transporting HEAVY groceries from parking lot to condo

[tranquility]

I'm pretty much condo-4-life but one HUGE disadvantage vs a house is that I don't have the convenience of just lugging my groceries quickly from the garage straight into my house, rather, it's usually quite a trek from the communal garage to one's apartment. Many times, it's not a big deal as I don't buy crazy amounts but once in a while it's a pain.

So, just wondering if you fellow condo ppl have good ideas of what to do when you buy lots of/heavy groceries, did you buy a nifty foldable trolley/cart that stores in your vehicle's trunk? Use large backpacks? I just have some decent-sized recycle bags and can carry 3 or 4 of them but that's how I threw out my shoulder a couple of times and why I want something that doesn't put heavy strain on my arms, so maybe an ideal solution is some cart thing.

TIA for the brainstorm.

[540iSUP]

My parents have this issue as well. They use a foldable dolly or wagon when they do their Costco runs. Or, if I'm around, I turn into the dolly.

[RickFLM4]

I complain about this when we visit our condo in NC. It is a small 1 BR so not a lot of room to store carts.

I have a foldable dolly, which is good for things like cases of bottled beverages or large boxes / packages. I also have some InstaCrates (check Costco or Walmart) that can be used to pack with grocery bags and then stacked on the dolly, if necessary. I use these more when transporting something from home in FL to NC in the trunk.

Someone in the building had a metal cart they let others use, but I have seen people hauling garbage bags with it so I pass on that one for groceries and it is too big and bulky to get one of our own.

[Tommy-G]

I have seen people using carabiners like this

[vreihen16]

When I was living in apartments back when I was younger, I had an "old lady" shopping cart for moving stuff in/out and across the complex to the laundry room:




.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

When I was living in apartments back when I was younger, I had an "old lady" shopping cart for moving stuff in/out and across the complex to the laundry room:

My mom used to use something like that to bring groceries home from the market and to take laundry to the local laundromat.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by Esteban

My mom used to use something like that to bring groceries home from the market and to take laundry to the local laundromat.

My great-grandmother also used to have one for walking trips to the grocery store.....

[DocL]

Even having a garage, I keep a small folding dolly in all of my cars along with one of those folding milk crate type things. I hate carrying the big paper towel packages and anything heavy.

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

When I was living in apartments back when I was younger, I had an "old lady" shopping cart for moving stuff in/out and across the complex to the laundry room:




.

I was thinking something like that but unfortunately that one is too small. I dunno if there is something realistic for my situation as dunno how much larger they can make those carts.

[ryan stewart]

Surprised the condo HOA doesn't have shopping carts

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by ryan stewart

Surprised the condo HOA doesn't have shopping carts

It's a good idea but not everyone of them has this…

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by tranquility

I was thinking something like that but unfortunately that one is too small. I dunno if there is something realistic for my situation as dunno how much larger they can make those carts.

There's plenty of other options, and I'm sure that some of them are beefy and with big wheels if you spend up a little bit above Wal-Mart prices.

I haven't used one in ages, but am wondering if a golf club caddy with turf wheels can fold up in a trunk and have a folding basket added onto it?????

[3.0L]

Maybe this:

https://www.supermarketnews.com/reta...north-carolina

[tcphoto]

I went on a fifteen year stretch of living in lofts, the first building had a couple shopping carts and they came in handy. The last building was not well equipped but within the first week of moving in a perfect example of a shopping cart appeared in the parking lot, I snatched it up like a $20 bill lying on the sidewalk. It also came in handy when loading and unloading photo gear in the car.

[overcoil]

We do have elevators but we never use them. My gf sometimes uses canvass tote bags with a wide shoulder strap.
We also tend to go grocery shopping often so each trip is very manageable.
Plus now I’m doing my grocery shopping on a motorcycle so I’m backpack capacity.

[iminhell1]

Make multiple trips?
Ya are kinda getting that middle aged spread ...



I keep seeing those folding wagons. But for the money they want, I can make another trip to the car. Hell the Harbor Freight one is $80. Nope.
As pathetic of an attempt as it is, I try to not use any plastic bags. So I'll bring my own fabric ones. Hold more and that makes bigger trips a little easier to carry in one go. but when a guy buys TP and basically anything else, it's 2 trips.

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by iminhell1

Make multiple trips?
Ya are kinda getting that middle aged spread ...



I keep seeing those folding wagons. But for the money they want, I can make another trip to the car. Hell the Harbor Freight one is $80. Nope.
As pathetic of an attempt as it is, I try to not use any plastic bags. So I'll bring my own fabric ones. Hold more and that makes bigger trips a little easier to carry in one go. but when a guy buys TP and basically anything else, it's 2 trips.

I guess I'm 'lazy' and want to move it all in one go.

I never use plastic bags anymore, so have those recycle ones and some are a fair(big) size, probably like 1/3 size of hockey bags. I fill them up at the grocery store and use their cart to get to the car but after that I prefer not to unload some of the stuff and make more trips to my apt.

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by Tommy-G

I have seen people using carabiners like this

Originally Posted by Tommy-G

I have seen people using carabiners like this

[IMG]https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ebf62.jpg[/IMG]

[dtox9]

When we lived in a condo / it was on the 3rd floor - no elevator.......

We started out (like most) with the roller carts.... even splurged on a fancy as-seen-on-tv cart with the triad of wheels so it could be mitigated up the stairs with little effort (not).

We ended up with the shopping bags from IKEA,
and never looked back..... used them religiously for two years!!

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/frakta-...blue-17228340/

I know you're looking for options that save your shoulders....
I don't know of anything like that short of a backpack design that distributes the weight across both shoulders at once, perhaps.

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

plenty of collapsible wagon carts on amazon

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by dtox9

When we lived in a condo / it was on the 3rd floor - no elevator.......

We started out (like most) with the roller carts.... even splurged on a fancy as-seen-on-tv cart with the triad of wheels so it could be mitigated up the stairs with little effort (not).

We ended up with the shopping bags from IKEA,
and never looked back..... used them religiously for two years!!

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/frakta-...blue-17228340/

I know you're looking for options that save your shoulders....
I don't know of anything like that short of a backpack design that distributes the weight across both shoulders at once, perhaps.

Tx, this might be the interim solution for me, I remember they have good shoulder straps so I can hang them there (I wrecked my shoulder by carrying them the usual way w arm outstretched).


To the other poster, I tried searching Amazon for foldable carts but nothing w/i my $50 range...I saw a good-sized one but they want 3x that, too much for my purposes/not worth it.

[unluky]

Try..........