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Survey: How Do You Seal Bags of Leftovers?

2008_07_28-Clips.jpgLeftover bags of chips, plastic bags with a baguette inside, bags of pasta and breadcrumbs - how do you reseal opened bags? We've done everything from the plastic Chip Clip to clothespins to twist-and-hope-it-stays-closed. Current favorite? Rubber bands. We're always finding rubber bands - wrapped around our mail or holding papers together, so we drop them into a kitchen drawer and reuse.

Do you have any creative solutions for sealing opened bags and reusing old bags? See one more in the post below.

 
 

We also just saw this little gadget over at Epicurious's blog:

The Twist Tie Sealer

Interesting! How do you seal your bags?

Related: Favorite Storage Jars

(Images: Logo.It and Worldwide Health)

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Surveys, Tips & Techniques, Storage, Cleaning

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Comments (24)

I use office supplies - big black binder clips. They have a much stronger hold than chip clips and take up less space.

posted by Plaid Ninja on 2008-07-28 11:16:50
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I use office supplies like binder clips and even paper clips, too, for everything from frozen veggies to bags in the pantry.

posted by OneWallKitchen on 2008-07-28 11:30:13
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I buy these things that I like to call "Clippy-dos" from Ikea. They are simple plastic bag clips that come in a bag of various sizes. They work great on things like pasta, chips, and rice... anything that doesn't require an airtight seal.

here's a link from Ikea.ca
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/70083252

posted by revolution9 on 2008-07-28 11:35:54
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I use clips for bags of cat food, chips, and cereal. For smaller bags, like for snacks and trail mix I use small butterfly clips.

posted by Cheryl K on 2008-07-28 11:39:00
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Third that - office supplies.

posted by amt230 on 2008-07-28 11:50:29
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I either use binder clips or transfer the stuff from the bag to a storage jar.

posted by lizaboo on 2008-07-28 12:02:31
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I'm a clothespin gal, myself. Increasingly often, though, I've found myself transferring bagged stuff to a glass or plastic container - as lizaboo mentioned above. It's easier to store (and, dear god, stack!) and much nicer to look at.

posted by katiebug on 2008-07-28 12:18:46
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No clips at all....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rB6bf8DqMQ

posted by steamykitchen on 2008-07-28 12:21:10
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Another office clipper here, too. And since I started hanging laundry on the balcony, they double as clothespins (I aim to get real clothespins at some point).

posted by happify on 2008-07-28 12:28:52
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I'm with Jaden on this one. Not sure where I saw this before... maybe linked from steamykitchen?

posted by ChzPlz on 2008-07-28 12:31:36
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one more for binder clips, except we call them bulldog clips, I only found out last week that other people don't call them that.

posted by mgn on 2008-07-28 12:39:09
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don't worry, mgn, I call binder clips bulldog clips too... you're not alone.

posted by revolution9 on 2008-07-28 12:40:39
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Binder clips here too. And I thought i was so clever using my office supplies in the kitchen, ha!

posted by kittystockings on 2008-07-28 12:40:43
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I use the IKEA clips as well!

posted by joyosity on 2008-07-28 12:49:26
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Binder clips.

Who me? Appropriate office supplies? Never!

posted by sciencegeek on 2008-07-28 12:59:26
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I use these little bird clips I bought in Berkeley a couple of years ago. They're made so that they look like the bird is perching on the bag, you squeeze his tail and wings together to open the clip and they come in blue, pink, green and white.

posted by Tiamat_the_Red on 2008-07-28 13:09:22
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I had no idea binder clips were so mainstream... I use them for everything too.

In my head, there is a difference between bulldog clips and binder clips. Binder clips have those wire handles you can fold back down onto the item you are clipping.

posted by SleepyDweller on 2008-07-28 13:26:17
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binder clips again!

posted by jooleeyet on 2008-07-28 14:51:40
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ditto on the binder clips!

posted by sassysprite on 2008-07-28 16:00:32
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I am a big fan of the clothespin, and they are part of my care packages and housewarming gifts with a list of all the amazing things they can do, besides pin clothes.

posted by hmr on 2008-07-28 16:04:25
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combination of binder clips, clothes pins, paper clips, rubber bands, sometimes even scotch tape. though not all at once! ;)

posted by 2T on 2008-07-28 17:02:50
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I take chips, crackers, etc., anything that comes in a bag, and put it into sealed jars. In my old apartment I had pantry moths and have been so terrified of them invading our house that I don't take chances anymore. All my flour gets frozen for a few days to kill any potential larva (gross, I know, but I've heard that it's almost inevitable), then put into a large, well sealed canister.

The bonus of doing this is that everything looks orderly and nice.

posted by sjbreeze on 2008-07-28 20:24:01
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I have some super huge rubber bands I got as a sample from a printer when I was doing a project at work. They are massive and really strong. But I always save those rubber bands from asparagus and other veggies. They are especially great for holding those opened bags of peas in the freezer. I also hate packaging so I do unload as much as possible into containers. I love the ones from Ikea

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50081452

they are so inexpensive and look great all lined up with pasta or rice or whatever in them

posted by superchou on 2008-07-29 10:00:02
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Happify- That is hilarious because I use binder clips in my kitchen (the colored ones are great) and I just recently started using them to hang out clothes (esp. tea towels) on the balcony as well. Small world! :)

posted by zhasmene on 2008-07-29 15:03:38
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