18 Creative Ways to Use Plastic Bags

We’ve written other articles about storage ideas before but never on clever ways to use plastic bags for storage.  The humble sandwich bag can be creatively put to many good uses besides keeping your sandwich fresh.  In fact, in this article, I promise to give you eighteen creative uses for these little gems.

More to the point I’ll even break the uses into 2 main groups.  One group of twelve will revolve around uses in the kitchen for plastic resealable bags.  The other smaller group of six will consist ways that baggies or freezer bags, both of which are sealable, can be used to store items.

Before we begin with our ideas, I want to share with you that I can still remember my mom packing my sandwich for lunch when I toted my lunch to elementary school back in the day.  Back then she had to use saran wrap because sandwich bags and freezer bags were not invented yet.  Today, we take these amazing wonders for granted like so many other things in our lives.

Little did we know!

I’ll share 1 more short story with you that if we had followed through on the idea it promised to make us rich but alas we did follow through.  After the famous sandwich bag made its debut but before they were resealable, my wife had the idea to make a zipper of sorts to close the bag.  We even contacted a few places to pitch our idea and were laughed at and so we thought the whole idea was futile.

According to an article entitled, “Plastic Bags Are Good For You“, plastic bags will hold seventeen pounds of weight which are well over one thousand times at what the average bag weighs in at.

The article goes on to explain that the bags are cheap coming in at a price of a penny a piece and because they are so inexpensive the stores can afford to give them away!

In another article entitled, “Why Plastic Bags Are Great“, the author lists many reasons why it makes sense to use plastic bags.

The article mentions they are cheap and disposable, easy to find, they fold down to almost no space in a drawer, are strong and lightweight.  The article goes on to explore many other reasons why plastic bags are great.

Your Kitchen And Sandwich Or Freezer Bags – 12 Tips

1. If you enjoy baking cookies using colored dough but hate getting the coloring on your hands you’re not alone. But a quick and easy way to bypass the stain on your hands is to put the dough into a larger resealable plastic baggy then add a few drops of your favorite food coloring, close the bag and finally, squeeze it several times mixing the food coloring and the dough.  You can bake with it now or it’s so quick and easy to store it in your freezer until it’s time to bake.

2. Have you ever opened up a container of ice cream and discovered ice crystals on it? I hate that when it happens.

The simple solution to this dilemma is to place the container into a larger freezer bag and the ice crystals won’t make their entrance any longer. I can’t help but think that this is such a fast and simple solution to this problem.

3. If you’re having a party and expect a large number of guests, there’s no need to run out to buy more ice. If you’re willing to prepare ahead of time you can use your ice tray to form the ice cubes then easily drop them into a large freezer bag.  You can store as many bags of ice this way for days and save the money for the drinks that your guests will appreciate.

4. If you’re the baking type, one task that you most likely won’t enjoy is greasing the cookie sheet or the cake pan with butter or shortening. Eliminate the fuss and mess with this next tip.

You’re being smart about the matter by placing a baggy over your hand like a glove.  Then just scoop up the shortening or butter with your hand that’s protected with the baggy.  And when you’re done greasing the cookie sheet or cake pan you can toss the baggy into the trash.

It gets better:

5. You can easily replace any missing funnels with a simple plastic bags. In fact, you can often see a professional baker using a bag to squeeze out the icing for the cake that is being created.  Any liquid can be poured into a bag and the bag sealed.  Then snip off a tiny corner and your baggy becomes a running funnel as needed.

6. Little children often want to help mom with hand mixing the dough. The little dough covered hands then can play havoc with the walls, floors, furniture, counters, and cabinets when your little helper decides to decorate these areas for the fun of it.

Instead, prevent the problem from ever happening by using 2 plastic bags as gloves for your little one’s hands.   As soon as the fun is over and they tire of baking and mixing just remove the gloves and toss into the trash and they’re ready to head out the door for more adventure.

7. Trashing old and dirty cooking oil can cause a huge mess inside a trash can. After your cooking oil has cooled you can pour it into a plastic resealable sandwich bag and drop it into your trash can.  You can be assured that the oil will stay inside the bag unless you try to compact your trash by pushing down on the mess and crushing the bag.

