My mother is a devoted fan of Good Morning America, and so my moving back home during the pandemic has often meant eating my Honey Nut Cheerios at the breakfast table listening to the upbeat chatter of Robin Roberts, Michael Strahan, and Tory Johnson. Thursdays are a particularly religious experience for her, since that’s the day “Deals & Steals” comes on. Before the segment (or my cereal) is finished, she’s usually already bought whatever they were hawking, whether it was socks, phone cases, or reusable makeup wipes.
Probably one of the handiest things she found from the show is something called Gripstics, industrial-strength chip clips that my family uses on anything and everything that comes in a bag. Before Gripstics, we always used traditional chip clips to keep things fresh — or, to be more accurate, kind of fresh. No matter how tight you try to roll the bag, you never get an airtight seal, especially when you have to fold up most of the bag to save those last few pretzels. And unless you don’t mind your frozen vegetables or Trader Joe’s potstickers encrusted in ice, chip clips are even more worthless in the freezer.
This assorted set should handle most things you’re trying to seal, but you can also buy small, medium, and large sets. Even if you don’t have the perfect length, my family found that it doesn’t actually matter. If the Gripstic doesn’t span the last little bit of the bag, by holding the fold down tightly, it still keeps whatever you’re sealing plenty fresh.
Gripstics are different. They’re more like zippers. They look like straws and come in various lengths. To use them, you make a single fold in the bag, then slide the straw across the top. It automatically pinches down tight, forming what is essentially a new factory seal. We use them on chips, obviously, along with nearly everything in our freezer, and big bags of pet food. Before COVID, I even used them on paper bags of leftover Chipotle tortilla chips.
But it doesn’t stop with food. If something comes in a bag, it can be sealed with a Gripstic. I use them in my garden to keep bags of potting soil moist, and after a terrible accident that involved hundreds of tiny cherry-tomato seeds flying everywhere, I started using Gripstics to lock those little paper seed pouches tight. I’ve used them to keep fancy face-mask samples from drying out before I could reuse them, and once, after “accidentally” opening a bubble mailer full of loose candy meant for my sister, the only thing I could think to do was slide on a Gripstic. (It didn’t cover my tracks, but it did keep the rest of the candy from spilling out.)
The company also sells waterproof pouches for your phone and bigger options with handles that can carry up to 50 pounds. We don’t own those yet, probably because Tory didn’t mention them specifically in her segment, but I’m sure we’ll find a reason to buy them soon enough.
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