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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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. I always have a full week of garbage bags without hunting for them when they have to be replaced.
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.
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. Insert grocery bags or cleaning rags. It hangs where you wish as well as easy pull out from bottom corner.
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. You can stuff a lot of bags in the tissue box! Then, I place the tissue box in the trunk so there is no clutter inside the car.
