm temp was perfect for breeding bacteria.  Well, guess what?  I'm still keeping mine in my van, so ha! Breed away, little bacties!`I may actually wash them more often than once a year from now on though.

And one last little psycho-facto.  You see where I put our name on our bags with magic marker?  Why do I do that?  Am I worried that someone will steal my bags right out from under me at the bagging counter?  Nope!  Don't laugh...I used to be worried that the ladies at the registers would think they were new bags and that I was trying to sneak one by them, lol!  But I guess if I'm conscientious (one may substitute paranoid) enough to worry about that, I couldn't possibly be that bad, can I? 

Anyway, that's my little snippet about reusable grocery bags.  Do you wash yours?  Are you dying of E.coli?  :)  

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