Life hack: how to untie a knot on a bag if it’s pulled tight

For most people, unraveling a bag of tangerines or sweets is a real quest. And to do this without breaking your nails or tearing the thin polyethylene is quite a miracle. However, there is an easy way to untangle any knot in one minute. To get to the delicacy, you don’t need any improvised tools or specialized devices - only the dexterity of your own hands.

How to quickly and easily untie a knot on a bag?

Nodes are different:

• in the form of a loop through which the upper part of the bag is pulled;
• in the form of a connecting node, when the “ears” of the package are connected to each other once or twice.

Accordingly, these knots should be untangled in different ways.

Loop knot

It is the most difficult to untie, so you often have to act radically - cut the packaging with scissors and, if necessary, transfer the contents to another container.

However, inventive people have come up with a trick that can be used to deal with even a very tight noose. Here's what to do:

1. If the bag is not very heavy (up to 500–600 g), lift it by the upper end, push it lightly, and it will begin to twist under its own weight. Clockwise or counter-clockwise - it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that next to the knot the thin polyethylene sheet begins to curl into a dense solid strand.
   
2. When the tourniquet has almost completely lost its flexibility and softness, lower the bag onto a table or other surface and begin to push the tourniquet through the knot.Then pick up the resulting loop with your finger and straighten it. Done - the bag is untied!
   

If the weight of the contents exceeds half a kilo, it is dangerous to twist the bag in the manner described above - the loop will tighten more and more. However, this is not a reason to look for scissors. You just have to spend not one minute, but two, manually twisting the upper or lower part of the bag into a bundle.

Connection node

It is untied in a similar way:

1. Twist one “ear” with a tourniquet and push it through the knot.
   
2. If there are several nodes, repeat the same operation again.
3. Release the ends of the bag.
   

That's all, there is no need to cut the bag.

Questions and answers

What to do if you still can’t untie the knot?

In 99% of cases, the method described above works successfully. But if you don't succeed, try widening the loop first. As a rule, this is done with sharp objects: the teeth of a fork, keys, kebabs, knitting needles, and the tips of ballpoint pens. All of them “injure” the polyethylene, as a result of which the integrity of the packaging is compromised, which, in turn, complicates the untying process. It is much better to use ice cream sticks or closed scissors with rounded edges.

How to tie a bag so that there are no problems with untying it later?

The simplest option is a self-tie knot on the bag. It's very easy to do:

1. Wrap the loose part of the plastic around two fingers placed together to form a loop.
2. Then wrap the remaining tail around the base of this loop and pinch it between your fingers.
3. Pull the clamped end through the loop so that the “tail” is inside and tighten the loop. You cannot pull the “tail” out.

Now, in order to untie the bag, just pull the “tail”.

Do not rush to tear or cut the package if you cannot untie it. The life hack you just learned about will certainly help you not only get to the contents, but also maintain the appearance of the package.