Naked Dry Cleaning

About a month ago, I was visiting eco-friendly Seattle. I saw something I'd never seen before: a dry cleaning establishment that doesn't use plastic bags--only reusable garment bags:

What a brilliant idea! Each customer has one or two (or more) bags, identified with a personal label, and they are used over and over by the cleaners.

No more plastic bags clogging up the landfill!

(I *heart* my dry cleaner, too, but I don't *heart* all the plastic bags and paper covers they use.)

When I got back home, I asked my own, local laundry if they would/could do such a thing. And for less than $8, look what they ordered for me:

It's called "The Green Garmento," and apparently it's pretty well known. It's been reviewed by Hoda and Kathie Lee on "The Today Show," and even "The Situation" has praised it on "The View."

According to the GG website, the sturdy, reusable clothes bag comes in six colors and four lengths.

It is a really well-thought-out product. It has a see-through pocket to slip in the name/address/laundry ticket for each customer:

It has two short straps on the back side for hanging up or carrying, as well as a long strap running down the length of the bag:

You can hang the bag up by the short strap at the bottom so it's set to receive dirty laundry:

Or you can fit it over a standard-size clothes hamper (sort of like a trash can liner). Since I don't have that, I hang mine in the laundry room until it's filled with The Hubby's shirts:

Then I use the drawstring to close it up:

It stays cinched up because of this little goodie, here:

You can carry the bag to your laundry via the two short handles:

...or toss it over your shoulder using the long handle:

Since it's hard for me to take a photo of myself holding the bag, here it is hanging on my laundry-room cupboard:

Now, here's the important part: When you drop off your clothes, give the bag to the nice person at the front desk and ask them to return your clothes to you on hangers but...

NAKED!

That means, no paper "shoulders" and no plastic bags. (Because that's why you got The Green Garmento, in the first place, right?)

There's a side zipper so your laundry folks can slide your washed-and-pressed-and-hung-on-hangers duds easily into the bag:

And you can buzz merrily home, knowing you've done the environment a favor today.

Even if your local laundry isn't ready to buy these reusable bags for all its customers, you and a few of your peeps can start the ball rolling by using them. And the more folks who do this, the more other folks will see it being done and ask, "Hey! Where can I get one of those?"

And that's how some revolutions begin. One (naked dry cleaning) person at a time.