Space Bags

February 7, 2002 at 4:53 PM CST - Updated July 12 at 3:25 AM

We all have closets that are so crowded, you can't even fit two blankets on the shelf. But the

Space
Bag promises to triple our
space
.

Our stack of comforters is 8 and 1/2 inches tall. And we have several pillows about 4 inches fluffy each.  We start by stuffing the blankets into a large

Space
Bag. That's easier said than done, trying to get them inside with as few wrinkles as possible. We zip the bag, and vacuum the air out.  "That's pretty impressive!" Amy says as she watches the blankets shrink.  "I am amazed, I have to admit. Now the blankets feel like styrofoam, or a real heavy foam rubber.  They're definitely smaller than they were! Let's measure."  They went from 8.5 to 2.5 inches.

"I want to try the pillows now," says Amy.  She can only fit two of them into one Space Bag. Again, we zip the bag, fire up the vacuum, and see how far these pillows will shrink. "Oh, look at it go!" Amy exclaims.  "But it makes you wonder what the pillows will look like once you take them out of the

Space
Bag!"   We measure the pillows again. They shrunk from almost 9 inches, to less than 3 inches.

Amy opens the bag to see what happens, and the blankets

and pillows spring back to life. However, keep in mind we only had them wrapped for a few minutes.

So the entire stack went from about 17 inches tall, to

about 5 inches. That's not quite 300% as guaranteed by makers of the
Space
Bag -- but it's close. And we probably could have sucked out a little more air, so we're giving it the benefit of the doubt.  Both
bags
now easily slide onto the crowded closet shelf. "Who said it couldn't be done?" Amy says as she stares at the closet. "That's not only two comfortors. It's two comfortors and two pillows!"

The jury is still out how how long the air-tight seals will hold, and whether the fluffy stuff will get its fluff back after it's stored for a long time. And there will endoubtedly be wrinkles. But there's no doubt the

Space
Bag shrinks things as promised. So we give
Space
Bags
an 'A' minus.