How many cotton tote bags can you really use? I have five, and that’s already too many

I have five cotton tote bags. Four are brand-logo totes, and one is a heart-patterned bag from the early 2000s that I’ve used ever since I got it as a magazine freebie. I use these bags for my workout gear and groceries.

I’m not familiar with the statistics, but I suspect many people own far more. For example, when the Finnish version of the British TV format Sort Your Life Out in Seven Days aired, they discovered that the home of Member of Parliament Fatim Diarra included 68 reusable bags!

Five bags might not sound like a lot, but it’s still more than I truly need—by about half. I’ve kept my collection small through deliberate effort. I categorically refuse promotional bags and won’t accept freebies. A pouch a clothing store offers as a bonus isn’t really a “free bag” so much as a marketing tactic that uses the customer’s shoulder for advertising.

I avoid reusable bags for two reasons. Cotton tote bags have a misleadingly eco-friendly reputation. Sure, it’s good to steer clear of single-use plastic bags, but if it’s your 69th cotton tote, it’s hardly an eco-friendly move. A Danish study suggests you’d have to use a cotton tote thousands of times before it’s more environmentally beneficial than a properly recycled plastic bag. Because a tote can easily last for years—or, like my heart-patterned one, for decades—you can’t realistically use dozens of bags that many times in one lifetime.

Secondly, I don’t want to keep anything unnecessary. It’s paradoxical to need a large storage box just for bags.

The biggest challenge to minimizing bags is remembering to bring one whenever I shop. If I forget, I try to manage without and stuff my purchases into my pockets. In a pinch, I’ll grab a plastic bag, since I’ll definitely reuse it later as a trash bag.

Tytti Kontula is the Editor-in-Chief of Kotona.