It seems as though every time you head to the store, you come home with a handful of plastic bags, right? Your first thought might be to save them for future shopping trips, or even to recycle them, but did you know that there is so much more you can do with plastic bags? If you have a bunch of plastic bags laying around, take a look below at 7 creative plastic bag hacks, perfect for putting those all too common plastic bags to use.
1. Use them as flower pot fillers. Filling large flower pots with just soil can be costly and make them quite heavy. Instead, use plastic bags as flower pot fillers. Just bunch the bags into balls, and place them directly inside the pot. Not only will they help fill the pot, but they provide drainage and can even help keep the soil moist. If you don’t have a large pot to fill, you can still use the bag to line the pot and help keep soil moist.
2. Stash them in your diaper bag. Keep plastic bags in your diaper bag to wrap up the stinky diapers. When you are out and about, nothing is worse than a stinky diaper. A plastic bag tied around it can help keep the scent and mess at bay until you can find a trash can. A plastic bag in the diaper bag can also be handy for wrapping dirty clothes in until you can get home to wash them.
3. Use as mini trash can liners. Speaking of trash cans, plastic shopping bags make the perfect mini trash can liners. Use them inside your bathroom trash cans for quick clean up. You can also add them to car trash cans, office cans, RV cans, and anywhere else you use a small, more compact trash can. No sense in spending money on small trash bags when you can use these for free.
4. Keep feet dry. This is an old time trick that never gets old! Before putting snow boots on, wrap a plastic bag around each foot and tie at the ankle. It will help keep socks and feet dry should some moisture make its way into the boot. When done, just toss! This is an especially great trick to use with kids.
5. Wrap up those valuables. Save plastic bags to wrap up valuables when putting into storage or even shipping. Since the bags are water resistant they will help keep moisture out, and multiple bags balled up together add cushioning. They are especially great for wrapping around books before mailing!
6. Protect those plants. Keep plants safe from extreme weather by placing a few layers of plastic bags over them. Just place the bags over the plant and tie closed with string at the base. The bag will help keep moisture, frost, snow, and extreme wind off the plants.
7. Donate them to a local non for profit thrift store. Do you have a non for profit thrift store in your area? Chances are, they need to use their budgets wisely and this often means not purchasing bags for customers. Instead, they often rely on the donations of others. Check with your local non for profit thrift stores to see if they can use your clean and empty plastic bags. They most likely will be thrilled to get them!
The next time you are tempted to toss that plastic bag, think again! Give one or all of the plastic bag hacks a try and see how they work for you!
Thomas Beckham
Friday 12th of August 2016
Wow!! Great Share!
This is an informative and creative post. I would like to share this post with my wife Sylvia. She would happy to read your post. She has creative mind also :) Thanks for posting :)
Brandy
Sunday 24th of January 2016
I used to use those for cat litter clean up, small bathroom trash buckets and I currently use them to carry my lunch to work ;) They have so many uses!
Tammilee Tips
Saturday 23rd of January 2016
I love these uses!! It seems like our bag collection always seems to grow. I know I try to throw extras in our suitcases when we travel for dirty laundry and such.
Jenna Wood
Saturday 23rd of January 2016
We use plastic bags as trash can liners but here we've almost eliminated plastic bags all together so I'm starting to run out! I have to pass some of these on to my mother!
Chrysa
Saturday 23rd of January 2016
You have a great list of ideas. I use them to dispose of cat litter, to wrap around the food storage containers my husband takes to work to prevent leaks in his backpack, and obviously there are other uses because I always seem to go through my supply! (Sometimes I regret using my reusable shopping bags so much when I start running out of the plastic ones!)