Making a Plastic Grocery Bag Dispenser!

For the 2015 Kitchen Utensil Challenge, I made a Plastic Grocery Bag Dispenser!  The challenge was to make any project for the kitchen and be creative.   In case you didn't notice, a bunch of us YouTube woodworkers have posted kitchen project videos to inspire you to make something for your kitchen.  No prizes, no trash talk, just FUN!  Watch this video to see how I replaced a large plastic bag full of small plastic bags with a space-saving dispenser.

This project is just a simple box with two holes in it, but I did have some basic requirements:

• It should fit in a small space and hold a lot of bags.
• The top hole should be be large for easy stuffing.
• I wanted to be able to grab a bag easily without looking.
• The holes and bags should be concealed and not visible.
• It should look nice and somewhat decorative.

Building the box was the easy part.  It measures about 24" tall x 11.25" wide x 5.5" deep.  The hole in the top is 3.5" in diameter.  The slot in the bottom is 1.5" wide x 6.5" long.  A rabbet is cut in the back of all four sides to recess the 1/4" plywood back.

I tossed around a few ideas about how to attach the box to the wall so it was flush and secure.  I thought about attaching it with screws through the top and bottom holes, but that seemed like it would be difficult.  I ended up making the front panel removable so I could drive screws through the box into plastic wall anchors.

The removable front panel is handy for cleaning, plus it inspired me to get creative with adding some decoration.  I used my Inventables Shapeoko 2 CNC Machine to carve Spring/Summer graphics on one side and Fall/Winter graphics on the other side.  Just flip it over when the seasons change!  I may paint the carved graphics to make them stand out more.

About 40 other woodworkers participated in the 2015 Kitchen Utensil Challenge and shared videos of their projects too!  Click here to watch a playlist of all the videos!  That should fill you up with enough inspiration to get into the workshop and make a kitchen-related project of your own!