Spading sand into bags ... single handedly

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Anyone developed an efficient way to spade sand or gravel into builders' bags, without getting a neighbour or family member to hold the bag for you?

I often find I end up with half a jumbo bag that's just in the way, and the easiest thing is to put it into small bags for 'storage', but often there's not a helpful pair of hands available.

Be interested if anyone's perfected a simply frame to clip the bag to.

Yes it's true ... I'm Billy no-mates.
 
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We usually roll the top of the bag over a couple of times as this allows you to keep the bag open.
Grab the shovel one handed near the neck and hold the bag with t'uther and shovel in small scoops at first. Once the bag contains a bit of weight, it can then be positioned so that you can shovel straight into it.
 
Cut the bottom of a bucket and stand it in the bag. A domestic sized bucket works best. A builders bucket or the green device sold by garden centres are too big.
Frank
 
Thanks nose. Yes I sometimes do that myself.

I suppose I'm asking for an inanimate assistant.

The 'folding the neck over' trick never seems as efficient as it could be. Perhaps I need to practice.
 
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I've just shifted 10 bags of ballast/sand on my own and rebagged it. I used some lengths of 10mm rebar in the ground to open up the bags through the straps. Start small and make sure that the material gets a good coverage at the bottom of the bag then fill up.

On my own, the bags end up only holding about 3/4 of what was in the original bag so they're more squat. It helps if you have a few spare bags to move the material across with.
 

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