Organizing re-usable Plastic Bags

In Europe (at least most of Western Europe) free bags are not available for grocery shopping.  About 6 or 7 years ago,  grocery stores stopped providing free plastic bags for packing groceries and started offering either large strong plastic bags for a fee or encouraging totes in an effort to cut the amount of plastic bags ending in landfills and boosting the re-use of purchased plastic bags. 

Before plastic bags had to be purchased, I used  to use the free bags on the bathroom trashcans, which was my own way of re-using so I never had many bags laying around.  After the grocery chains changed their approach to free bags I adapted myself by purchasing the sturdy plastic bags about once per year.  The negative side is that I have too many bags now laying around and taking space.   So I decided it was time to learn to fold them and keep them organized to take back some much needed space.

To fold the large bags, I used a simple method I found on Origami Spirit blog (http://www.origamispirit.com/2012/01/how-to-fold-plastic-bags-for-easy-storage-and-travel/#respond), and I put all the small bags in an empty Kleenex box.  I had seen this idea before but I can't really remember were.

Check out my before and after pictures.  What a difference!  and it took less than 30 minutes. 

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER