Now that February has come around, you can focus on that one holiday that people love to hate and hate to love: Valentine’s Day. It’s a holiday surrounded by loathing, love, and lust alike, but no matter how you regard the day of hearts and the color pink, it’s undoubtedly one that ecommerce businesses love to capitalize on.

If you’re someone who runs one of these online businesses, you know what I’m talking about. It’s so easy to market niche Valentine’s Day products to starry-eyed teens and college students who want to make a big impression on a crush or someone they’re recently in a relationship with. Or, even more, anyone selling jewelry knows that it’s a huge day for sales, as spouses come in to make big impressions on their husbands and wives or are even looking for tokens of forgiveness.

But as technology and society progresses, so too do transactions on the internet. Fewer and fewer customers are making trips to the store when they can simply buy things online and have them shipped right to their doorsteps. Why go out and make an effort in a big store when you can just pinpoint exactly what it is you want online (and often search for very specific and niche items) for less effort and sometimes less money?

A big part of this experience, then, is the cardboard box. All around the world, millions of shipping boxes will be in transit to arrive on Valentine’s Day in hopes of making it before “the deadline” of the exchange of gifts between two lovers.

Whether those shipping boxes make it in time or not, though, is up to the purchaser. Did they pay for same-day, one-day, or two-day shipping? Can they trust ground shipping or priority to make it in the 7 business days that was advertised at checkout?

No matter the case, business is booming in mid-February for all online businesses simply because of “love.” Whether or not it’s really in the name of love or not for those customers is irrelevant if it means business is booming for online retailers and distributors.

So, there it is. Just like other big holidays, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to cash in for businesses considering how crazy people can become during gift-giving season. If you’re an ecommerce company, you’re likely reaping the benefits of doing things electronically, because that’s exactly where the younger generation goes to buy their gifts nowadays.

In the back of the warehouse were the bin liners, and behind the bin liners was where the secret club met.  Seeing as they were a group of adults they didn’t refer to themselves as a secret club, or even a club of any kind.  They all agreed that it was a secret, though, and this meant that they weren’t allowed to divulge the information they went over to anyone outside of the group.  And they weren’t allowed to talk about it with each other unless they were in a meeting, to avoid being overheard and possibly intercepted.

If there is any place meant for the gathering of secret clubs a warehouse would be it.  And if there is any section of the warehouse the most clandestine it would be the spot behind the bin liners.  There was minimal traffic in this section, and when the crew assigned to it took their break it made for a perfect opportunity.

Seeing as the club was a secret, no one ever got to find out what the members met about.  They may have been amateurs at whatever they were meeting about, but they most certainly were not amateurs at keeping the topic a secret.

It was purely by default that they were discovered one day, but of course it was bound to happen.  Someone decided not to go on their break that day, or had forgotten something they left behind on one of the shelves, and heard some strange chanting off in a corner.  It turned out not to be chanting so much as reciting some sort of pledge or promise, and the person that stumbled upon it retreated with the quickness.  He was later recorded stating that he didn’t know what they were up to, but he wasn’t about to find out.

When the authorities, by which I mean the shift leads and warehouse management, went to investigate the mysterious clubhouse they found the space completely empty.  It was devoid of any paraphernalia whatsoever, and the only thing that gave it away as a place of frequent meetings was that it was also devoid of dust or debris of any kind, either.  There was never another secret club behind the bin liners because better cameras were installed, which wound up shedding some light on some actual nefarious activities that were really going on in other spots of the building.  Oddly enough, after the discovery of the club there was a rise in crime for a short time, but then it went back down again, and it is speculated that they found somewhere else to meet.

Although this entry is going to be primarily composed around babies and all things associated, it still offers some valuable information for people of all walks of life.  Because we all know someone with kids, right?  Or who are expecting?  I mean, I seriously doubt any of us have no children in our lives.  It would be incredibly difficult to manage, although I guess the person with pedophobia would beg to differ.  Even say it was necessary.  The fact of the matter is that it’s impossible to avoid the little buggers.

When I had my first kid I thought that I was too cool for school and wasn’t going to get one of those diaper genies that wraps each individual diaper and sucks it down into the compartment, sealing in any stench and saving everyone in the vicinity from instant nausea.  I took one look at the price of those bin liners and thought, “Nah, I’ll pass.”  Seriously, though, maybe if they didn’t insist on packaging them in the most expensive way possible…

By the time we were having our second kid I still wasn’t completely resolved to make the commitment.  I mean, it’s all well and good to get everything as a gift, but you are the one that has to keep buying the bin liners.  It’s a long term commitment, if you think about it.

Well, when baby number three was on the way I couldn’t wait to ask for a diaper genie.  I was ready for the commitment.  I was ready to be done with the nasty diapers lying around.  I was ready to be done with a pile of poopy diapers right outside the front door.  Some people would wrap up their dirty diapers in old shopping bags.  Not me.  I couldn’t bear adding another step to the whole process.  As soon as all buns were wiped clean and reswaddled I wanted to march that bundle of refuse outside immediately.  Outside being the key word.  I didn’t want to march all the way to garbage can, mind you.

Not until I had amassed enough to make the trip worth while.  I’m sure all of this sounds pretty heinous to most of you.  So you will gladly rejoice that I did indeed commit to the diaper genie, and faithfully paid for the bin liners for the three years it was in use.  I then sold it at a garage sale for five bucks.  It really is the gift that keeps on giving.  Keep that in mind when having your own, or buying for someone else.

