Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Orville Redenbachers Pop Up Bowl Microwave Popcorn

I have been seeing the dumb commercials for this, it looked like a good idea. However I did not mean to buy it, I just happened to grab the it without noticing.

  For some time now I have only eaten air popped popcorn but laziness won that day. We popped a bag the same day we bought it. Right away you notice that it takes about a minute less then other microwave popcorn to pop. This is because there is less popcorn then regular bags.  

My husband pulled off the side to make it a bowl the first few times we made it. I finally did it the other day and it wasn't as easy as he made it look. I ended up cutting the sucker off.  The side seams split to much when you pull the thing off.   they shouldn't have that red plastic stuff on both sides. I can see for the side that is torn off but it does not make a good bottom.  You would think it would keep the grease from getting on you and where you set the bowl but it doesn't.     If they could make it so your hand don't get greasy that would be nice. Until then I will continue to put it in a regular bowl.

I don't think I will buy this again, my main problem with it is the amount you get. We have to pop one bag per person, normally one bag will satisfy both of us but these are just to small.  The brand is good just not the Pop Up Bowl bags.

P.S. The dogs will eat the popcorn.  I switched to air popped popcorn when I gave my dog a piece and she would not eat it. That made me think "should I be eating it if the dog won't?"

Do Space Bags Really Save You Space?

While doing some “late” spring cleaning last year I decided to get some Space Bags. I am sure you have seen the TV commercials. Trying to get the best bang for my buck I got box of 12 (6 Extra-Large, 6 Large) from Amazon.com. For about $25 it was a good deal. If you buy for Space Bags website you get Medium, Cube and other size bags that I did not think I would need. I knew I would only need to big ones.


By the time the bags arrived I had my piles of stuff all sorted out and ready to go. The items ranged from blankets to stuffed animals. The Extra-Large bags were big enough to handle 2 comforters and then some. The one problem I had packing the Extra-Large bad was they are so long, my arms weren’t long enough to push stuff all the way to the end.

I packed one of the bags with craft stuff ( yarn, stuffing, material, etc..) Tip: don’t ball your yarn if you want to store it in one of these bags. It does not have and room to flatten out.

I used another bag for clothes, not sweaters, just regular clothes. Since they were not fluffy they did not have much air to suck out. But it did make it nice and tight for easy carrying and stacking with the other bags. However if I didn’t have so many bags I would not of wasted one on the clothes.

As much as they pleased me at first, there is some problems. The first problem was one of the bags was defective. It would not stay flat and kept filling with air. I re-vacuumed it a few times to make sure it wasn’t my fault it wasn’t working. I called the 800 number on the on the box and the rep was real nice and they sent me a replacement bag along with some free smaller bags for my trouble.

I like that they come in different colors, this could come in handy if you are storing stuff for different people. But because they only have color on one side to have to make sure the color side is up when you stack/store.

The light seems to wear them real fast, so keep them in a closet or some other dark place. I can’t say anything about storing them in a garage or how well they keep water and bugs from your stuff. So fr I haven’t found any in my stuff after taking it out but that could change.

They could be thicker and more flexible. I feel as if I am going to make holes in it if I move it to much. They do seem less delicate when vacuumed. The thickness became a major problem later on. I had the bags in a closest and our roommates cat viewed them as a scratching pole. While climbing and playing around them it put so many holes in them that they do not work anymore. I tried fixing them with different types of tape but no success. So in one hour (that is how long it took me to find the cat in my room) I lost half of my bags.

In the end I have mixed feeling about the Space Bags, I would say if you don’t have indoor cats and a dark place to store them they could serve as a good option for your stuff.