I had an epiphany! It was this morning as I was beginning my day and moving about trying to figure out where I should start. Yesterday I found one of those space saving garment bags as I was down to my last purge. I hung a few dresses in it, as I rarely wear a dress and was thinking I would suck the air out today and hang it in the RV.
I was carrying it out to a table in the store to use the vacuum and it struck me!! Space bags, I need more space bags! If I repack my meager allotment of fabric (only about 6 bins) and suck the air out it will look so much smaller. Then I thought, why not suck it out of the off season clothes I had packed in plastic drawers? The mover are charging by the cubic foot, not weight. Sure they will be heavier, but they are unloading the stuff.
Why had I not thought of this before? I could kick myself! Online I researched to find the best deal. Walmart has them in stock and for order. It says 2 day delivery, shipping is free, so I should order them and save myself a trip. I did and when I got to check out, the estimated date of arrival was February 3rd. What a fine how-do-you-do!
Of course, He-Who was already going that way, so I had him pick up two boxes. Large, so they would fit right back in the drawers and bins. No need to go crazy with a jumbo size that would be awkward to load. I was specific in my search for the bags. I wanted to simply use the vacuum option. Perhaps I should have looked more closely .....
The bags were smaller than I had thought they would be. Magic bags they were called. I read the instructions. It was printed right on the bag. I was to open the bag, fill to the fill-line and then using the patented thumb pressured closer, I was to pull it along the doulble ziplock line three times to insure proper closure.
I filled the first bag and then grabbed the white thing to close the bag. It wouldn't budge, so I took it off and put it back on to try again. The amount of pressure needed from my old arthritic thumb to close the ziplock just wasn't gong to happen. I finally pushed the end of the bag flat on the table and using my forefinger pressed it closed.
Next I was to start rolling the bag up from the closure end of the bag. The instructions stated there was an airlock where all the air would be released, but no air could get back in. I pressed down and could not hear any of the air escaping. I did not want to burst the bag, so I released the pressure and rolled it from the opposite end. Same thing happened. No air escaped. I hunted down HeWho has more strength in his hands than I do and he gave it a shot. Same result.
I had pictured myself merrily repacking and sucking air all day, ending up with some empty containers. Finally I grabbed the wand from the super sucking wet/dry vac and opened the bag enought to slip the end inside and hit the on button and sucked that air out until the bag was rock hard, then I quickly yanked the wand out and closed the bag. It worked. I managed to get 3 drawers into 2. I had hoped for a better result, as the box proclaimed I would have twice the space and this method was new and improved.
Nothing magic about these bags and I wonder what about the new method is "improved". Moral of the story? Buy a brand name in this particular item.
7 comments:
Space saving vacuum bags are a case of hit and miss in my opinon
I wish I had thought to mention space bags to you. I have them in various sizes with winter bedding and clothing, rugs and towels and curtains and other stuff I don't have room for but don't want to get rid of yet. I found that zip thingy hard to manage too and used my thumb and finger, but my bags have that round bit where a vacuum nozzle fits onto to suck out the air. Then you twist on the little cap and no air can get back in.
I came down that road, too. Bought generic. Learned the hard way. I, too, like the ones River described.
When we had our motorhome we used the space bags with the one-way valve like River mentioned. Used them to store comforters and other bulky items. Suck the air out with a vacuum cleaner and you're done. You can get them at Target or Amazon.
Very innovative of you to think of usingt he vacuum cleaner. I used to use ours to inflate an air mattress. Hope youget settled soon.
U Haul, if you have one near you, sells the good ones. So does Target.
Had those when I was working for the park service and was utterly underwhelmed with their performance. They worked once as advertised, never again. Wound up using them as over-sized ziplocks for big things like blankets I didn't want dirtied in the truck bed.
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