Plastic Bag Storage

     If you're like me, after every store trip, you wind up with a lot of bags on your hands that you keep.  You never know what you can use these things for: the trashcan in the bathroom, dirty diapers, wet clothes, putting your husband's lunch in because he keeps loosing lunch boxes, the uses are endless really.  The only problem with these things is that they take over fairly quickly.  I have an entire cabinet full of them.  I practically have to shove them in and put the trashcan in front so the doors don't pop open.  Ok, so there's no "practically" about that.  I have to shove them in and put the trashcan in front of the doors.  I had  to do something about those bags.

     I present to you, my plastic bag storage containers! Alright.  Alright.  So they're just Lysol wipes containers and an old travel pack baby wipes container.  Not to high techy there.  But when you go from bulging cabinets to easy to carry wipes containers, it's hard to resist.

 

     How did I get my bags into the containers so neatly?  It must have been a lot of hard work, right?  Nope.  It just took me five minutes.  Alright, so maybe fifteen because I kept getting distracted by the TV, but it would have taken five without!  Fine.  The first container took me longer than that even without the TV distraction.  That was only because I was doing it the hard way.  Once I discovered the way easier way, it took five minutes.

     What did I do?  Well, first, you're going to need a Lysol container and/or travel baby wipes container and (of course) your stash of plastic bags.

     Step 1:  Separate all of the bags.  Don't have any inside of another.  That would just make it impossibly hard.  Take off the label (if you can) off of the wipes container.  If you can't, don't worry about it.  You can paint over it or something.

     Step 2:  Flatten out the bags.  This is where I discovered that I was doing things the hard way.  Before, I was just taking them and un-wadding and un-crinkling them aimlessly.  Then, I discovered that all I had to do was just find the "hem" on one handle and the "hem" on the bottom corner on the same side as the handle then pull.  It will straighten and align itself.  Then just do the same thing on the other side!  Viola!  Easy way that just takes a few seconds compared to the half minute before.  Once you've flattened out the bag, fold it in half where the handles are folded onto the handles (not handles onto the bottom).

This is what the "hem" looks like

After you pull, this is what it will look like

Ta-da!  Pulled on both sides and it's now flat!

Fold in half and push out the air

     Step 3:  Lay out as many bags as you want/can fit like this:

Handles go over the bottom

 

     Step 4:  Roll them up!  Make sure the get the air out before you start to roll up a bag.  Otherwise, you'll wind up with a big roll of air and a little bit of plastic bags.

Roll starting from the handle then move down to the bottom.  To make it easier to find the end once everything is all rolled up, on the first handle, flip it up then roll.

     Step 5:  Just put them in the container!  Ta-da!



Open the container...

...plop in the roll...

...pop the top back on and voila!

     For the wipes package, follow the first three steps then fold like below, then put in the wipes container.  Once again, ta-da!

Fold bottom just barely smaller than the width of the wipes package

Flip over and place the bottom of another bag on top, overlapping the same amount folded over for the above step

Fold handles in



Flip over and repeat with approximately twelve bags

 

Slip folded bags in through the opening then fix them flat inside



Pull top handle out and you're done!

     That's all there is to it!  I keep one big container near Piggy Baby's changing table (for those really stinky diapers) and one in the car (you never know what might happen: need a trash bag, wet clothes from the beach, muddy clothes from a Piggy rolling around in her "natural habitat", too much stuff and not enough hands, etc.)  I keep the little package in Piggy's diaper bag (for those stinky diapers and poopy/wet/dirty clothes when on the go).

     What will/do you use yours for?  Leave a comment and let me know!