5 Ingenious Ways to Store Your Grocery Bags Between Trips
We’d be willing to bet that every single household in America has a grocery bag filled with more grocery bags. (Even households that use reusable bags have a reusable bag filled with reusable bags.) Because plastic bag bans have been put on hold at many grocery stores across the country due to increased COVID-19 safety precautions, that bag of bags is likely getting a lot more use right now.
Whether you keep it under your sink, in a closet, in the garage, or in your car trunk, there’s just no avoiding this phenomenon. To avoid your bag of bags from getting out of hand, we put together five tips to help you store those precious grocery bags between trips.
Here’s how to avoid a total avalanche and store them the smart way.
1. Ball ’em up.
Storing your bags in a jumbled mess will simply become, well, a jumbled mess. According to Liz, the blogger behind Gimme Some Oven, there is a special technique to balling up grocery bags that will turn them into organized chaos that fit neatly into a jar.
See for yourself: How to Store Plastic Grocery Bags at Gimme Some Oven
2. Repurpose a tissue box.
This ingenious hack not only makes it easy to reuse plastic bags, but it also gives an empty tissue box a new use. Melissa over at Polished Habitat uses Command Strips to attach the box to a cabinet door and stuff it full of bags. When she needs a bag, she pulls out one at time just like, you guessed it, a tissue. Bonus points if you use a box with a cute pattern!
Get more ideas: 6 Tips to Control Cabinet Chaos at Polished Habitat
3. Buy a special basket.
Pick up a metal catch-all basket and hang it on the inside of a cabinet so they’re out of sight, out of mind. Bonus points if you use Liz’s technique to ball up the bags (see #1) before you place them in. You’ll fit so many more bags inside that way.
Buy the basket: Over the Cabinet Grid Cabinet Door Organizer, $24 at Wayfair
4. Try a no-sew project.
Believe it or not, this cloth holder was made using only glue and elastic. Andrew, the blogger behind Scrappy Geek, hung his DIY project in a corner, but you can stash it in a cabinet or closet as well.
See all the steps: No-Sew Plastic Bag Dispenser at Scrappy Geek
5. Reuse a wipe container.
Turns out, plastic wet wipe cylinders are the perfect storage solution to keeping plastic bags at the ready. Use an empty can as is or follow the lead from Jen, at Tatertots & Jello, and cover it in pretty paper. The size of the canister makes it ideal for storing in a car, meaning no more trash piles in the family mobile.
Learn the technique: Make an Embellished Grocery Bag Container at Tatertots & Jello
How do you organize your extra shopping bags?