Bag Folding Techniques

Bags can be used for a variety of purposes suiting a multitude of needs. People use bags when shopping, camping or eating, for everything from going to work to going on vacation. Properly storing the many different bags you'll need to use will allow an individual a better ability to organize, store and, more importantly, recycle bags. If you want to take a few small steps toward better recycling and conservation, here are some storage and folding techniques for the many different bags you might use. Does this Spark an idea?

Plastic

Plastic bags are convenient, but can pose tremendous environmental hazards if discarded after every use. The grocery bags you accumulate from shopping trips can be used for a variety of storage, organizational and transport purposes. Properly storing your plastic bags will help you keep more bags neatly to be used when you need them.

To properly fold a plastic bag, use a hard, flat surface, such as a table. Lay out your plastic bag flat, creating a rectangular plastic sheet with long, thin plastic strips coming up from the top two corners for the bag handles. Begin folding from the bottom of the bag, folding about one inch of plastic in on itself, creating a narrow strip at the bottom. Continue to fold up the bottom strip, pressing out excess air as you go, until the strip reaches the bottom of the bag handles. From there, begin folding the width of the bag handle from the right side of the strip in on itself. Continue to fold widthwise until the bag handles lay flat on each other. This will create a thin strip of plastic with a thicker square at the bottom. In the end of that square, there should be an opening created by the last set of folds. Tuck the bag handles into that opening, and fold the resulting square flat. To unfold, simply pull out the bag handle tab and shake the bag out.

Snack Bags

Plastic bags used to hold snack foods, such as potato or tortilla chips, contain foils and other materials to keep their contents fresh. However, once the bag has been opened, the greatest factor on the freshness of your food is air exposure. Folding and closing the bag properly will increase the shelf life of snack food that you've already opened.

To close a snack bag after you are done eating, fold the top of the bag together so that both sides lay flat against each other. Then start folding the top of the bag over on its side, making a thin strip of bag that gets thicker as you fold the bag down. Stop about an inch or two above the food. Fold the ends of the strip in on themselves, causing the sides of the bag to slant in slightly. Then, holding the folded ends against the top strip with both hands, fold the top of the bag back and push forward with your thumbs from underneath the back of the plastic strip to force the bag to close tightly. When finished, you will be left with a mostly airtight seal on your snack bag that will keep your food fresh longer.

Sleeping Bags

Sleeping bags are a necessity for camping trips, but can be extremely clumsy when not stored properly. Because of the plush material in sleeping bags, a properly folded sleeping bag still takes up an extraordinary amount of space.

When you've returned from your outing, hang your sleeping bag in an appropriate place to dry. Once the bag has dried, lay it out flat. Starting from one end, lay the bag out flat and fold the end in. Repeat this until the material becomes too bulky to fold. Roll the rest of the bag to the other end, keeping a firm hold on the material to make sure that it takes in as little air as possible. Many sleeping bags come with flexible straps that can hold the rolled sleeping bag in that position. If not, use some similar strap material, such as a truck bed bungee strap.

Pillow Cases

Because pillow cases are so small, many people neglect proper folding procedures when storing them. After properly washing and drying your pillow cases, lay them out flat on a folding surface, making sure that the creases fold properly. Because of the rectangular shape of pillow cases, folding is easy and can be performed in a variety of ways. One way to fold a pillow case is to fold one long edge over the pillow case, past the center so that a third of the material has been folded over. Fold the other long edge of the pillow case over the original fold, creating one long fabric strip. Fold the fabric strip in half lengthwise, creating a shorter rectangular strip. Fold the strip lengthwise in half one more time. You will be left with a small square folded pillow case that will store easily in the appropriate closet space.