I have a slight tea obsession. I love trying new teas and always having something great to choose from. The problem with that is that I end up with boxes upon boxes of tea, some of them having only a few tea bags left, but the giant box is still taking up a lot of room. Recently, I stopped buying tea so I could get my collection under control. I finished up a few flavors so I wouldn’t have several almost empty boxes laying around. I even tried (unsuccessfully) to throw some away, later convincing myself that I needed more variety in case guests didn’t like my favorites. The bin I was using for my tea boxes was still overflowing, so I needed a new plan.
That’s when I came up with this brilliant way to store tea. Instead of bulky boxes that don’t become smaller as you drink more tea bags, what if the size of the container decreased, and the container itself was smaller to begin with? That’s where the sandwich bags come in – they are the perfect size for my bin, transparent, and when tea bags are used, the bags become thinner.
The How
Here is how I did it:
- Take the tea bags out of the box. If the bags are individually sealed, take them out so they don’t waste so much room. The sandwich bags have a seal, so if you are worried about the flavor escaping, that should prevent it. This tagless, packageless design is one of the reasons why I love Celestial Seasonings, but Bigelow still makes the best mint and chamomile teas.
- Place the tea bags into a sandwich bag.
- Cut the front side of the tea box out so that you know which flavor the tea bags belong to and place it in front of the tea bags inside the sandwich bag.
- Repeat for all teas. I had a few teas that were in larger packages, so it threw off the consistency a bit, but they all still fit into a sandwich bag.
A nice container is also needed for all the sandwich bags to prevent them from creating even more chaos than boxes did, and I just used the same clear plastic bin I already had, but feel free to contain them in any bin, basket, bag, or box that you wish. The sandwich bags fit very loosely inside, so I still had room for my cans with loose leaf teas in the front. Make sure to use a container big enough for your collection – with room for expansion, of course!
