By Joan from Ontario, Canada
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Organizing Plastic Bags
My mother gave me a bag organizer that I love because I can just hang it on the door knob inside the pantry. It's very much like this one http://www.shophandmade.com/Item/6-758-H61C73J
Great ideas here. I save the cardboard roll from my paper towels. As I get a bag, I push them in one end and pull them out the other end to use. It is amazing as to how many rolls will fit in a grocery bag. Plus the fact that they take up very little space! They easily fit under the seat in my car or in my picnic basket. Kathy, MS
I don't normally fold & roll mine for personal use either. I have a big canister that used to have baby formula in it that I cut an X in the plastic lid.You wouldn't believe how many of those bags I can cram in there & just grab when I need.
But I also save my extra bags for the thrift store & my mom saves hers for the smoke shop where she gets her cigarettes. By folding/rolling them, you can cram so many more bags into one shopping bag than if you don't, way neater too. The shops appreciate it also because it doesn't take up as much room when we deliver our bags!
I keep empty tissue boxes (upright and oblong) to store plastic grocery bags; I keep 2 boxes under my kitchen sink, one in the kitchen, two in the car (to use when I go to grocery stores that you have to use your own grocery bags). I also keep 2 boxes of filled grocery bag tissue boxes in my travel trailer.
I'd never go to the trouble to fold or roll. I was keeping mine in a tissue box until I found a really neat thing at IKEA. It's plastic with double sided tape that I have attached to the wall right outside my kitchen door leading to the garage. It cost $1.99. I stuff the bags from the top and pull them out thru one of several holes in the thing. One of the best little gadgets I've ever seen and holds a lot of bags and takes up very little space.
I just crumple up one at a time and keep them in an empty pop-up tissue box. They dispense one-at-a-time and I don't waste time folding/rolling/tying them before storing. The (empty) big boxes of tissues can hold dozens!
Storing them this way is sure neater & takes up less space doesn't it?
You can make them the size of a golf ball instead, with a similar technique my mom uses. Hold a bottom corner of the bag between your thumb & index finger & with your other hand smooth the bag into a long piece similar to your 'sausage' shape, but without having to roll it. Next, still holding the corner between the thumb & index finger, begin winding the plastic bag around that index finger (as you would wind yarn to start a yarn ball). When you get to the end, slide the wrapped bag carefully off your finger & tuck the loose end into the hole left by your finger in the center of the ball.