Bin Liners: The Hidden and Unexpected Benefits

Bin liners, especially the gusseted kinds, are often written off as an industrial accessory and therefore not usually considered to be a helpful tool for around the house.  However, perhaps unbeknownst to us, bin liners are a daily feature in our lives, and not just when we are at work.  Garbage bags are the most common form of bin liners.  We can all raise our hands to using these!

The really fabulous thing about bin liners is that you can buy them in massive sizes, and with gusseted sides as well to allow for them to open up and appropriately line the inside of whatever you are using as a bin.  It occurred to me one day that gusseted bin liners would be really helpful when it came to attic storage.

We primarily kept all of our boxes in the tool room in the basement because the attic gets incredibly humid, and the winters are always wet too.  Anything cloth I would want to store up there would surely become covered in mold.  It was good enough for Christmas decorations, which don’t pack tightly and are completely nonabsorbent, but seasonal clothes and extra linens I wouldn’t take a chance with.  So I ordered some gusseted bin liners off the internet and used them inside some plastic totes.

Plastic totes are great at keeping critters out and are nice for stacking and remaining sturdy, but they still don’t offer much protection against humidity.  They might be water tight but they aren’t air-tight.  Lining them with bin liners solves that problem, and also the storage problem.  I can now store old baby items, or clothes the kids have yet to grow into, in the attic.  My husband is eternally grateful for this since it opens his tool room back up for tools and not for stuff.  Not only are bin liners good for lining bins, but I can also store big, bulky items with more peace of mind.  There isn’t much else to do with a carseat than put it in a giant plastic bag.

As you can see, bin liners can be a useful addition around the house, especially when it comes to storage.  If you don’t have an attic, you can use them to store stuff in the garage, or in a shed out back.  Take some time to come up with your own ways that they might be helpful to you.

 

Shrink Wrap Nation

What did people do before shrink wrap?  I mean, I suppose the world got along just fine, especially since there wasn’t as much going on back then.  But recently, with all of the advances in technology and in society in general, shrink wrap has been a really helpful thing to have around.

Suddenly, people found themselves making more money, and obtaining certain things became a lot easier.  Before it was cheaper to produce a lot of stuff it was generally the well off that owned them.  For example, it was usually people that lived by water who owned boats.  Now, thanks to Craigslist and boat storage and pick-up trucks, you can own a boat even if your home is completely landlocked.

A lot of marinas, at the end of the season, provide a service where they shrink wrap your boat.  True statement.  I’m sure you’ve seen them around.  It looks exactly like what I said: boats wrapped up in cellophane.  This obviously protects the boats from harsh winter elements.  Or, brand new boats will arrive wrapped in shrink wrap.  They are completely protected from getting any kinds of scratches or nicks or stains on the precarious journey from manufacturer to salesman.

There are so many people that buy and trade boats in southern Florida that there are boat salesmen just like there are car salesmen.  There are even neighborhoods where canals run along just like the streets and go up to the people’s houses just like their driveways.  My cousin’s husband is one of these boat salesmen and when the new shipments come in he gets to release them from their chrysalis of plastic and be the first one to try them out on the water (aka test drive them, which may or may not be why he got into the business).

Airplanes also get their fair share of experience with shrink wrap.  New airplanes are wrapped up, and so are ones that are out of commission.  There is an entire airplane graveyard in Arizona, which just so happens to be the largest one in the world.  Just miles and miles of these metal skeletons.

Some of those airplanes, though, or just there on sabbatical, and they are wrapped in shrink wrap to help protect them until they are brought back into service.  It’s absolutely incredible that you can cover something in plastic and leave it outside for years and years and when you go back it will still be in good shape.

The Puzzle in the Packaging Supplies

Probably eighty-percent of the population have heard about Wheel of Fortune.  Even if someone has never even seen an episode (likely most of the younger folks running around these days, I’m sure), they would still know that the show existed.  I mean, Wheel of Fortune is the Star Trek of game shows.  You may have never seen an episode of Star Trek (like myself), but you would still know what it was and you would still be able to say that Spock and Captain Kirk were main characters.

I remember sitting on my grandfather’s lap while he watched the show.  Wheel of Fortune, not Star Trek.  It was fascinating to me how this whole game revolved around spinning a wheel, which would allow someone to guess a letter in whatever mystery word or phrase.  I remember the click of the wheel, and lucky So-and-So would want by a D, but then the buzzer would sound and everyone would groan because, alas, there were no Ds in the puzzle!

My cousin and her husband religiously watch the show every night after they put their toddler to bed.  Not only are they unashamed about this, but you might even say they are a little addicted.  This is because they ask their friends if it’s okay for them to turn on the show when it’s time for them to eat.  Most people don’t understand this need, including myself, but how can you say no without then feeling uncomfortable sitting in silence?  Like Pat Sajak is scolding you from every corner of the room…

It’s my cousin that sent me the screenshot of a puzzle one day and told me to figure it out.  I was convinced that the two-word phrase would have to do with our long history together.  Technically, I was right.  After not being able to guess what it was, and finding out that it was packaging supplies, it was obviously a piece of our history but not so long-since-past that I was assuming it would be.  As a matter of fact, it was quite recent.  How could packaging supplies be in our history, you might ask?  Well, she used to write about packaging supplies and now I do, and so both of us should have gotten the puzzle correct immediately.  However, neither one of us did, so I’m not sure what that says about us.  However, it does say a lot about packaging supplies for making it onto a show like Wheel of Fortune.