How To Declutter Old Plastic Bags With Easy Storage

Plastic grocery bags tend to accumulate quicker than you expect. You bring a few home with each shopping trip and before you know it, you have what seems like a hundred bags. Oftentimes, they end up stuffed in cabinets and drawers, under sinks, or in closets, creating clutter and taking up valuable storage space. While your plan is likely to reuse your plastic bags, in the meantime, the sheer volume can overwhelm you. Fortunately, there is a method that can help make your plastic bag storage system a lot neater and more efficient. The best-kept secret for storing plastic bags is folding them. Spending a little time folding your plastic bags will keep them both compact and organized.

Not only will folding plastic bags save you space, but when combined with certain storage ideas, it can make it easier to access your bags when you need them. So, instead of fumbling around trying to separate grocery bags from each other and figuring out where one bag starts and the other ends, you can simply pull out a single, neatly folded bag. There are different methods for plastic bag folding, so choose a method that's right for your storage needs and say goodbye to grocery bag clutter forever.

For neat plastic bag storage, lay the bag flat and fold it in half twice. Then, take one corner of the bottom and fold it up to meet the other side, creating a triangle. Continue folding like this until your bag is a small, rounded triangle, and tuck the exposed end into a fold.

An alternative method allows you to easily store and dispense plastic bags in a tissue box. Lay them flat on the floor and fold them in thirds width-wise, then length-wise. When folding the subsequent bags, place them through the handles of the previously folded bag before making the length-wise folds. Then, place your stack of bags into a tissue box with the handle of the last bag sticking out. Now, when you need a plastic bag, you can pull out one out at a time.

Another way to apply this concept is to roll the bags instead of folding them. For this, fold the bags in half, flatten them, and lay one down. Then, place the handle of one bag on top of the bottom of another. Now, roll the first bag tightly, rolling the second bag along with it. Continue this process while adding more bags. When finished, place the roll of bags into a circular container with a pull-out opening (like baby wipes) and pull the handle of the first bag through.