You can help save wild birds and animals: When unwrapping bread, groceries etc., I roll up the plastic wrapping or bags that I can't reuse and then tie them in knots before binning them. This prevents animals and birds getting their heads stuck in them or, just as bad, getting them stuck in their throats while trying to eat any food still adhering to them.
This page contains the following solutions.
I just moved into my first apartment alone in 18 months. And I am a self professed plastic bag hoarder! I use them to ship things, line things, wrap things, and yes, carry things.
I got the idea of cutting the battery box out and removing the stuffing in the body, leaving the head, arms, and legs fully stuffed. I then use the body to stuff full of plastic bags for the waste paper baskets and hang it on a hook on the wall.
When one full bag of garbage is taken out, I replace it with a new one. I make sure there are 6 folded bags under the new one.
Leave a few grocery bags by your door. If you are working outside or forget something you can just slip them over your shoes so you don't have to take them off before walking across the floors and carpets.
If you have a dog and need somewhere to store all the empty plastic bags for walks etc., put them in an empty Kleenex box by the door. They don't get in the way, and they don't look bad either.
In California, we pay 10 cents per bag at the grocery store. Lately, I have been forgetting my bags and buying new bags which adds up. I found a great solution, fold the bags and store them in an empty tissue box.
Instead of wadded plastic bags stuffed higgledy-piggledy, she had taken each bag by the bottom and the handles and smoothed it to a thin, upright column. Then she had laid the brown paper sack on its side and placed each plastic bag inside, with the handles up.
Take a child's onesy pajamas with feet. Then sew up the cuffs at opening. If you want to, sew the upper arms where connected to the body of PJs.
Take a large mesh orange or grapefruit bag that has a draw string type handle from your store bought produce. Snip a bottom corner of the bag off.
Tie knots into the bags you throw in the trash. Department Store bags, dry cleaning bags, grocery store bags etc. This prevents little ones from playing with the bags. Therefore no danger of suffocation. By Chell
Cut the bottom off a 2 litre plastic bottle. Put your bags in through the bottom. Pull one out through the top. When you need one, just pull through the opening.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I save baggies that have not had meat in them. My problem is their storage. By the time I have a collection of large, medium, and small baggies, bread bags, and good cereal bags, I have an awful mess. The easiest thing to do is not to let so many accumulate, but I often freeze a lot of small portions so I often need quite a few at a time.
Any suggestions of organizing and storing these?
Thanks so much.
By Montana Jewel Therapy from MT
Go to a thrift store and find the multi-drawer www.stacksandstacks.com/
You can also find them at yard sales, etc., put your baggies in the drawers.
I suggest you put them back in the box(es)! Save one cereal box, mark it somehow (tape a piece of paper on the front of it or mark with a black felt pen: cereal bags) and then neatly put the bags back into it and store it on the shelf or place where you store things of that nature (cleaning supplies, not the pantry, I mean). Same with the baggies, save a box for each size and put them back into the marked box. That's the freebie way, the other thing I can suggest which would cost money is shoes boxes. Plastic ones with lids.
Hello! Perhaps it's because we drink coffee everyday, but I'm always looking for ways to reuse the plastic coffee containers with handles and snap-on lids. (If you don't drink coffee, I'm sure you know someone that does - just ask them to save you a few.) I use them in the house and DH uses them in the garage for a multitude of small item storage/sorting options.
I put a piece of duct tape around the containers and label them with a large point Sharpe pen. (You could label them Small baggies, Medium baggies, Large baggies and Cereal bags.) They stack nicely, are easy to grab off of any shelf, and you could get a lot of each size plastic bag in a single container.
Thanks for making me think of this! I reuse many of these bags, too, and it never occurred to me to organize this mess. I think I'll start using these coffee jugs to sort my own mismatched collection of reusable baggies! :-)
On a semi-related note, I also save and reuse plastic shopping bags as liners for small trashcans (among other uses). I keep an old, tattered tote hanging from a ceiling hook in my cleaning closet and save the shopping bags for at least a second use/life before discarding. Hope this info helps.
Thanks ladies, all are good ideas, and yes! I am always trying to find uses for those plastic coffee cans.
I would use a over the door shoe holder. This shoe holder has pockets for each individual shoe. I actually sewed just the right amount and size for each of the bags that I use. You have to have a pantry door of course to use this hint. I also use one to hold household misc and craft room misc too.
I re-read your post to see what others had to say, and I agree, the shoe bag works also. I currently have my dish cloths in a shoe bag in the pantry, because my kitchen has only 2 tiny drawers (in which my silverware and utensils are in those).
I don't save plastic bags any longer than it takes for me to carry them to our local Walmart store and put them in the re-cycle bin. I put all plastic bags in there for them to recycle. I use hard plastic sandwich containers and others to keep food in. I do not have the room or the patience to deal with all the clutter so I look for places that can use them or recycle them and take them there. Recently found a vendor in Nacodoches, TX who recycles wine bottles. Guess where mine are going?
