The Bags unboxed

Home Wasn’t Organised in a Day

The apartment we live in has seen a lot in the 8 years we have been living here. From various flatmates, to a new puppy, to us getting married, having a baby – it’s seen us go through quite a few changes. And in this time, stuff has just accumulated. You know what I’m talking about. Just Stuff. Sometimes I feel like things look neat only on the surface, but lurking in forgotten bags and unseen corners, are a ton of …. stuff.

My wife and I have a general goal of making our apartment a “Live-able Home That We Are Proud Of”. Part of this overarching plan is to organise things in a way that works for us. It can seem like such a massive undertaking, but we try to break it down and just start somewhere. As my late grandmother would say in Baba Malay – “sikit sikit jadi bukit”. Loosely translated as “little by little a hill is formed”.

Vacuum Bags

Storage solutions can add up to be quite a pretty penny, and so I wanted to experiment with “cheap” options and see how reliable they are. Ordered a set of 8 Vacuum Bags for SGD 16.70 from Qoo10.sg to try and they arrived yesterday. I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed space-wise today too, so a little organising always helps to de-stress and declutter the mind too.

The bags that came in the mail. The Green is a tad lurid for my taste.

Guest Bedlinen

The first attempt was for the Guest Bedlinen that we store in a Ikea Cylindrical zipped container at the moment.

All of that above, fit into the large bag below.

Which then shrunk to this

It was fun to work with Edel to see the vacuum Bag indeed shrink as we vacuum. But I wasn’t sure if it really saved a lot of space, I guess it depends on your cabinetry. The advantage for us is that we can now safely put it up on the storage shelving on the roof top terrace and not worry about humidity and dust.

Winterwear next

I took on the Cold Wear next, which were some jackets, sweaters, pashminas etc. I thought to try the manual pump it came with, which had screw threads so it secures well to the valve on the bag.

The manual pump was complete rubbish. After 450 pumping actions, the picture below was it.

This was with the Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Here is video of the bag shrinking as I was trying to figure it out

http://youtu.be/R4lQLBL0u-4

Wardrobe

I then thought to tackle some long term clothing area, which is in a bit of a mess.

What is even in there?

This is the shelf in the wardrobe that has really long term clothing storage. and somewhat unsorted.

So I took them all out and chucked them on the bed.

After a bit of sorting I roughly placed them in some form of organisation. Some of them are novelty (e.g. PJs for a pyjama party) and others

And then placed them in their groups in their respective bags

In the end I cut off part of the manual pump.

And used it as the connection to the vacuum cleaner. As the Dyson had a protrusion from the hose for its attachments – it made it difficult to get a tight seal when placed on the bag itself.

Before and After for one of the packs

Before and After for the last one.

Comparison of the Before and After of that shelf in the Wardrobe

I was able to store more (the coldwear was not originally in this shelf) compared to before. And labelled for when I need them.

However, the green is a bit too much for me. Why can’t they just be clear? What’s with the print too? I don’t know why these manufacturers feel the need to “jazz them up” with these “designs”? Their business model must be one of cost leadership. I don’t need differentiated product here, in fact because of the colour, I may try a new vendor next time.

*This was orginally posted in Sep 2015 as a Facebook Note on my personal page before this site was ready.

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