I’ve seen ads for space bags – the kind that you fill with sweaters or clothes, or blankets, pillows . . whatever, and then vacuum all the air out. Supposedly it keeps the bugs out and it should keep the dust out. I had never tried them but the other day I was at Walmart and they had some on clearance so I thought . . I’ll try those!
Space Bags
Since I seem to knit way more sweaters than I need, many of them sit in the drawers and get little wear. I needed space in the drawers, and the sweaters need to have more protection from bugs and dust. The bags I bought are 21.5″ x 33.5″ and they held a lot of sweaters. I put every sweater I’ve made into two bags.
Space Bags
They vacuum with a standard hose off most any vacuum cleaner, and are quite easy to seal. I was really surprised at how compact they are once all the air is removed. These bags are way wider than the shelves in my closet but I was able to stand them up on the shelf and they seem to be staying there just fine.
I make more socks than I wear also and have several drawers of socks. I give away a lot of the socks I make but I also have plenty that have never been worn so I ordered some smaller bags for those. I had a few of the reusable Foodsaver bags so I decided to try that for some of the socks. Not my favorite. I like the ones that use the vacuum hose much better but I did vacuum seal 5 pairs of socks.
Socks in a Bag
For comparison, and I’m not sure you get a good view of the height of the socks but there are 5 pairs in the bag and 5 pairs not in the bag.
Here’s something funny. When I showed Vince the bags with the sweaters, I was telling him how much room it saves and how it protects them. As usual, he wasn’t paying much attention to what I was telling him and he said “How many more bags do you need?” I told him that I had bought 6 bags and only used 2 so I had plenty. He then said “All your yarn fits in 6 bags?” I wish! No, I’m not putting all my yarn in those bags. I go digging through the yarn too much to have to open and re-close the bags. My yarn is in tubs and I have various methods of hopefully keeping the bugs out of it.
justquiltin says
I use those bags for my winter clothes when I pack them away off season and they save so much space in storage. I don’t enjoy the wrinkles when it’s time to get them all back out again but considering how much storage space they save it’s well worth it.
JudyL says
I figured I’d have to get the steamer out for my sweaters but some years, I don’t get them all out anyway. Just not much winter here but that doesn’t stop me from knitting sweaters. 🙂
Carol says
I’ve often wondered about keeping bugs out of yarn or knitted items. I got a ball of yarn out to start some socks and kept seeing multiple ends of yarn sticking out over the ball so knew that there had been a critter in there. A friend who works at a yarn store in Dallas said they grate bars of Irish Spring soap and put into squares of net, drawn up with string or something. She said that seems to work. Have you ever heard of that? Tell us what you do because I KNOW in Texas there are lotsa bugs.
Sherrill says
I’ve tried them a couple of times but they always seemed to come unsealed pretty quickly so I gave up on them. Hope yours stay sealed!
Carolyn says
When we moved across Texas those bags were a space saver for me when it came to packing for the move.
dezertsuz says
I had to smile about Vince. When we first bought our Food Saver, Paul was sealing everything under the sun. Not too long ago, I came across a bag of batik FQs he had sealed! They were still air tight. =)
TerriS says
I’ve used space bags for years. They’re great for storing off season clothes, and pillows, comforters and blankets. I have never thought of putting yarn in them, but I might do that, since have quite a bit that will take me a long time to use. I was given someone’s entire yarn stash a couple of years ago and it takes up a lot of room.