Woman Upcycles Old Aldi Bags Into Free Packaging For Shipping

Many people have a mountain of plastic shopping bags that accumulate in their home that they don't know what to do with. Of course, there are plenty of creative ways to repurpose your plastic grocery bags to use around the house to help you get rid of some. However, thanks to a short by Tina Katrell on YouTube, there may be a way to use a few of them the next time you need to ship something by turning them into a mailer.

The video shows the creator flipping the new package back and forth. In the caption, they said that they used the bags to send returns to Temu to save money on packaging. The creator specifically repurposed the Aldi Insulated Grocery Bag, but any thicker, sturdier bag should work. There are many affordable home items to buy at Aldi, but if you forget your shopping bags, you're likely to end up with a lot of extras around your house, such as these cheap insulated ones.  

Besides showing off the bag, the creator did one other thing: They poked at the bag with a pen and showed how it managed to hold up and not tear despite the force, demonstrating how durable it is. According to other sites selling these Aldi bags, they are a little over 2 mils thick, which should be perfect for lightweight returns.

According to the United States Postal Service (USPS), for the most part, you can reuse any boxes or packages to ship out your own goods. The only thing you have to do is make sure there are no barcodes or labels that could confuse scanners or sorters. If you want to be safe, you can also potentially flip bags inside out to ensure it's a plain surface. To seal the bag, you just need simple clear packing tape. When sealing the bag, it may be useful to tuck the handles into the package, or remove them altogether so they don't get caught.

If you are shipping something, you can write out the address on an index card or piece of paper and adhere it to the bag, or for returns, use the label the company sends to you. The benefit of clear packing tape is that you can also use it to hold these labels in place securely without covering anything up. 

And, if you don't know what to do with the rest of the tape, you can try out a packing tape hack for the spookiest house on the block this Halloween. Just be sure to put the labels on a flat spot of the bag so they are clear and easy to read. If you have a return label, you can just place the bag in your mailbox. Otherwise, you will likely need to go into the store to pay for the correct postage.