Plastic Grocery Bag Origami...

...AKA Things My Mother Learns While Watching Kooky Korean Television.

So even though my mother is Vietnamese, I think her eight years in Korea really did a number on her Southeast Asian psyche because when she wants to relax, she sits down to hours and hours of

- Korean soap operas where the men have the gayest hairdos EVER,

- superdepressing human interest documentary type shows that feature the most down on your luck Korean people you can imagine,

- superwacky variety shows featuring really bizarre acts from all over the world and hosted by a man who can only be described as a cross between that guy who hosts Sabado Gigante and Bobcat Goldthwait if that man were Korean, and

- Korean cooking shows that show you how, among other things like crisping up cabbage with ice water, to fold up your plastic grocery bags like a good little Japanese housewife might.

Seriously. Who comes up with this crap???

And then when I visit her, she shows me all these neat little tricks with a Kris Kringle twinkle in her eye like she just discovered the best thing since sliced bread.

I'll admit it. When my mom first showed me this grocery bag folding trick, I thought to myself: How bored and lonely of a housewife do you have to be to look at your plastic bag stash and come up with ways to bust a Martha on that mess of polyethylene??? 

But as it turns out, this really is a pretty neato, space saving trick for a gal who never throws them away, opting instead to repurpose them as trashbags, temporary fridge storage bags for produce, and Honeydew doo-wrappers (not with the same bag, mind you). Plus it's kinda soothingly zen to fold up your grocery bags, sort of in that weird way that washing dishes can be oddly relaxing.

PLASTIC GROCERY BAG ORIGAMI

1) Take your plastic grocery bag and roll/fold/scrunch it lengthwise so it's about 2 to 2.5 inches wide.

2) Roll the bag from the bottom up, leaving just the handles. I find it easy to wrap the bag around two fingers as I roll.

3) Take the bunny ears (bag handles) and twist them once so they don't come undone when you bring them around the front to tie them in a single knot.

4) Bring the handles around to the front widthwise and tie a single knot and !VOILA!

These are so much more compact and easy to store than if you just bunch them up and shove 'em in a drawer.

Now to wash the lunch dishes like the exciting and fascinating housebiatch I am...

shinae