Edith, that is a great idea. I have the same problem with my used bags. I do have a pantry door so will be using that idea for sure.
I roll mine up and store them in a large coolwhip container. I can tell at a glance which size is which. Any sized container would work and it does not look bad left setting in the corner on my cabinet.
If you can sew, then take an old tea towel and stitch the 2 long sides together. Hem top and bottom and insert elastic; attach a handle made from ribbon or tape; then you pop the bags in at the top and pull them out at the bottom.
I got a lot of scraps of material from a store some years ago and made a lot of these for school funds.
I use a fabric bag that's about 12" to 14" in length & about 6" to 8" in diameter. Like a large sausage!
The bag is not sewn closed at the top or bottom, but the ends are gathered by using elastic in the bottom & a cord in the top. you put the bags in the top & pull them out from the bottom. The bag can then be hung on a hook by the chord.
You could make a few bags so that you have each size separated.
I usually pull my plastic bags lengthwise, then tie them in a soft knot, but just pull the end half way thru the knot .. then to open again, just pull one end of the bag & it will easily undo. This takes a lot less space & is easy to pull out of the bag.
I use my bags for my small kitchen tidy, the tidy baskets around the house, sorting the dry cleaning, wrapping shoes when travelling, dirty clothes when travelling, & all sorts of other things. They are WONDERFUL for packing when moving. They help with cushioning of crockery & glassware ...& also keep the silverware organised. They are also good for storing linen in when moving ... or just packing away with a little lavender to keep the moths at bay.
If you'd like to pas them on, I know that Op shops always need them ... but I'm saving all of mine because they are being phased out of stores here in Oz. & then I'll have to resort to paying for bags just to throw out as rubbish! The 'wet' rubbish just goes in the regular bin & the 'recyclables' go into the recycle bin, bag & all. Just make sure that you don't tie up the recycle bag when putting in the recycle bin as it has to be opened at the sorting place, or it's just tossed in the regular rubbish.
If you are have basic 8 y.o. sewing skills, you can buy cheap calico bags (about 10/$1.) & use a stencil to draw a basic line drawing on the bag, then stitch around in either running, or chain stitch, etc. using a red, green, blue thread ... or whatever you prefer. They also make terrific 'green' gifts ... that would be appreciated by all & sundry.
After all, we all need bags every now & again for library books, a few grocery items, knitting, toys, Fruit & veg, dry cleaning, etc. Love to hear some more ideas for the calico bags! :-)
Use a gallon size bag for each of the different sizes you save. Using a permanent marker, label the bag with what size you have inside. Punch a hole in the tip of the bag and hang on a hook. ALB
I think you need to reduce the numbers to perhaps 6 of each. With the shopping bags I put the handles together, run thumb and forefinger down encircling the bag then tie a simple knot. The ends are then tucked in and it takes up the space of a small ball.
If I understand your question you are looking for storage for baggies (food storage bags) not grocery bags? My husband eats a bagel every morning for breakfast so I always go to the local deli and order 3 dozen at a time. I put 3-4 in a bag, then double bag it and freeze them. So when the bag is empty it certainly can be reused. After rinsing out and drying I just fold it up and put it back in the box it came from.
So all those bags are there again when I go to do my next order. Since they are folded I can tell the difference if I want a new bag or a recycled one. As far as the cereal bags I would do as another suggested and just save one cereal box and neatly put them back in there. I also save deli bags as when lunch meat is on sale I buy and freeze and like to have it double bagged for the freezer.
I just have one deli bag and put all the other folded ones inside of it and have it on a shelf in my pantry. I don't normally have bread bags but again the same method ~ fold them up and place them all in one bread bag or a large baggie.
I did this with green cloth and put googly eyes and pipe cleaners on top to look like a worm. Hang it on the wall. Works great for shopping bag storage.
This is a page about folding plastic grocery bags. Storing plastic grocery bags for reuse can be a challenge. They seem to require a better solution than stuffing them in another grocery bag.
Recycled solutions to organizational issues are often thrifty and creative. This is a page about use a soda can box to organize bags.
Reusing empty grocery bags is becoming the norm. There are many ways to store them until you need them. Using an empty tissue box is actually reusing two types of packaging and reducing waste.
Here is one idea for making a plastic bag saver using the sleeve from a man's shirt. Repurposing and reusing all in one. This is a page about making an upcycled plastic bag saver.
If you live in an area that still allows one use plastic shopping bags, you probably have struggled with organizing and storing them. This page offers several possible solutions focusing on using recycled plastic containers for organizing plastic bags.
Many consumers reuse their plastic grocery or shopping bags. Keeping these flimsy bags organized and contained for future use can be a challenge. This page contains several solutions for storing plastic grocery bags.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
Here's a great way to store your extra plastic bags such as the ones you get at grocery stores and other stores. Fold the bag in half lengthwise.
