The Garbage Bag Mistake I’ve Been Making My Entire Life

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our special guest today — the garbage bag. Canadian inventors created this irreplaceable household item about 70 years ago. Today, it comes in a huge variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. And if you think it can only serve one basic purpose, I have a big surprise for you. It can even prevent you from unwanted communication.

But more on that later. What if I told you that you’ve been using your garbage bags wrong your entire life? If you take a closer look at it, you’ll probably notice that the seam is inside out. And it’s not by accident.

In fact, you’re not supposed to shake up the bag to open it. You gotta place the bag over a garbage can like a hat and then just push the middle of the bag down to the can. No worries, you’re not the only person who didn’t know that. This eye-opening trick went viral online and got millions of views.

Imagine that you need to dye your hair, paint walls, or mold a clay mug immediately. But you don’t have a protective suit on hand. Here comes the good news! You can make one out of a plastic bag. It will take you less than a minute. Just find a bag wide enough to fit your torso. Cut one hole in the bottom of the bag for your head and two holes for the arms on the sides. Voilà!

Feel free to make a hat from another plastic bag to protect your hair. When the job is done, you can wash this handmade suit and reuse it! Our next hack is for those who don’t like to waste money. You can use a real plastic bag instead of a raincoat that looks like a plastic bag anyway. Just make a round cut for your face, and you’re ready to go. You can reuse it as many times as you want.

You can use a plastic bottle to create a recycled bag dispenser. Take a large bottle — it can be either a bottle of soda or washing gel. What matters is its shape — it must be straight, so you can easily store bags inside it. Wash the bottle, dry it, and cut off the bottleneck and bottom. Turn it upside down. There you go — your bag dispenser is ready. You can use your imagination to paint and decorate your DIY project with stickers and lettering to your taste. When the design is ready, attach it to the back of the bottle and stick this holder to the wall in your kitchen or one of the cabinet doors.

Imagine you’ve been planning a perfect hiking weekend for ages. But when you actually get there, it starts raining! Don’t rush back home! Plastic bags will serve you well if you need to put your clothes or equipment on wet grass. Also, you can make an emergency sleeping bag cover using a large garbage bag. After the rain, it will serve as a nice mattress to lay under your sleeping bag to protect it from moisture and provide an additional layer for a cozy nap. Just fill the bag with some soft leaves and straw that lie on the ground, and there you go!

A large garbage bag can be your best friend when you’re camping with friends somewhere in the wild. You can turn it into a temporary handmade shower, toilet, or even a dressing room out of it. Just hang it on a tree, and no one will spy on you. If you went for a walk wearing a pair of your favorite shoes that get wet easily, here’s an easy tip to keep your socks dry. Put plastic bags over your socks, tuck the edges of the bags into your socks or trousers, and then put your shoes on.

There’s one obvious drawback, though. Feet can slip inside the shoes, so be careful. These plastic socks are also handy when you’re trying to put on tight jeans that usually make your feet stick inside them. Have you ever had your bag torn at the worst possible moment? A plastic bag with handles can become an emergency backpack. Just place your stuff inside the bag, put your hands through the handlers, and you’re ready to go.

A garbage bag is also a good material for book covers. You can reuse multicolored bags to create a unique pattern for your favorites. You’re moving to a new house and packing all your belongings. Suddenly you run out of boxes. Sounds familiar? No problem! Grab a package of large garbage bags and pack the remaining stuff.

Unlike boxes, this packaging will protect your property from rain or snow. Garbage bags are especially good for packing blankets, pillows, and stuffed toys. If you need to make a vacuum packing for your clothes or stuffed toys, simply put your belongings in a trash bag, place a tube from your vacuum cleaner inside the bag, and then turn it on. The vacuum cleaner will remove all the excess air from the bag, and you’ll save space in your suitcase or basement.

Someone really special has invited you home to cook a romantic dinner together. Finally! You wanna show all your extraordinary cooking skills. But your special someone doesn’t have an apron, and you don’t wanna mess up your new outfit. No worries! Make an emergency apron using a large garbage bag. It will surprise that special someone even more!

Speaking of stylish outfits, are you familiar with the term ’garbage bag dress’? Celebrities and famous fashion brands shock the audience with outfits looking like trash bags from time to time. Some of them actually make outfits using garbage bags like fabric. It’s a popular option for young artists who can’t afford to buy and use expensive fabrics.

Garbage bags are very flexible, so they are a useful material for making patterns for future outfits. When it comes to garbage bags, the DIY project’s possibilities are almost infinite. People use bags to make lampshades, clothes covers, small cosmetic bags, makeup organizers, recycled glasses, and whatnot. Some even weave baskets, bags, and floor rugs out of them.

It’s pretty easy to handcraft a rug. You need to cut several bags into equal strips and weave a long braid from these strips. Now twist this braid into a spiral and tie or glue each layer together. To secure this entire construction from breaking, you can sew your rug on a sewing machine from the middle to the edges as if you’re drawing a star. This plastic braid can also serve as emergency laces, a rope, or a handmade ribbon for decorating gifts and flowers.

Filmmaking is another field where garbage bags can be real stars. If you’re shooting indoors, and the sunlight is too sharp, you can put white garbage bags on all windows to diffuse the light or to set the white balance. Black light-proof garbage bags may serve you as a shading curtain to get rid of the sunlight in the room whatsoever.

Feel free to use a white bag to create a diffuse light ball. Inflate the bag like a balloon and put it next to a lamp. But make sure to use a LED light, so it doesn’t get too hot. Everyone knows that touching a plastic bag with a hot iron is a bad idea because it will melt. But this lets us create unique shapes from this colorful and affordable material. Wanna make a unique designer vase?

Take a bowl and cover it with paper tightly. Then wrap the matching strips of plastic bag around the bowl. Now place another layer of paper on the top and gently iron over the entire surface of the bowl. Voilà, the plastic melted, and you got a new stylish and eco-friendly vase. Garbage bags can produce very cool sound effects. If you live in a desert where it never rains and need to recreate that relaxing sound, use a plastic bag!

It’s always better to speak up like an adult, but if that doesn’t work for you, here’s a quick fix. Next time some annoying person calls you, don’t bother to make excuses why you can’t talk right now.

Just grab a garbage bag and rustle into your phone speaker, yelling, “Hello, hello! I can’t hear you!” Confession time, have you ever used this trick?