My bag collection got out of control again. I managed to collect a huge bag of plastic bags. Some Mel and I gathered. Some others gifted me. My small pile grew quickly and in less than a year, I had a big pile again. I decided to make plarn. I can always give plarn away to other people who crochet. That would reduce the pile quickly.

As I was making the plarn, I found myself thinking, “Careful not to use it all. If you use it all, you won’t have any bags left for making baskets.” It was at that moment I realize how deeply my insanity ran. Here I was writing month after month about how my goal is to get my piles down to zero. Here I was engaged in an activity meant to reduce the pile quickly. And here I was thinking in another part of my brain, “Careful. You want to keep some of the pile JUST IN CASE.” Also bear in mind that I am thinking this about plastic bags; a cheap item that can be gotten anywhere and that everyone has more of than they want.

To deal with the insanity, I decided right then to use every bag I had to make plarn (excluding a few bread bags that don’t make for good plarn and can be used to pick up dog poo out of the yard) and to live at least one week completely bag free.

It took most of a day, but I ended up five plarn balls richer. A couple days later, I used some of the plarn to make a little bag. I didn’t quiet finish it, but that’s ok. I am confident more plastic bags of this kind will appear and the little bag will be completed. No hurry.

I didn’t post this until after my week of zero plastic bags elapsed. Often when I write that I am out of a certain material, my generous readers will gift me their material. I could not allow kindness and generosity thwart my goal. I have in fact proved to myself that I can go a week without having a pile. Good job, me.

Now on to other piles.