Pack Mate Vacuum Storage Bags

I have never heard of these things before but I thought I would them a go when I realised I had a whole wardrobe dedicated to bedding and duvets! I actually own three duvets with various degrees of tog for the summer and winter. Oh if the teenage me could see me now, she would scorn. These three duvets took up valuable room in the wardrobe, I managed to roll one up quite small and secure with an old belt but I started to wonder if there was another storage solution I could buy to help combat my storage problem. I was a tad dubious when I saw these bags in Tesco but I decided to give them ago. The pack size I bought was the six pack, which was way too many, so I split the box with my mum and we had half each. She had never seen them either and was pretty excited to give them a go.

There are a number of pack sizes you can buy, I paid £14.00 for the 6 pack and thought that this was really good value for money as the small pack sizes did not seem as cheap. I bought mine from Tesco and since spotting them for the first time, I have seen them in a number of places. They are cheapest on the internet though. I have seen them on Amazon for around £13.50 for the pack size I bought.

In the pack I bought we received:
1 x Small Roll Bag 25cm x 38cm (10''x 15.20''), 1 x Medium Roll Bag 40cm x 50cm (15''x 19''), 1 x Large Roll Bag 50cm x 70cm (25''x 28'') and Vacuum Storage Bags: 1 x Large Vacuum Bag 55cm x 80cm (21''x 31.5''), 1 x Extra Large Vacuum Bag 70cm x 105cm (27''x 41''), 1 x Jumbo Vacuum Bag 90cm x 110cm (36''x 44'').
The bags are made from a really crinkly plastic with a plastic zipper on the side. In the middle somewhere is a hole for the insertion of the vacuum nozzle. I checked the pack before purchase to see if my Dyson would fit but any vacuum will fit it.

To get the bags to work you need to roll one out on a flat surface. I eagerly wanted to try the bag with the annoying duvet so I laid out the biggest bag in the set. I slipped in the duvet and as much as it was going to vacuum pack it, I thought I would give it a helping hand by laying out the duvet as flat as possible. I then had a little extra room for the pillows which I also wanted compressing. I zipped up the zipper and got the vacuum ready. I inserted the nozzle and turned the machine on. I instantly saw the bag start to decrease in size and shrink down. When I could see that it was as flat as it was going to get, I turned the vacuum off and removed the nozzle. The bag stayed flat and I was able to put it back in the wardrobe at the back and it took up half the room it took up before.
I used the other bags for some other items, mainly bedding and smaller duvets. The result was a much tidier wardrobe. As all the items started to look like each other in the bags, I got a permanent marker and wrote on each bag what it contained so when it came to changing the duvet, I did not have to empty each bag.
I have emptied one bag since the initial vacuuming session and resealed something else in it. The bedding came out quite creased which I expected but the bag was perfect to be used again! This is was really impressive as although the packaging said they were reusable, I was not wholly convinced. The bags do seem really robust though and even the zippers feel like they could take some abuse before giving in. I’m really impressed with the quality of the bags.
The bags claim they can decrease the space things take up by up to 75%, which is in fact what they did for me. The most success came from the duvets and pillows. There are the perfect items to compress as afterwards they spring back to how you like them.
Overall, I am really satisfied with my set and would fully recommend them.