We’ve been talking a lot about summer fun (can you blame us?!) lately. Today I thought I’d share my favorite uses for our Thirsties wet bags during summertime. Of course they’re ideal for and sold as dirty diaper containment on-the-go – which they’re AMAZING at. You’d be surprised at how little stinkiness sneaks out!

I’m so proud that my husband is the one who came up with the idea for this blog post. I know we use our wet bags for a bunch of uses, but he’s the one who reminded me how much easier it is to use them when we travel or make a trip to the beach. So, a shout-out to him for reminding me of all the cool ways we’ve used our Thirsties bags!

* In these examples, the wet bags have been cleaned to high heaven (and I often give the insides an additional wipe with a natural cleaning solution). They come clean really well and I’m honestly not concerned that there’s any huge germ/grossness factor since we roll up our cloth diapers pretty tightly and dump out as much poop as possible into the toilet, anyway. Just a little PSA. 😉

Swimsuit storage – The #1 alternative use for wet bags is to still use them for a “wet” purpose – namely, to contain swimsuits after some fun in a lake, pool, or water park. I’ll often pack the swimsuits dry into the wet bag (sometimes even splitting them up – one with my husband’s trunks and towel, one with my suit and towel, etc so that we just hand out the bag to each person to make changing easy) then we’ll toss the wet stuff back in when we’re done.

I pop this stuff right in the wash when we get home to avoid any mildewing or anything. Easy peasy!

Side note: Did you guys KNOW that Thirsties is releasing their own adorable swim diapers this week?!?! Check out their Facebook page for more details!!!

Compartmentalizing packing – Kind of like how I separate everyone’s swim stuff into a bag, I’ll use the wet bags to organize our luggage and car packing a bit. I’m not a crazy organizer, but I’ve found that putting things together – often times in a sturdy, space-saving wet bag – helps me put a hand on what we need way quicker and not have loose items rolling around the car.

So, this could be a bag for beach toys, a bag for fruit and other snacks. Any of those sticky, spillable things – the lotions, sunscreens, baby wash, toothpaste – often get their own bag. However it works for your needs, go for it.  

Activity bags – Like I just mentioned, having bags for certain tasks or items is super helpful. Well, putting kids’ favorite activities into their own bag (maybe assign each kid a different print or color) is another strategy we use to keep things not only contained but less stressful on trips.

An example would include favorite action figures for our older son, a mess-free marker coloring book (you know about those, right?? Lifesavers) and some extra paper for the imagination, a favorite book, and I usually grab a cheap “extra” toy or travel activity that’s brand new to them that adds an element of surprise (and gives us some extra quiet time from the backseat).

Dirty clothes – When I’m packing, I always make sure that we’ll have an extra wet bag (whether we pack it individually or we empty one along the way) that can contain dirty clothes. Now, I don’t normally do ALL the dirty clothes this way, but super stinky or gross items get their own bag – and by the end of the trip, any extra clean clothes tend to end up in their own CLEAN wet bag to avoid getting mixed in with the used stuff.

A quick picnic bag – Picnic baskets are such a sweet idea, but they’re not always a practical choice. If it’s a last-minute lunch at a park, we’ll often grab some items from the fridge (especially if we’ve got a kitchenette while traveling) that we can all split and just go. While it doesn’t work exactly like a cooler, it contains any moisture (like from a water bottle) and makes for a super portable meal.

I’ve also tossed frozen water bottles in a bag along with a couple of cool ones and they’ve stayed nice and cold all day (and recycled the plastic later – I prefer zero waste when possible, but sometimes we have to improvise when traveling).

There are seriously SO many ways you can use these things. An added bonus is that sometimes another parent will admire the print of my wet bag and it starts up a nice conversation about cloth diapers. 😉

We’d LOVE to hear your favorite uses for wet bags in the comments!