The fabric tubes for storing plastic bags are useful and can be handmade instead of purchased. For those of us that are not as crafty with a sewing machine I have the solution. I use an empty cardboard fridge mate soda case that your sodas come in from the store. The hole that dispenses the soda is used for both loading your plastic grocery bags and removing. To make it look nicer, I covered mine in contact paper that I had leftover from lining my cabinets. I also keep one next to any small wastebasket that uses the plastic grocery bags for easy rebagging. The dispensers easily stand on their own next to the wastebasket or because they are so light, they can be hung on the wall, fridge, etc. with a couple of self adhesive velcro pieces.
Be creative, one of the holders I covered in brown packaging paper or from a brown grocery bag and let the kids decorate it however they wanted. Very useful, costs nothing and is a great rainy day craft for the kids!
By Rebecca from Mechanicsburg, PA
By Marti from Athens, GA
By Shirley from Bradenton, FL
By txbetty from Lubbock
When I make the long trip into town, I grab that bag of bags and take it out the door. When in town, I drop it off at the thrift store, the library, the farmer's market or the recycle bin at whatever of those four I stop at. My point is why would anyone want to store them? They are just plain in the way after they are empty.
My second solution to reducing the clutter of bags that find their way home with me from the store is to not use them. When at some grocery stores you can request paper. This I do. I can use it to start fires, wrap packages to mail, and haul out the burnable trash.
I have found that using those reusable fiber grocery store bags is not only a good way to bring home my groceries, but I also save 50 cents when I use them. I make far fewer trips back and forth from the car, and I can sort the groceries in them as I pack them. I put them one inside another and store them in my car for my next shopping trip. Simplifying my life is the best way to avoid a clutter of extra plastic.
By Leila B. from Brookings, OR
By Jan from Gainesville, GA
By Macie4 from Walnut Creek, CA
This is a great way to keep those plastic bags near by but contained. Use a large men's shirt sleeve! Approximate Time: 1/2 hour
By NoRulesArt from sunny FL
By Joan from Ontario, Canada
By coville123 from Brockville, Ontario
Source: Forget where I've seen it, might have been here!
By Susan from Elkhart IN
Ever figure out where to put those tons of plastic bags you get when you go to the groceries? Here's a cheap way to do it while teaching your young ones the value of recycling!
One last tip: Segregate plastic bags that have holes in them versus those that do not have holes. Place them in different dispensers. Label your dispensers as appropriate so there will be no guessing needed which one is which.
By Rela Ann
Ever open the plastic bag cabinet or drawer and have them all "spring" out at you? I was condensing some today when I thought "I wonder how small they can get?" So, I rolled one from the bottom up so the air would leave, and when it was done, it was the shape of a long cigar. I then folded it in 1/2 and 1/2 again, and stuffed it in a spice jar. I actually got 3 in there! Now, I am not saying you have to put them in spice or medicine bottles, but you can fit a lot in ziplock snack bags, old coffee cans, pringles tubes, or just about any container that keeps them "corralled"! I hope this helps. Instead of wadded bags stuffed higgledy-piggledy (like at my house), Megumi 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. When I looked in the paper sack, I saw neat rows of handles. All I had to do was pull a set of handles and out slid a bag, ready for service!
By Stef from Dublin, OH
By CJ from Minot, ND
By Carleen from Little Rock
Where can I buy "storage" bags to put plastic sacks in?
By Beth from NE
An old tube sock will hold about 50 bags. I cut a small hole in the toe for dispensing. I also wad up about 4 bags in a toilet tissue tube and stash them in the car.
I like to save plastic grocery bags for the small trash cans in our house, and I had no place to hold them. I just could not see myself paying for something to hold these, that would be so ironic. Instead, I use a box that holds a 12 pack of can sodas, taped it up where I had to open it, and reinforced the opening where you pick it up by putting tape around it, and I ball up the bags and stuff them in. You will be surprised at how many it will hold!
By Billie
More Ideas:
By Sandy
By AuntDarween
By acope
By Ruby Barke
The milk carton holds an unbelievable amount of plastic bags and when your ready to reuse one you just pull one out from the bottom hole. I've labeled my jugs according to size of bags, small, medium and large, that way I don't have to pull out a bunch of bags looking for just the right size.
I do craft fairs occasionally and yard sales, and this works great for recycling all those bags and I'm able to give customers a bag to hold their goodies in. The handle on the jug makes it easy to hold also. (03/16/2005)
By Debbie
By Mamaboo
By
By Julie UK
By suzi homemaker
By frumom
If you are like me, you come home from stores with two or three items in a plastic bag and so many plastic bags, there aren't enough cabinets or drawers to put them in. I came across a handy dandy way to store them until you need them. On the sides of each gallon milk jug is a nice round circle just right to cut around. Cut one of them out, making the hole large enough to get your hand in or out. Then, as you collect those pesky bags, just stuff them one by one into the jug. They will come back out easily, one by one just as you put them in. A bottle holds dozens of bags. Hopes this gives you a way to free yourself from that mess of bags.
By Signaler from Bellefontaine, Ohio
By marina12
I recycle magazines and newspapers and office paper in the beat up paper bags. These bags and paper are re-made into other products, including more paper sacks and food packages. Plastic bags are made with petroleum which we are paying outrageous prices for now and they do not "disappear" for generations!
I hope you will at least try my methods for awhile. Maybe you will want to become a tree-hugger, too. (05/22/2007)
By hsorbits
By jazzbird719
By gurth
By Jennifer(the Java Junkie)
I also reuse "Kleenex Boutique" tissue boxes - the really pretty ones, and recycle as gift boxes. They hold socks, underwear, coffee mugs, food products, and so much more! I've been doing this for years and my friends and family love the idea and have now adapted the idea in their own lifestyle. I'm sure that there are other things these pretty & sturdy boxes could be used for. What ideas can you come up with?
Remember: Revive, reuse, recycle! (09/13/2008)
By Pat M
Just a little tip for all the plastic bags everyone gets these days and I store mine in gallon milk jugs. In the center of the milk jug is usually a design like a circle, I cut the circle out then cut the handle in half just by slitting it in half. The reason I do that is then I can hang up the jug and when I get bags, just shove then in the hole in the milk jug. You will never believe how many bags a gallon jug will hold. It's great.
Also if you want, you can slit the handle as for the bag tip then cut a larger hole in the center of the jug and then hang it on your clothes line and store all your clothes pins in it. I usually poke holes all over the milk carton so if it rains, it will leak out and the clothes pins won't start rotting. And this tip didn't cost you a dime.
Source: My imagination.
By Barb from Birchwood, WI
By Cyinda
By gollyg
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 (putting the handles together and lining up the bottom of the bag). Now fold again--you have a long skinny piece. Starting at the bottom of the bag, fold in thirds (like you fold a flag) until you get close to the top (where the handles are.) Secure the end (handles) into the opening that is created by this method of folding. You have a neat little triangle to store now instead of a big puffy mess of plastic.
These are easier to grab out of a basket or bag than a wadded up mess of plastic. I have a three-tiered wire mesh hanging basket in my pantry--the smaller folded bags go in one basket and the larger ones go in another basket. When I need a trash can liner, I grab the right size bag--no more searching through all the bags to get the size I need.
By Glowgirl from Watertown, WI
By Lilly
By Shirl