In celebration of National “Get Organized” Month (GO Month), Organizers Northwest invited fans, clients and followers to send us their organizational questions and challenges. Professional Organizer Veronica Bishop has jumped in with organization solutions for some of them here on our blog. We hope they are helpful. Happy Organizing!
Q: Do the plastic bags that you can buy at Bed, Bath & Beyond, that you suction the air out of with your vacuum cleaner, really work? Of course on television they seem like the answer to a traveler’s prayer, but do they stay flattened? Do they really make that much difference? Do your clothes look terrible when they are unpacked?
A: When I was living and working abroad, I often used these bags to send items back and forth between home and my adopted country. They are great for shipping large quantities of clothing and other compressible items in the mail.
In terms of using them for travel, remember that, while you can fit a lot of clothing into the bags and then shrink them down to around half of their usual size, the weight inside doesn’t change. That means that if you have a baggage allowance of 25lbs, and you can manage to fit all 25lbs into one square foot of your suitcase, leaving three more feet of space to fill with other items, the chances of you having to open your bag in front of everybody and their mother at the airport is exactly 100%. So if you are buying them for airplane travel, go for a small size.
Unfortunately, when you take items out, they will be wrinkled. I would skip the vacuum bag and simply roll items in your suitcase to maximize space. Click here for more packing tips.
This is a fabulous video on how to quickly and easily fold t-shirts. Then they just need to be rolled!
The plastic bags are the most useful organizing solutions for long-term storage of household items. Bedding such as cumbersome comforters and large duvets, holiday tablecloths and off-season clothing are perfect uses because the bags shrink up and can be stored under the bed easily. The bags are also reusable, which means that you open them effortlessly and re-fill them just as quickly.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to send in their organizing questions for this special Get Organized Month blog. We will feature some more questions next week, so keep ‘em coming!
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