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There are two camps of people: those who have zero tote bags and those who have more than one. No one owns a single tote bag. It’s like books. Once you have one, you’re gonna want more. (This is all super scientific and factual, of course!)
It got me thinking about tote bags and where they originated, which led me down a rabbit hole where I ended up collecting some fun, actual facts for you (according to the sources I linked to)! Tote literally means “to carry by hand,” and the first known use of the word was in 1677. So, tote bags are appropriately named items to lug all your things around in. And by things, I mean books. But you can use it for other stuff, too, if you must.
In the 1940s, LL Bean jumped into the tote bag game when they created a canvas bag to help with all the ice bag lugging that was apparently common in Maine. The long-standing NY bookstore, The Strand, has even smartly been in the tote bag business for decades, having “offered over 100 original tote designs, ranging from political to whimsical.” And now, in the year 2023, Harper’s BAZAAR has declared that High-fashion tote bags are everywhere, and they actually make a great investment.
I personally like my totes to fall into at least one category: fun, funny, clever, unique, or bookish. So off to Etsy I went to find you a great selection of Halloween tote bags to carry your stuff around in with the Halloween spirit in mind — whether you are only spirited in the month of October or all year.
Murder Cat Tote Bag ($30): It’s the “what?” that really kills me because if you’ve ever known a cat, you’ve watched it do something terrible while looking you dead in the eye and challenging you or like it’s not doing anything at all wrong.
Dracula tote bag ($32): “Once again…welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.”
If you are in the can’t-have-enough-tote-bags camp, here’s a roundup of bookish ones!
