Short answer: put them on a vertical surface. The underside of a cabinet is the only space in most kitchens nobody is already fighting over, and a bag box mounted there is both out of the way and easier to reach than one lying in a drawer.
Here is why the drawer never works, the four places people actually try, and the one step that decides whether a mounted dispenser stays up.
Bag boxes are the wrong shape for a drawer
Foil and cling wrap come in stiff, narrow boxes. They stand against each other, they hold their shape, and a drawer full of them stays tidy for months.
Bag boxes are different. They are wide, shallow and flimsy, the cardboard softens as the box empties, and the lid tears off within a week. Put three of them in a drawer and they collapse against each other, slide under the foil, and turn the whole drawer into something you have to dig through with two hands.
That is the real problem. It is not that you own too many bags. It is that the box they come in was designed to sit on a shop shelf, not to live in your kitchen.
The four places people put them
In the drawer with the foil and wrap. The default, and the reason you are reading this. Works for about a week after you tidy it.
On a cupboard shelf. Better, because the boxes stay upright if you stand them on their ends. Worse, because you need shelf depth you probably want for food, and you cannot see which size you are grabbing until you have pulled the box out.
In a counter caddy. Everything is visible and reachable, which is genuinely the best part of this option. The cost is counter space, and counter space in a small kitchen is the most expensive real estate you own.
Under a cabinet. The bags leave the drawer and the counter entirely and live in the dead air underneath the upper cabinets — a space almost nobody uses for anything. You see the sizes through the front, and you pull one bag out with two fingers.
That last one is what we built the Ziplock Bag Dispenser for. It holds the bags front-facing so you can see the size before you reach, and the front opening releases one bag at a time instead of three.
What fits, and what does not
It takes quart, sandwich and snack bags. One-gallon bags do not fit — they are too large, and no amount of folding makes them work. If gallon bags are the ones cluttering your drawer, this is not the fix, and we would rather say so here than have you find out after it arrives.
It is not brand-specific. Any standard quart, sandwich or snack food-storage bag loads the same way, store brand included.
You can mount it under a cabinet, or inside one beneath a shelf if you would rather the bags were hidden but still one-handed to reach.
The step that decides whether it stays up
Besides the dispenser, four things come in the box: 3M tape, a wet alcohol wipe, a dry wipe, and four screws.
The order matters. Wipe the spot with the wet alcohol wipe first — cabinet undersides collect a film of cooking grease you cannot see, and tape will not hold to it. Dry it with the second wipe. Then apply the tape and press the dispenser up firmly.
The screws are in the box for a reason as well. The tape holds on its own, but screws hold better and for longer, and that is what we would use if you are not planning to move it.
The design is patented — US D1,136,654.
When this is the wrong call
If you have a deep drawer you are happy with and you keep one box of bags, leave it alone. This solves a problem you do not have.
And if your kitchen runs on gallon bags, see above — it will not take them.
Questions people ask
Does it fit 1-gallon bags? No. Quart, sandwich and snack only.
Does it work with store-brand bags? Yes. Any standard quart, sandwich or snack bag.
Can I mount it inside a cabinet instead of under it? Yes — under a shelf inside a cabinet works well, and the bags stay out of sight.
Do I have to use the screws? No. The 3M tape holds it. The screws are included for a longer-term hold and we recommend them if the dispenser is staying put.
Do I need to buy anything else? No. Tape, wipes and screws are all in the box.
Where else could I put the bags? If none of this suits your kitchen, the four options above cover the realistic choices — and the same thinking applies to any awkward cabinet, which we went through in how to fit more mugs in a kitchen cabinet.
