Got Any Bag Packing Tips?

I was not a bagboy in any of my previous incarnations and I find that when I am left to my own devices, my mad skillz as a bag packer yield less than optimal results at Aldi's, and other similar dial-your-own-pain venues. My projects typically never stand up by themselves and often end up with holes in the side. What are your secrets to producing a square-sitting, reasonably weighted end of game?

Well, what kinds of groceries do you typically buy? That makes a big difference - I buy a lot of cereal at Aldi, which I find helps sort of set the boundaries of the bags..

Lots of cans, boxes, jars, everything.

Bigger, square things on the outside/bottom. Smaller, oddly shaped things in the middle.

Play a lot of Tetris.

The answer to your problem is canvas bags! Some have a little square on the bottom to keep it flat. If you spend $20+ at Walgreens they give you a free one.

paper or plastic??

Canvas! What can we say? However, the paper vs. plastic is still a problem when you forget. My biggest problem is remembering I am going grocery shopping when I head out on errands.However, some stores are asking customers to request paper, so that may be the better eco choice.

Dory

Llama wrote:Bigger, square things on the outside/bottom. Smaller, oddly shaped things in the middle.

Play a lot of Tetris.

Right; I never really thought this through, but, essentially my method with the odd-shaped Aldi bags is to put two boxes of cereal in upright alongside the handles, and then put cans, etc in between them on the bottom. You can then stick random shaped stuff (e.g. non-food stuff like plastic bags, coffee, etc) on one side, as the cereal boxes won't fill it all the way width-wise, and then fill on top of the cans with softer stuff that might get squashed, chips, produce, etc.

tomatoes go on the top, not the bottom

leek wrote:tomatoes go on the top, not the bottom

Yes, you'd think I'd have learned this by now - or not to fill my pockets with them when I'm visiting the rental garden plot, either...

These schemes sound good if you have a lot of cereal boxes, but if you don't, it seems like you're kind of relegated to using a lot of bags to avoid weight and balance issues.

About 3 months of packing groceries at the tender age of 16 taught me more life lessons than most of my subsequent jobs have...

The most useful though is how to pack a grocery bag.

1) Use paper bags.

2) Line the short ends of the opened bag with boxes. Unfortunately, cereal boxes are usually too long/wide to be of use here. Think: granola bar boxes, coffee filter boxes, etc.

3) Place tins cans and bottles on the middle bottom (between the now box-reinforced short ends).

4) You usually have room for one layer of so of heavy, non-fragile vegetables (carrots, potatoes, onions) on top of your cans and bottles.

5) Fill the left-over top 1/2-1/3 of the bag with fragile and/or strangely shaped groceries.

You'll usually get most of your bags to more-or-less work following this procedure. You'll also normally have at least one or two bags that won't. When loading your bags into your car, be sure to place the stable, nicely packed bags on either side of the irregular bags to prevent shifting and rolling on the ride home. Thanks to their low center of gravity, the nice bags should stay put.

That sounds like a winner, Bridgestone. Thanks!

"tomatoes go on the top, not the bottom"

The canned tomatoes?

Yes, MikeLM. For you, the canned tomatoes go on top.