I always had a Dopp kit packed as a kid because my dad demanded it. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it was kind of like a duffel-bag, with the 2 inch wide nylon straps, except rather than 3+ feet long, 2 feet wide and 18 inches high it was about 10 inches long, 7 inches wide and 5 inches high, but had the canvas straps…
just kind of caught me off guard his weekend, when me dad who hasn’t talked to me in 15 years took the phone away from my Parkinson’s afflicted mom and asked me if I had a Dopp kit ready
I didn’t encounter the term until I met my wife; it’s the term that she (and her friends) use for a small bag (usually zippered) which one uses to pack toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, razor, etc.) when traveling. They typically have the dimensions that you describe (about 10"x7"x5"), but until I met my wife, I just called it a “toiletry bag” or “toiletry kit.”
My understanding is that it’s a toiletry bag, containing the stuff you need for bathing, shaving, brushing your teeth and whatever other personal grooming you do. When I was young, I’d put my usual toothbrush and razor in there when I was packing for a trip but long ago started keeping a duplicate set of everything in there, so it’s ready to go at all times.
Not that particular term, but like the ones above me, I know the same thing by a different name - a ditty bag. Just a general toiletries bag.
I’ll have one packed when I go on a trip, but don’t keep one ready at all times. It wouldn’t take long to assemble, after all.
71 yo Midwestern grandmother of two, left to my druthers I call that a Dopp kit. If I get a funny look I say ‘toiletry’ bag, but my preference is Dopp kit. I read a lot of novels as a kid, I’m sure that’s where I got it. Mine is packed at all times, I just have to put in my meds and hearing aid gear, zip it and off I go.
In case anyone’s wondering why “Dopp kit”, here’s what Wikipedia has to say, “Dopp kit is a term particularly in use in the US for toiletry bags. The name derives from the early 20th century leather craftsman Charles Doppelt, whose company designed the case in 1926.”
Oh, you mean an Etui… I have one smaller than that, zipper, no straps, plastic-lined fabric. Keeps toiletries from migrating all around in mi main carry-all.
I think the first time I heard about dopp kits was when my older brother went to college, then the Navy. Then, when I went to college I had my own. But they didn’t have straps, like the OP described.
I wondered what a dopp kit was, that’s why I came in.
Now that I know it’s what I grew up knowing as a “shaving”(for men) or “make up”(for women) kit, I’m curious. Any idea where the term “dopp” comes from? Manufacturers name? Acronym maybe?
Also, yes, I have one, partially ready, just gotta toss in a razor and good to go.
Yup, my dad had a Dopp kit. I never knew how it was spelled; I thought maybe it was a dob kit or something. But I can still see his in my mind’s eye - it was very sturdy leather and he had the same one for years, probably for decades.
Never called it a Dopp or even heard of that term today. I developed my own in my teens, we did quite a bit of traveling, and it acquired a pipe wrench and a good shower head with the flow restrictor removed as I was tired of the piss poor showers that were common back then.
According to Wiki, “Dopp kit is a term particularly in use in the US for toiletry bags. The name derives from the early 20th century leather craftsman Charles Doppelt, whose company designed the case in 1926.”
I grew up with that being a gendered word. Men had a dopp kit, which was typically made of leather, with a zipper at the top and it was one big compartment. Women had a toiletry bag, which might be fabric (or vinyl) with a lot of pockets and compartments to keep things organized. They ended up flatter than the roughly tubular dopp kits.
I now have a sort of hybrid one, sewn of fabric, shaped like a dopp kit with a main zipper on top, but with pockets inside and out to keep things separate.
Dad was an airline pilot. He traveled lots. He had one. Of that specific brand; said so on the bottom. As a kid I didn’t have one, my toiletry stuff just lived in a drawer in the bathroom the kids used. But we used the term “Dopp kit” to refer to his / them generically.
Once I went off to college I got one too, although a vinyl cheapie, not the real thing in leather. Since then I’ve always used the term “shaving kit”, although that’s by far the minority of the gizmos and goops that live in there.
Once I started airline flying I realized the Dopp-knockoff kit was much larger than it needed to be. In the interest of miniaturizing all my suitcase crap I bought a “ballistic nylon” zippered book cover designed for typical paperbacks; so about 6"x8"x1.5", maybe 15% of the volume of the traditional Dopp kit. It’s well-stuffed, but everything fits and it opens as a full butterfly so is easy to find stuff in.
Found it at K-Mart of all places; probably cost $4.97 or something. That darn thing refuses to die. It lives in my suitcase to this day and has logged a LOT of miles in ~30 years. When I retire it’ll still live in the suitcase for my hoped-for life of frequent travel in back instead of up front.
My duplicate stay-at-home stuff sits in a couple of kitchen drawer organizer trays in a drawer in my bathroom.
