Enhanced Shopping Bag Holder

BACKGROUND

Several new cars do have a shopping bag hooks in the trunk - which is great! Unfortunately the implementation is quite often less than optimal. Hooks can be too small, the shape can be something that cuts the bags, hooks might be too high etc.

Good news is that these shortcomings are easy to overcome and the result will work great! If you want to look the benefits from the project point of view, this will be a nice project that does scale well (depending on how much time you have to spend on it).

I'm using my wife's 2015 Ford Fiesta as an example on this instructable. Same principles work on other cars with the shopping bag holders + with a small modification you can apply this easily to any car.

This project can be done with a very basic set of tools. Also, you can always improvise on how to attach the hook set in the original shopping bag holder if you don't feel comfortable on drilling a hole in the car.

Tools

• drill (cordless drill makes it easier)
• drill bits (make sure those are in good condition)
• pocket knife

Parts

• hook kit - this is also something you can easily build from plywood or 3d print. I will look into building a new instructable later this fall about how to build one so stay tuned!

Note: One of the 1st things you might want to do is to measure the diameter of the rubber band that comes with the hook. Mine was roughly 8mm.

This part is something where you might need to adjust based on what kind of setup you car has. At the end the important thing is that you have a hole (without sharp edges) that is a bit larger in diameter than the rubber band in your hook set.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Pay attention to make sure that the hole does not break your original shopping bag hook. If it looks that enlarging the hole will make the original hook too fragile, you need to come up with a new idea. Use the drill bit (that is +1-2mm bigger than the diameter of your rubber band) to estimate what is the impact of the hole. DO NOT DRILL IF IT LOOKS TO BE TOO FRAGILE AFTER DRILLING A HOLE.

STEPS

1. Use a small 3-4mm drill bit to drill a hole in the middle of the original shopping bag hook.
2. Select a drill bit that is 1-2mm larger that the diameter of the rubber band from your hook set (see my note from tools & parts -section). Mine was approx. 8mm in diameter so I used a 9mm drill bit.
3. Enlarge the small hole using the larger drill bit.
4. Finish the edges of the hole with a pocket knife so that it doesn't have any sharp edges.

Installing the hook set is simple

1. Thread the rubber band from the hook set through the whole you drilled in Step 1
2. Estimate with a shopping bag where to tie a knot in the rubber band i.e. put a full shopping bag in the trunk and make sure that the bag does stand in the trunk. Make sure that the bag does not hang in the air from the hook set. This will break your rubber band.

That's it! I hope you liked this instructable. I will add another instructable soon about how to build a hook set for cheap (or maybe I just say by yourself. Hook set I purchased was less than EUR 5,-).