Thursday, July 9, 2020

More useful than I'd thought


Commander Zero, who blogs at Notes From the Bunker, has a very interesting article on the many uses to which a vacuum sealer can be put.

A lot of folks, in my experience, don’t think creatively about the uses for one of these things that have nothing to do with food. So, lemme mention a few of the non-food things I do with mine and maybe it’ll send you down a new road of thought in regard to using yours. (Or getting one.)
  • Compressing high-loft items of clothing so they take up less space in a pack.
  • Preventing powdered items from clumping – The cleanser that comes in the cardboard cans? I put each can into a bag and vacuum seal it so that after years of sitting on the shelf it hasn’t drawn moisture and caked into a rock-like consistency.
  • Water bottles that get left in the vehicle in the winter are vacuum sealed in a bag so if the plastic bottle does explode from freezing (which almost never happens) any leakage is contained. And the water is still potable.
  • All the fire-starting materials in my hunting/bushwhacking packs are vacuum sealed to keep them dry, clean, and in one place.
  • Small first aid items get vacuum sealed for rather obvious reasons.
  • Critical documents are vacuum sealed so they are protected from moisture, wet, etc.

There's more at the link.

I've never thought about some of Commander Zero's suggestions, but they're eminently practical.  It's worth reading his article in full.  You're likely to get a lot of useful ideas.

Peter

2 comments:

Jonathan H said...

I've seen people vacuum seal ammunition too, especially small amounts that don't have a box.

I use a canning jar lid adapter to vacuum seal rice and other staples for long term storage.

Some of Zero's commenters talk about using jars to store cereal and keep it from going bad - useful when there is a big sale.

pjk said...

I buy primers 10 - 20 thousand at a time when they go on sale or are offered with no hazardous fee - the ones that I won't use in the next couple of months go into a vacuum bag. Binoculars and range finders have the battery removed and go in the vacuum bag over the off season.

The only problem I have with the primers is that they don't stack as well when bagged as they do when not bagged.