15 Reasons Why Every Mom Needs A Vacuum Sealer (Even If You’re Not That Into Cooking)
As a lover of all things food – and kitchen gadget-related, I’ve been known to sing the praises of my favorite appliances from time to time.
I cannot say enough wonderful things about my air fryer because it helps me get dinner on the table most nights of the week, reheats leftovers like a dream, and makes it possible to make things like these delicious air fryer donuts without the mess of a deep fryer.
My Instant Pot pressure cooker is one of my most-used appliances, making everything from a 90-minute from-frozen turkey breast to Crawfish Monica in a fraction of the time. (And if you’ve never done your red beans in your Instant Pot, you should try it — gone are the days of soaking your beans overnight!)
Most recently, I shared how our sous vide has been revolutionizing meal prep at our house. While you can absolutely use a sous vide without vacuum sealing your food first, it’s definitely a plus if you do. Don’t just take it from me — here’s another writer’s take on why you should own a sous vide.
Even if cooking isn’t really your thing, vacuum sealers are a relatively inexpensive investment – there are lots of highly-rated ones on Amazon for under $40. And with the multitude of *other* ways you can use it around your house, it just might become your favorite appliance!
1. For Sous Vide Cooking
Sous vide cooking is so hands-off and practically foolproof, it’s perfect for the “kitchen-challenged” among us. As I mentioned before, it’s great for meal prep.
2. Leftovers
I know, I know — leftovers require cooking. But I never said *you* had to be the one to cook them! Like this smart mama, you can buy your favorite dishes from local restaurants and freeze them too.
3. Save Money by Buying Bulk Dry Goods
If you’ve got a Sam’s or Costco membership, a vacuum sealer is invaluable. We buy dry goods like flour, sugar, rice, beans, and oatmeal in large packages (usually 20-25 pounds) and then spend a few minutes sealing it in gallon-sized vacuum bags. (It takes me about 10 minutes to divvy up a giant bag of flour or rice.) A quick online search shows a generic 2-pound bag of all-purpose flour is $2.39 at a local grocery store, but a 25-pound bag at Sam’s is only $9.98. That’s 2 cents an ounce for the bulk flour — and 7 cents an ounce at the grocery. Every penny counts nowadays when groceries are so expensive.
4. Save Even More Money by Buying Meats in Bulk
Lately, my husband has taken to purchasing a pork tenderloin at Sam’s for $14-18 and then cutting it into 3 or 4 smaller tenderloin “roasts” himself. (Yup, that’s 3 or 4 MEALS for our family for about $15.) We season or marinade as desired and vacuum seal them for the freezer. We also do this with large packages of chicken breasts and ground beef. My favorite way to use up our 10+ pound package of ground beef from Sam’s is to brown it with taco seasoning and vacuum seal it in portions big enough for a meal for our family. It’s Taco Tuesday on autopilot!
5. Re-seal Bags of Cereal, Crackers & Chips
You don’t even need special bags for this one! Just use the “seal” (not “vacuum seal”) function to seal the plastic bag the food came in after it’s opened. And never worry about finding a chip clip again!
6. Keep Your Perfectly Ripe Avocado Fresher Longer
If you luck out and happen to catch your rock-hard avocados in the 6-second window when they become perfectly ripe, did you know you can slice and vacuum seal them like that? We slice and immediately seal avocado halves in small pint-sized vacuum bags and keep them in the fridge to add to salads throughout the week. You can also freeze them like this, but the texture changes so they’re better for making guacamole or throwing into smoothies that way.
7. Mailing Care Packages with Baked Goods
A few years ago, I posted on my Facebook about making homemade Italian cookies with my mom. A few friends who’d moved away from New Orleans commented how much they missed Italian cookies, so I sent a few of them a few bags that I vacuum-sealed to preserve their freshness.
8. Children’s Clothing
Vacuum sealers can also help you fit more in a box. When we shipped some clothing to my in-laws in Colorado to cut down on the luggage we needed to travel with as we flew there with 3 (very!) small children, we vacuum sealed packages of clothing and packed the bags in a flat-rate shipping box. It was a game changer! This technique can also be applied to organizing and storing seasonal clothing like this.
9. Diapers
Speaking of traveling, we have also vacuum sealed bags of diapers to save room while packing for road trips and flights. I also like to keep a few diapers and a pack of travel wipes tucked away in each of our vehicles and having them vacuum sealed saves valuable trunk space.
10. Documents
While I’m a die-hard fan of the humble laminator, some papers are better un-laminated. Keep documents like social security cards and birth certificates safe and dry in a sealed vacuum bag.
11. Homemade Gel Ice Packs
Simply mix 2 parts water to 1 part rubbing alcohol along with a dash of liquid dish detergent, seal in a bag, and freeze. These are great for icing injuries or keeping drinks cold in a cooler. Make them as big or as small as you need.
12. Homemade Go-Gurts and Fruit Pouches
I don’t know about you, but my kids go through yogurt and applesauce pouches like there’s no tomorrow. We typically buy them at Sam’s to save money, but to save even more money, you could make and fill the individual tubes yourself with the help of a trusty vacuum sealer.
13. Paintbrushes
Whether you’re crafting or repainting a wall, you can vacuum seal a paintbrush with paint on it (on the “moist” setting) to use later. And any time I *don’t* need to clean a paintbrush is a win in my book.
14. Seeds
If you garden, vacuum sealing seeds is a great way to store, organize, and preserve seeds. My husband enjoys growing a lot of our garden’s veggies from seed, so he often uses the vacuum sealer to keep seeds from season to season.
15. Silver
I don’t wear as much silver jewelry as I used to, so I like to store it in vacuum sealed bags to prevent tarnishing. This is great for silverware as well.
