Where is the best place to buy those storage bags that....

[mint]

you can suck all the air out of, leaving your bedding, cushions, jumpers ect. in neat, squashed down cubes that pack readily into cupboards?

I have seen such marvels advertised but I have forgotten where I saw them.

Do they do what the sellers claim?  Does your fluffy duvet, etc that takes up a whole shelf in a largish armoire reduce to the size of a small pillow and all your winter's worth of jumpers and fleeces fit easily into a sac the size of a smallish week-end holdall?

Please reveal all as I am increasingly desperate for storage space and I can't go on buying yet another cupboard[:-))]

[idun]

Please becareful what you buy. I have bought lots of the these over the years and some have been terrible.

The best I have had are the zip up ones. So any of the big wagons that come to the Place de la Mairie and I cannot for the life remember me any of the names. Also La Blanche Porte or another cataloge. This is from La Blance Porte

http://www.blancheporte.fr/b/landing/mode-decoration/housse-rangement-sous-vide-247363-55594.html?DL=55922%20112%20&R=2570342&typObj=4

At one point, I bought some really really heavy duty black plastic bags and put say spare pillows or duvets in them and sucked the air out with the vacuum cleaner and tied two tight knots in the top. Lasts a season until you need them.

[Chancer]

I have loads of these vacuum storage bags bought from various sources and none of them will remain deflated for any length of time, some initially last a few days or weeks, the worst only a few hours, there doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason for it.

They do work in as much as you can compress the linen/clothes etc enough to then pack them in another container which you can secure the lid on, dont be tempted to use them inside drawers or they will not open afterwards!

I really like Iduns bin liner idea, I do a similar thing when packing stuff for my kayak, to save space and in case of capsizing, I will do it in future for house things.

I have bought foam pillows and mattresses that have been vacuum packed and could no believe how small they were.

[idun]

Yes, I suppose that I put my bin bagged stuff in a confined space, so it cannot inflate, but that is OK for me, as it is a seasonal thing I do.

We bought a memory foam mattress  when we first got back and that came vacuum packed. It was awful and had to go back, we probably have made money if we had filmed three adults trying to get it packed again...... jumping on it, wrestling with it and it really did fight back! When it went back it was about twice the size it was when it arrived, but a lot smaller than when on the bed!

[mint]

So these deflated bags don't stay deflated?

What on earth use are they then?

I need to have things made small so that they don't take up all the available room in the house and I don't want them getting big again until I need to use them.

Now I do remember I have seen some on the Lakeland site.  Would they be any better than the French ones?  Has anyone tried them?

[Théière]

Sweets a vacuum is hard to maintain as nature wants the air to get back in, let alone all those clothes which are temporarily compressed by the removal of air.  No they don't last all that long a Chancer said but that is sufficient even when the air makes it back in, to keep out any bugs or mould etc over winter.

Bloody good tip on not putting them in draws Chancer, I have a picture in my mind right now [:D]

[mint]

Taken on board all your comments.  Thanks, guys.

Also been on Amazon to have a scout round and read the reviews.  And, yup, they are certainly not all they are cut out to me.

Think I'd be better off getting those checked plastic bags with zips (as seems to be specially favoured by Eastern Europeans, no insult, just an observation at airports) and squashing everything in as best I can and then zipping them up and hoping the things inside don't bust the seams open.

So, anyone found any storage bags to be particularly strong and preferably see-through as that will save labelling all the bags?

[Frederick]

They sell them in Gi Fi .... we use loads of them for cushions  as well as duvets etc when we do the winter lay up...  I have had one or two that did not stay down after the air was sucked out  But I suspect because we overloaded them trying to force more in them than perhaps  we should have done. 

[mint]

Got a large Gifi in the town nearby and will look to see what storage solutions they might have.

I suppose Ikea would do that kind of thing but we are no longer near Bordeaux.

I swear I have bought my last large cupboard.  Good job it was demountable as I don't think we could even have got it indoors.  Is it my imagination or do we need more storage space in France than in the UK?

I remember one cupboard under the stairs seemed to have solved all storage problems so why do I now have 3 sous-sol rooms all filled and a garage that just about takes one car in the middle with other things pressed against 3 sides of it?

[idun]

We need to keep more paperwork in France. AND re spare bedding, well, I ended up with lots as I liked to have it when people came to see us. Should I still have it is quite another question I should seriously ask my self.[Www]

I know people who, when moving somewhere smaller, actually radically threw lots of things out and happily live without all the accumulated stuff they used to have.

I like those zip top bags, I have used them in the past for laundry when we spend several weeks away from home. Very handy things to have.

[Gardengirl]

We have a number of those vacuum storage bags in France for spare bedding etc. Ours were from Lakeland and don't stay deflated, but we put them on the very top shelf of fitted cupboards, so there's a limit to them inflating as they can't push the ceiling up!  [:)]

[nectarine]

I've had many over the years (merging several houses meant we had endless pillows and duvets!) and ones that I bought from a UK supermarket were the best, and are still squashed and deflated. The cheaper ones have often leaked and only stay deflated for a few weeks.

Yes, I learned my lesson not to put them in drawers! We have them in the top shelf of cupboards on on the top of wardrobes, with suitcases on top.

A word of warning though - thoroughly air and dry anything you are going to put into the bags. A recent checked showed an old duvet covered in mould which had to be thrown away ... so make sure everything is spotlessly clean and dry.

[Hereford]

We bought some in Ikea - cheaper than others I have seen. None have deflated yet. I shall keep a watch though now this has been flagged up.

Best use for one we have had was when a friend asked if we could we take duvet and pillows with us when we visited her (in Uk) as I am  allergic to feathers and all she has are feather duvets!

We only have a small car now(VW Up!) so the bags was brilliant for transporting said duvet etc.

Mrs H.

[mint]

I really don't think I'll bother with the vacuum bags now.  I agree they would be brilliant for transporting things (ie short-term) but, being an essentially lazy person, I don't think I could be faffed with checking them periodically, re-deflating them (is there such a word?) etc.

I think I'm going to go for those checked zipped ones.  If they seem OK for transporting what looks like all of someone's personal effects (seems like it when you see these bulging sacs on airport carousels), I am sure they would be just fine for storing spare duvets and pillows.

BTW, does anyone know anything about those "breathable" sacs and are they worth paying extra for as they do seem to be quite a bit dearer?

[Chancer]

A good compromise Sweet17 is to use the vacuum bags to compress your items and then store them in the zipped chequered bags, they will be more than strong enough to retain them. That way you will still have the space gain that you were searching for.

Worst case scenario, if you remove the contents of one bag you may have to vacuum them again but if you are quick enough you will probably be able to zip it up again before they regain too much volume.

In fact I am going to to do a trial run for you, I have several now re-inflated and swollen vacuum bags and also a couple of the chequered zipped ones, time for a bit of spring organising!

[mint]

Hey, Chance, you don't half have some damn good ideas![:D]

I await the results of your trial run with impatience (as the French would say!)[:D]

 

[idun]

Great minds Chancer, I was going to suggest the very same thing.

Are you going to try the bin bags too Chancer?

The only thing I can say about them is that you need to put a good sticky label on them or if they are green ones write on them, as 'seeing' what is stored, becomes impossible.