Most of us probably have an area in our homes where we store the piles of garbage bags we accumulate from weekly shopping trips. I know I have an entire closet of them, both paper and plastic, shoved into a way-too-small space. (Organizing them has been eternally on my “to do” list.) Well, if you have a little collection of grocery bags like I do, don’t let them sit there to collect dust! There are a lot of brilliant hacks that you can do with your mounds of grocery bags, some that you may have never thought of.
Don’t let the grocery bags run your life! Use them up and keep them organized before you get the urge to toss them all away. Get started with these eight brilliant bag hacks.
1. Grocery Bag Holder
Start with an empty container of baby wipes, they have the perfect structure to make your own grocery bag holder! Stuff your first bag in the dispensable hole, loop a second bag through the handles of the first bag and shove it all in. Just make sure that the second bag’s handles are sticking out so you can pull out your stream of neat, never-ending bag.
No baby wipe containers to spare? Try and empty soda box, cereal box, or tissue box. Perfect for road trips or just for nixing the plastic chaos.
2. Car Sick Bag
Whether you have a tendency to get nauseous in the car or you’re the designated driver for a group of, um, rowdy individuals, it’s smart to keep a secret car sick bag in the back seat. You can make it easily but sticking a plastic bag into a small paper bag, and rolling the plastic down outside the edges. Stash it in the backseat for any unpleasant emergencies.
3. Grocery Carrier
If you don’t have a hoard of little ones to help carry in groceries, or if you refuse to make multiple trips to the car, this is a great trick to make your life easier. Stick an empty laundry basket in the back of your car to pile all your groceries in, so you can make one big trip inside.
4. Keep Ice Cream Fresh
Have you ever noticed that ice cream tends to take on the smell of whatever is in the fridge – no matter how stinky? To keep smells out and enjoy your ice cream to the maximum, take off the lid, wrap the bag around the ice cream, and tie it off at the bottom. Put the lid back on and you have a impenetrable force.
5. Bungee Grocery Bags
Keep grocery bags from getting jostled into the back seat or trunk by using a bungee cord into place. Loop the cord through the bag handles and strap it across the trunk to keep everything in order.
6. Sock Holder
If your sock drawer is as out-of-control as your grocery bag closet is, then maybe you can use the two to get things organized. Hang a plastic bag from a hanger with strap slots and stuff it with socks. Now you have some hidden, vertical storage for your socks that you can keep out of sight.
7. Magic Wallet Trick
Ever seen the magic wallet trick? It makes it seem like an object is being switched from one side of the wallet to the other seamlessly. You can make this boggling optical illusion happen with only tape and paper bag handles.
Cut the handles off your paper grocery bag and use scissors to cut 4 x 7″ slips of paper from the body of the bag. Wrap these pieces in duct tape and then crisscross the two bag handles over them, taping them to the back of the pieces. It’s that easy! Stick your phone inside and flip the paper over to pull of this magical trick.
8. Keep Bees Out
Fun fact about hornets and other types of bees, if they see a nest nearby, they won’t nest there. They don’t like to have territorial battles, turns out! Don’t worry, you don’t have to put in a bees nest outside your house, you only have to FAKE a nest! Turn a paper bag inside out, stuff it with other paper bags, tie off the top and hang it outside! No bees will dare nest nearby.
What do you think of these eight brilliant uses for grocery bags? Share your favorite hacks in the comments section below.