This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Glad. All opinions are 100% mine.
I love finding new uses for things that I usually have on hand, don’t you? It’s such a smart way to save time and money. I am usually not a big fan of cleaning and organizing, so when the bug hits I have to take full advantage of it. If I have to leave the house to buy supplies, I guarantee that by the time I get back the urge will have passed. Trash bags are one of the things that I’ve found many purposes for around the home. They’re also something that pretty much every household has on hand at any given time. I’m sharing a few of my favorite uses for garbage bags…aside from the obvious, of course!
7 Uses for Trash Bags Besides Just Holding Your Garbage
Before you dive in and start trying these alternate uses for trash bags, it’s important to make sure you’re using the right bag! This is one item that I refuse to compromise on when it comes to quality and brand (toilet paper and paper towels are two others!). One of my favorites is Glad ForceFlex Kitchen Pro Trashbags. They’re available at Target and give you the protection of a kitchen bag with the capacity and strength of an outdoor bag. Plus they have 5-day odor control for when you do use them for garbage! Let’s dive into the different ways you can use them throughout your home and beyond! 
- Clean out your closet and make a donation bag (or multiple bags, I filled up three just a few months ago from my closet alone!). Garbage bags are great for this purpose because I drop my donations off in those big collection bins that are scattered throughout my town. The only take clothes in bags since boxes won’t fit through the opening. Again, you want a strong bag. Trust me, you don’t want to be picking up clothes all over a parking lot because your bargain-bin bag broke. Been there, done that!
- Store winter blankets for the warmer months. My family has a blanket problem! My son has more fuzzy fleece blankets than I can count and I have at least three ginormous comforters that need to be stored for the warmer months. I don’t have room for giant boxes in my own closet and we don’t have a dedicated linen closet. I put them neatly folded in trash bags, toss in a scented sachet bag and stick them on the floor of my closet. Just squish out the air, fold over the top of the bag and, if desired, seal it shut with a bit of duct tape. Even if you do have a linen closet, this is a smart way to keep everything together for the next season.
- Add protection to stored books and other treasures: Even worse than our blanket problem is our book addiction! At one point, I had 17 bins of books stored in my garage! I thought they were protected in the boxes and bins, but the humidity still got to quite a few books. Once, the tub overflowed and the water seeped down into my garage (I have a split-level home, my garage is below the upstairs) and made its way into one of my boxes. Since Glad ForceFlex Kitchen Pro Trashbags have double-bag protection against leaks, they’re perfect for protecting your treasured books, stuffed animals or other things stored in your garage or basement. They’re designed to keep leaks in the bag, but that same protection also helps keep leaks out.
- Black out your windows. Okay, so a giant trash bag over your windows isn’t exactly beautiful to look at, but if you work a night shift or are just trying to get some extra sleep during the day, they definitely do the trick for a lot less money than fancy blackout curtains!
- Protect your plants. If you’re going to have an unseasonably cold night or a torrential downpour, placing trash bags over your plants is a good way to protect them.
- Create an emergency “go” bag. Every home needs a “go” bag in case of emergency or evacuations. Store emergency supplies in a trash bag and keep it somewhere near your front door. If you’re evacuating in a flood or torrential downpour, you’ll be glad you stored everything in a trash bag instead of a box!
- Make craft time less messy. Before your kids start painting or crafting, cover their work surface with a trash bag laid out flat. Don’t cut it, just lay it flat on the table as is. When they’re done, push everything to the center of the bag, flip over the top layer and carefully push everything into the bag as you turn it inside out. The mess goes into the bag in one fell swoop.
These are just a few things you can do in and around your home with a single box of Glad ForceFlex Kitchen Pro Trashbags. There are also countless ways to use them outside the home for camping, traveling and staying safe in an emergency.
Can you think of any other great ways to repurpose trash bags throughout your home? Share in the comments!
I’m pretty thrifty, so I have plenty of uses for stuff like this … thanks for the additional ideas, though!
I use trash bags as an apron for my children when they do painting.
I love trash bags because they can be used in different ways at home and outside.
These are all great ideas. I should know. I’ve done them all over the years. My girls were quite the creative minds, so I made full use of trash bags for craft time. It made life so much easier.
So true about craft time! When I am doing arts and crafts with my nieces, I just lay out a large garbage bag on the floor so that we can go all out! In fact, we did that recently for my niece’s school project.
The trash bags actually came in great hand when we were moving. I could use the bags to wrap around a lot of clothing that stayed on hangers, then poke the tops of the hangers through the bag.
I am such a messy person when it comes to crafts! When I was making center pieces for my engagement party, we had the table covered in clear plastic bags so protect my very expensive dining room table. I’ve used garbage bags to protect plants! My butterfly bush was protected for a few days when it got warm and all of a sudden we were getting extremely cold weather.
I am always using garbage bags when my kids are doing crafts.It is a huge time saver on the clean up. I never thought to use it for the plants though. Thank you for that tip!
We use Glad trash bags but I will admit, I have not heard of this specific one yet. I will have to look for and try out Kitchen Pro next time we need to restock and by the looks of it that will be soon!
I do a lot of organizing with trash bags and then once I have things in the right groups, I open them back up and put things where they should really go. Then I reuse the bags. That is what I love about Glad … they can withstand me stuffing them full then reusing them!
Clever use for craft time 🙂
I use trash bags regularly to pack up any items that we bring to charity. I’ve also used them in the past to black-out windows. I never would have thought of an emergency bag?!?! 😉
I used it when we moved to a new house, to our clothes, books and even to our kitchen stuff. It is doable and can hold a lot of things. I never tried it yet as a crafty but I would love to do some research on how I can use it as a decor.
These are all great uses for trash bags. I regularly use them for donation bags, as it seems as if my kids are regularly outgrowing their clothes and we need to purge. Great idea to protect surfaces during craft time!
Indeed useful uses for a trash bag. Thank you for the idea that I can use it for craft time. We are always messy if we do craft time. I homeschool my kids and sometimes getting messy is part of the curriculum.
Thanks. These are certainly brilliant. Live in the Caribbean therefore need to choose the relevant ideas.