A Bag Your Own Groceries Tip
If you frequent stores like Aldi, or if you prefer the self check out line at your favorite store, then you are well acquainted with bagging your own groceries. I am sure you know to put the heavy stuff on the bottom of the bag, and not to put too much heavy stuff in one bag, but have you ever thought about bagging your items according to where they will end up once you are home?
When I am bagging my groceries, I try to put items in the bag by where they belong once we are home. So the cheese, the butter and the carrots may go in the same bag. They all go in the refrigerator. The second pound of butter goes in the bag with frozen items, like the ice cream I splurged on today, because it will go in the freezer when we get home. If there are toiletries, I try to keep them together when bagging. Pantry items in the same bag, and well you get the point right?
Bagging items like this really doesn't take any extra time at the store, but it saves you a ton of time when you get home. You don't have to unload all the bags, and then sort out the items to put them away. You (or your children as they case is often here) can grab bag, take it to the refrigerator and unload it. Take another bag to the pantry to unload, and so on.
The main advantage of bagging like this is the time saved and convenience of putting the groceries away, but there are some other perks. Bagging the cold and frozen items together helps keep them cold and frozen on your trip home. This is best for the food , and also saves energy because your freezer and refrigerator don't have to work as hard to get your items back to the proper temperature. You also save a little energy because your not opening and closing the refrigerator and freezer constantly as you put the groceries away.
Next time you are self bagging your groceries think about their destination in your home. Try to put items that will be put away in the same place in the same bag. I think you'll appreciate the time savings and convenience. It works for me!
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10 comments:
I do this as well, primarily to keep cold things as cold as possible- our Aldi isn't terribly near our house, and sometimes we have to make an extra stop to get the things on the list that we couldn't find at Aldi.
Great tip!
I don't have an Aldi's, but I DO put like items together on the conveyor belt. I'll put all the fridge items together, all the freezer items, etc. and that way the checker rings them up and bags them like that for me.
And, we keep our empty cooler in our trunk which really helps. We have to keep it somewhere, and it's come in handy more than once!
I do this too! That way if I'm in a hurry to do something at home, I can quickly put the cold stuff away and save the canned stuff for later.
I also try to keep the cooler in the car. It helps when you think of a quick errand that you need to run after grocery shopping.
We do a lot of shopping at BJ's, and as you probably know, they don't supply bags or bag any groceries. So I bring my own canvas bags (made my own!) and I pack what I've bought according to type, like you do. We also keep a cooler in the car for the frozen stuff and take along a couple of the blue frozen packs during really hot weather. This is a nice article... you have some good ideas... thanks for visiting!
I do this as well! My reason is that the kiddos are usually starving and/or having a meltdown by the time we get home, so having freezer and fridge bags lets me just toss them (the whole bag) in the fridge or freezer quickly and attend to the kids' needs. I go out to the car when all is calm to get the canned goods/toiletries.
I do this too. It takes little more time, but it's worth it once you get home.
I love this idea and will use it when I do my own groceries. The store I go to mostly has bag boys that help you out but in that case I do the sorting right when I unload them in my house. For example as soon as I take them out of the bag the refrigerated stuff goes on the counter next to the fridge, the bathroom items get set on the kitchen table, the pantry items get set on another table so I am sorting as I unpack. Your way is a pre-sorter and definitely a time saver.
This is a great idea but we don't really have stores where we bag our own items. I try to send them down the belt in a specific order but it really depends on the bagger at the end and what they do to my order.
If they ever switch to letting us bag,I will remember this.
I do the same thing! Even when I don't bag them myself, I put them on the conveyor belt in "order"! ;)
We do this too and it has helped our son to learn to group items too. He is in charge of throwing the cold stuff in and I have plastic totes for our canned goods. It is a great lesson for him and he is a fabulous little helper to boot ;)
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