5 Things To Remember When Bagging Your Grocery Items

Picture this: You're trying to help the cashier out by self-bagging your groceries while they scan your items, but with every clumsy stacking job it feels like you're playing a poor game of Tetris. You feel, rather than see, the employee give you sidelong glances as you put bread at the bottom of the bag, ground beef in the same bag as your apples, and your frozen pizza beside a hot rotisserie chicken. In other words, you've broken every unspoken bagging law. But today, they'll be spoken.

You, too, can learn how to properly bag with five simple tips that range from proper stacking order to how you should sort your items into different sacks. Before you know it, the cashier will be just as impressed with your grocery checkout technique as they would if you were a real employee. Just make sure to toss some reusable insulated bags like these ones from Amazon in your car or bike basket before you get to the store (and use them as consistently as possible if you really want them to have an environmental impact).

First things first: Don't put the heavy, dense items (think milk, canned tomatoes, or a six-pack of soda) in the same bag as delicate items like bread and chips. Even if you think you stacked them well enough to avoid anything being crushed, things can move around a lot when you're driving or even just carrying the bags. Produce and eggs are also both considered delicate items, but don't put them in the same bag — if any of your eggs end up cracking, you don't want anything to leak on veggies you're planning to eat fresh.

It can be helpful to pre-sort these items in your cart as you shop to make bagging as smooth as possible. Consider placing your most delicate products in the cart's basket and the heaviest ones on one side of the cart itself. This is helpful even if you're not the one bagging, and whoever's tackling the process for you will likely be grateful for your thoughtfulness.

Trying to keep your grocery bags to a low enough number that you'll be able to take them inside in a single trip is, truly, a valiant goal. Unfortunately, there are a few items that you should bag separately, even if it means slinging a second sack over your shoulder on your journey from the car to the kitchen. Most notably, meat. 

The standard meat plastic packaging isn't enough to prevent it from contaminating other items like produce (a common mistake made with raw meat is putting it directly into your cart). So when you can, wrap your choice cut in a thin plastic bag from the produce section of the store or simply keep it in its own separate sack. If there's anything else with it, make sure it doesn't have sharp corners or anything that will puncture the plastic. Keeping produce and eggs separate is also a good idea, given that you don't want your produce to be bruised by any heavy items, and eggs can break and contaminate other items in the bag.

Sort your items by hot and cold for the sake of your future self. After all, you don't want your rotisserie chicken melting your ice cream, or your frozen taquitos cooling down your wonderfully fresh bagels. Beyond the fact that your chicken shouldn't be in the same bag as your ice cream in the first place (haven't you been paying attention?), there's a solid argument here for sorting your groceries by temperature — and it's easy to see the consequences of ignoring it. Aside from being inconvenient, certain items can also go bad if they're at too high a temperature for too long a time, which is especially important to keep in mind if you have a long drive home from the store. In this case, insulated bags might be a good idea — just make sure you keep them sanitary.

Now, all this might seem like a lot of sorting, but the good news is that some of these techniques can be combined. For example, freezer items might be heavier, while warm items like fresh bread may be lighter. And if your produce is the only cold thing in your cart, it's easy to separate and check off two boxes with one bag.

Sometimes, it's just fun to see how many items you can masterfully fit into a single bag. But you know what's not fun? Picking 80 individual Cheerios up off the floor because your sack was too full and it broke open, bruising your apples and ruining your cereal. So do your best to resist the urge to stuff your bag to the limit and spare yourself the pain of the near-guaranteed aftermath. Especially because if your bag is that full, you're almost certainly not adhering to the remainder of the grocery-sorting rules.

But if you must stuff your bags — especially if they're paper — try to double-line them. The stacking will make the bottom and the handles much sturdier and more likely to survive the trip to your fridge/pantry. And if you can, carry the bags from underneath rather than relying on the flimsy handles, even if they're doubled up.

We're back to the Tetris vibes: Bagging boxes at the grocery store. This could include cereal boxes, pasta boxes, or a box of those absolutely delicious pumpkin spice Joe-Joe's from Trader Joes. Rather than stacking them on top of each other, try using them to build a wall around the rim of the bag that can protect delicate items placed inside, like chips or pastries. Placing boxes on every side will prevent one from tipping over and crushing the items in the center, and it'll add structure to your sack that will make it easier to carry.

This also helps to maximize space — you won't need one bag for boxes and one for whatever you "store" inside the wall. You can also use cans to build your barrier, although they won't be as tall. If you have lots of them, it may be better to create a base layer and stack lighter levels of grocery items on top. Just make sure you're carrying your grocery bag from the bottom if you try this, lest the weight is too much for it to handle.