8. Grated cheese comes in a baggy of sorts. If you enjoy grating your own cheese you can keep it in a plastic baggy.  The baggy will keep if from drying out and keep it fresh longer.

Freshly grated cheese always tastes better and you’ll know that the grated cheese isn’t mixed in with a wood filler.  Yes, some companies do sometimes add wood filler to the bag to increase profits!  You can even put the grater into the bag and reduce the number of times you’ll need to clean the grater.

9. Have you ever opened a can or bottle of soda but didn’t want to finish it all at one time? When you went back to finish the soda you may have found it flat.

The solution:

Keep the fizz in your opened bottle or can by placing it in a freezer bag.  The zipped top will help to retain the carbonation longer and prevent spills as well!  Not bad you get 2 benefits at once.

10. Pastry bags are expensive and difficult to keep clean. Why not make your own?

Simply place your ingredients into a sealable baggy and squeeze out the excess air before you close it.  Then snip off a bottom corner of the bag.

Ensure you cut a small corner first and if your cut is too small you can cut it larger as needed.  When you have the size opening you want simply squeeze out your pastry from the bag.  It’s so easy to just toss the empty bag into your trash and use a new bag the next time you need to make a new pastry.

Here’s a tasty treat:

11. Once a bag of marshmallows is opened they start to dry out almost immediately. The next day they can be hard and dry.  You can easily prevent this from happening.

Just toss them into a ziplock bag to seal in moisture and keep them fresh as new.

Want to know the best part?

If you’re too late and the marshmallows are already hard simply toss them into a plastic sealable bag anyway.  This time place the bag into a pan of warm water and in a few minutes, they’ll be soft as new.

12. It’s easy to melt chocolate without creating a mess when you know how. Once again our trusty plastic bag comes to the rescue while leaving you, savvy as you are, to keep your pots and bowls clean.  Our mess-free method is so easy.

First, warm a pan of water, don’t boil the water.  Place the chocolate into a sealable bag and lower it into your pan of warm water.  In a minute or so you’ll have melted chocolate to drizzle on your cake or cupcake.

Now that’s not all:

Using this tip you can even cut a corner of the baggy and let it drip through little by little to decorate until your heart’s content.

Plastic Bags For Stowing Items – 6 More Tips

1. You can make and store baby wipes in freezer bags.

Just place some soft paper towels in a larger freezer bag that is sealable.  Mix up 1 teaspoon of baby oil, 1/3 of a cup of water, and 1 tablespoon of gentle bacterial soap and pour it into the bag.  You’ll want just enough of the solution to get the soft towels wet but not soaked.

They work quite well in a pinch.

2. Small pictures can be encased inside of a clear sandwich bag and protect from well-meaning family members and friends that forget to handle the photos on the edges only. How creative is that?

3. Your little one has just lost her first tooth and you treasure that tooth and want all to see it. But you’re afraid the small gem will get lost.  You can prevent this from ever happening by placing the tooth into a small sandwich bag and display it happily knowing that it will be safe inside the sandwich bag.

4. A small vase, a trinket, a small family heirloom, or a small statue can be tucked away safely inside a large bag that’s resealable. After your item is in the bag close it almost completely and then blow air into the bag until it’s full of air.  Close the remaining opening quickly so it retains the air and now your item has air surrounding it and is protected from minor bangs and bumps.

5. You can use a freezer bag to keep track of pens, pencils, and other small office supplies. Carefully punch 3 small holes in the bottom of a freezer bag that lines up with the 3 rings in your binder.

Now:

Attach the freezer bag onto the 3 rings and you’ll have a ready-made way to store small office supplies neatly and out of the way.

6. When it’s time to put away your sweaters for the season you can store them in a larger plastic bag that is resealable. That way they stay clean and protected from moths while in storage.  Save the bags for the next season and you’ll save some bucks.

So now you have our eighteen tips on a few of the many ways you can use re-sealable plastic bags.  It’s only a matter of thinking up creative ways to put them to good use.  There are so many creative ways you can use baggies that I’m feeling the need to write part 2 to this article and share a bunch more ways you can put them to good use.

If you’ve enjoyed this article please share it with others online and offline.  And if you have a tip or two you’d like to share by all means use the comment box to let us know how you use baggies.

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you the next time for part 2.

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