BS (that's "Before Spinner") I would pick, wash, place in strainer to drip dry. Then put 2-3 layers of paper towels over a tea towel and spread the lettuce leaves out on it.
Roll up jelly roll style to remove more water.
I store in the green bags or containers and find it does keep a little longer.
I often make a large salad (with all the add-ins like onions, peppers, other veggies, NO tomatoes) and store that in a container for a couple of days too.

I've heard about people putting the washed lettuce in an old pillow case and taking it outside and swinging it around (Human spinner) to remove the water too.
Can't say as I've tried that, but I'm rather lazy!!
:)

Deanna

I wash and spin in a mechanical spinner, then store in the crisper in the 'green bags' too. I'm not sure why they work but I'm finding vegetables, greens, berries will keep a little longer for me....have been pleased enough with them I even bought a few of the 'green lidded boxes' but so far I find I rarely remember to use those!

I've done the human spin (just my arm, not my potentially dizzy body) with a T-towel of greens, and in the kitchen, not outside. They aren't so wet they will fling water everywhere :)

I wash, give 'em a spin in the salad spinner, put them in a Ziploc Freezer Bag, put a dry paper towel on top of lettuce, close bag 9/10th the way, squeeze out excess air and then finish closing. Lettuce stays fresh for a LONG time this way. The paper towel absorbs the moisture from the lettuce yet keeps the humidity up. Every time you open the bag to remove lettuce, put the same paper towel back on top & squeeze the air out -- try it -- it works!

Every time I've washed my lettuce first it gets limp.

So now I store it as above: in a plastic bag almost fully shut with a dry paper towel wrapped around it. Then I was when I'm ready to use it.

Nww I'm wondering if maybe I didn't take the extra time to dry it really well first.... but then again, if not washing it first saves a little extra time, maybe I'll keep doing it.

Thank you for the ideas. I think DH is going to use this as an excuse to buy paper towels. For me, washing first saves a tremendous amount of time. It is much, much easier for me to be able to wash them when it is convenient and then when I need them, which is generally a hectic period, I can just grab what I want. At dinner time, it is either crazy around here or I am just too tired to mess with it. I am adding ziplocs and paper-towels to my Wal-Mart list now.

If you want to go a little "greener", use a black and white sheet of newsprint from a section of the paper you don't read. It will be pretty sterile (emergency baby birth receiver)and it will absorb extra moisture. I NEVER wash any vegetable before storage in this method. Lettuce (romaine) up to a month and beets 3 months easy.
Jim in So Calif

My cooking show hero AB (Alton Brown) stores fresh herbs in his fridge for several days by laying out the herbs on a moistened paper towel, and then starting at one end, rolling up the paper towel and stashing in a ziplock bag for up to a week. I've tried it, and it worked ok for me, none of my herbs browned, blackened, or turned to mush on me, and I can't see why this wouldn't work for lettuce, seems like a logical jump to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Oh, bother

I also never wash lettuce until I am just about to use it. I just put the whole lettuce in a plastic bag. Twirl the bag so it gets puffed up like a balloon but with the top twisted tight and put it in the fridge. I only wash the amount I am going to eat immediately. I am convinced that any washing, spinning or removal of leaves before the very last minute destroys the flavour because it bruises the leaves and begins the breakdown of the tissue. Washing lettuce as and when it's needed is hardly difficult. I just part fill the sink with very cold water and sloosh the leaves thoroughly - takes a minute or two and the pay off is lettuce with taste.

You can use a lint free dish towel instead of paper towel if you'd like. If you store your lettuce in a bowl put the towel on top then store the bowl in frig upside down so towel is at the bottom.

We've spun dry a few ways:

Washing machine:
spin cycle only in a zippered closed lingerie bag. The size of the bag determines how much lettuce you can spin dry. We never did a rinse.

salad spinners:
We gave our hole in the bottom spinner to our daughter & hubby because we have a fancy Pampered Chef one that you pump on the lid to get the spinner going. It has a stop button, too. The water collects in the bowl. It has taken awhile to adapt to a new method. This one is larger & we can spin dry just a little bit more lettuce because we no longer drain directly into the sink.

If I have a lot of lettuce to spin dry I go back to the washing machine method because it's fast. Sometimes more simple still works best.

Just washed some lettuce up tonight. Rinsed in sink full of water. drained in a colander then split the batch into two gallon zip lock baggies. Left room for air - so the bags are a bit puffy. Will drain excess water off in the morning. This method works for me. Grab a handful of clean greens for salads when needed. Keeps quite a while in the fridge.

Thank you for all the responses. I will use a flour sack towel in the bags as that is what I use for most things. My spinner was an OXO one that you pumped and had a stop button, but it broke. They seem to have a life about 4 years here and then go kapooey.

I couldn't live without a spinner.

When I pick heads of lettuce, I store them unwashed in the jumbo sized ziplocks, down in the basement refrigerator. Around June, it gets to be pretty well full of lettuce as I pick ahead of imminent bolting.

As I run out of lettuce, I bring up heads of each variety, wash them and spin, then store in the kitchen refrigerator in the green ziplocks, ready for use.