Product (and Tip) of the Week: Damask Cotton Tote

I have one of these Damask Laminated Cotton Totes as a constant companion. Well, on weekdays anyway.

It started out as a lunch bag because it was large enough to carry just about anything. Which meant that when I only had seconds before I ran out the door, I didn't have to take the time to put my salad in a plastic container for lunch. I could just throw in the entire bag of salad, bottle of dressing and the whole loaf of French bread. Lunch: check!

And I still do that, but it has slowly morphed into something else as well…a shopping list! Yes, you read that right, a shopping list.

You see, I'm one of those people who love clever short cuts. Partly because they are such time savers, and partly because they satisfy the natural creative urge in me.

My friend laughed at me the other day when I got to work and started to unpack my tote because I had an empty bag of dog food in there! Some days I'll have an empty cream container or chicken bouillon jar or mustard bottle. I have a regular shopping list that lives on the fridge, and we all use it regularly. But when I'm cooking and I have tree things on at once and my hands are covered in flour, sometimes it's just easier to toss the empty ketchup bottle in my tote and add it to my shopping list when I get to work!

Do you have any clever time-saving tips like this that help you? Let me know in a comment!

Posted October 26, 2009, filed in Product of the week, New Products