Ponder Post: How to Fold a Bag

This past weekend Frank and I went out to lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. The meal was good but my takeaway from the place was what I took away... my leftovers. This place was a bit classier than where we usually eat because they boxed up my leftovers for me instead of bringing out a container and having me dump the food in it by myself at the table. In the kitchen, the remaining food had been placed in a standard little white chinese takeout container.

A perk of this ordinary white Chinese takeout container was that it had no metal parts
and so could go directly into the microwave.

The waiter had placed the container in an ordinary brown paper bag. As he was walking toward our table he casually folded over the top and I was fascinated. Two simple creases and a curl and my bag was locked shut and had an adorable, functional, stylish, carrying handle. Call it Feng Shui, call it Origami, call it clean-line design principles, but I was hooked. Frank and I exchanged glances and I could see he'd been hooked, too. It may not look like much but here is the folded bag with the top locked in place. You can just slip a finger underneath the lip to carry it.

Here is our boxed and bagged leftovers...
complete with locked finger hold for convenient transport

Once home, I unfolded it carefully and took photos at each step. Here is how you do it. The first fold is made at 45° with the top edge aligned with the side edge, and the other side edge parallel to the bottom edge.

The first fold is at 45°.

Now here is the sneaky part. The second fold is offset and not symmetric like we scientific types might do. That peak at the top is biased to about a third from the left edge and not halfway.

The second fold is offset and at an approximately 30° angle.

Now the remaining part, the flap that is pointed down, is tucked up by just curling your fingers and accordian pleating it up under the first fold. You can see the crease lines in the preceding photo where the fold lines were for the tucked-in portion.

With the remaining flap curled under, the top is locked.

Voila ... or whatever the Chinese equivalent of voila is.  I am so glad it takes so little to keep us retired folks entertained!