 I always thought that bin liners were just regular trash bags with a fancy way of saying it. It kind of seemed like trying to dress up something that just can’t be dressed up. Like calling the toilet the porcelain station or something like that. It’s true, but it’s a little glorified. Trash bags are meant to be seen as something disposable. It seemed like calling them bin liners made you feel like you had spent too much money on something that is just going to get thrown out. You would think, “No, not my bin liners!” as if they were made of silk or something like that.

On a domestic level, bin liners are definitely trash bags. On an industrial level they are so much more. Since they are used for packaging materials, it actually gets very interesting. The most amazing thing about them is that they are form-fitting to whatever particular container they are designed for, allowing the manufacturer to take full advantage of the space. The most obvious use for bin liners would be that of protecting the product from moisture, or pests, or leaking. They allow the least amount of residue for liquid products (usually stored in drums from fifty-five gallons all the way up to over three hundred, I might add.

Can’t even wrap my mind around that). They also allow for a speedier dispensing of dry products. I’m thinking gigantic cereal box… Perhaps the most interesting thing is that these bin liners actually allow for less waste. By lining cardboard bins, the bins can be reused over and over. Also, they reduce mass amounts of water and cleaners used to wash out the plastic containers. So if you were thinking about turning your nose up at giant plastic bags, consider that bit of information. Not only does the design improve efficiency and help cut costs and waste, there are many variations as well. You would think “plastic bag” is all that would be necessary.

Think again! There are special bin liners with anti-static properties, or they can be stretchy, or they can be extra durable. Perhaps someone wants their bin liners to be extra clear. Who are we to judge? What if they wanted theirs to have pink polka dots all over? Again, this is also an option. I’ve already mentioned the insane range in sizes. It turns out that bin liners are actually a useful tool.

Have you ever seen that show Project Runway? I have had the utmost pleasure of seeing pretty much every single episode to all of the seasons. Sometimes my internet didn’t want to load certain ones, and then I would have to just suck it up, but Project Runway is kind of my go-to. My favorite week is also [usually] the designers’ least favorite: the unconventional challenge.

I was imagining what it would be like if the crew had to use materials from a packaging and shipping supply store. They’ve done a candy store, a dollar store, a flower store (real ones, I might add), a Hallmark store… There’s just a ton. So why not someplace like UPS, or the post office? I used to sew doll clothes and little quilts and random stuff like that when I was little. I was considered ‘good’ and it was flattering and also came in handy. However, I had no real skill and it certainly never occurred to me to make my own clothes and learn different sorts of folds and tucks and whatnot.

But if I did have skill, and did design and sew clothes, and was also on the show, and we found ourselves at a packaging and shipping supply store for the unconventional challenge, I would head straight for the bin liners. I’ve learned a lot about bin liners recently, and have come to see their merit. For those of you not so familiar with them, bin liners are enormous plastic bags with extra sewn into the side (called gussets) so that they can spread out and maximize the space they are lining.

They are usually pretty large, and can go on up to larger and even larger. I would use these bin liners to create some sort of amazing textile (they are always saying “textile” on Project Runway). During the little interview clips I would sit there with greasy hair in a stained white t-shirt and move my hands around so all my bracelets would tinkle while I talked: “I just used layers and layers and layers of these bin liners over this hoop skirt to make this amazing Cinderella-esque dress.”

After I had [clearly] won immunity for the following week, and Vera Wang said she wanted to use my dress for new online brand, I bet the crew for the show would then secretly take all my leftover bin liners. I can’t imagine the insane amounts of trash that the designers make during the chaos of every single challenge, and somebody’s gotta clean it up.

I was a talking a little bit last time about how I was cleaning out my garage and found an old roll of bin liners. This was truly an amazing find, because I like to refer to bin liners as tools. I clarified last time that I say this because whenever I have something that needs a solution I often look to bin liners. And then I went on to explain the many sizes, and how they go from decently large to absolutely huge. I won’t go as in depth into the sizes again this time, because that doesn’t seem necessary, but you can check out PackagingSupplies.com and see for yourself. There’s like eighty sizes to choose from, give or take.

I also took a moment to explain how bin liners are better than glorified trash bags because they are gusseted, meaning extra material is sewn into the sides so that the liner can easily surround the entire bin, instead of just hanging down in the middle. Perhaps you should Google the concept (“gusseted”) if you need a better idea.

When I found that old roll of bin liners I immediately began to put them to use. First I raked my entire yard. I had been meaning to rake my yard anyway, but I don’t like leaving huge piles of leaves all over. Know what I mean? Some friends of mine have a dirt driveway and they always rake the piles all down the driveway and then set them on fire. I can’t do that because I don’t have a dirt driveway, and because most of my leaves are in the back. Even if I had a dirt driveway there is no way I would rake them all up to the front just to burn them.

The firepit is in the way far back of our yard, and so it would be the opposite end of the spectrum to try and get all of the leaves to the fire pit. A solution would be to leave piles all over my yard, but we all know that leaves don’t really completely break down over the winter, and I don’t want to have moguls all over my property. Clearly the bin liners were making a way for me. I stuffed those babies with leaves and the results were truly breathtaking. Not only was my lawn clean, but when the garbage men came later that week they saw an absolute monument waiting for them.