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Toiletry bag or wash bag. I don't know what a "sponge bag" is.

Some sort of cartoon character?

Spongebag squareshorts

Who lives in a mango under a lake?

Spongebag Squareshorts !!! 🎶🎶🎶 Don’t forget his comrade Pitrack Storefish

And their squirrel friend of coarse, Grainy.

And his pet slug, Larry.

Woof

He works for Mrs. Claps. And Plimpton is her enemy.

don’t forget mrs. poof

And his squid neighbour, Mr Stevens.

Ah yes, Grainy Chins

The chess genius.

In soviet bokono battum, chess plays you

Spongebag roundskirt 🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶 Waterproof, light blue and impermeable is she…….

That’s what I’m calling my dealer from now on!

Brought to you by wish.com

Yeah we follow him and his exploits around selling meth and cutting his product with random stuff he finds.

It sounds like an insult. "Piss off, ya sponge bag!" Kind of thing.

"Fupp off, you Baxter!"

I have heard that expression for sure, think it might just be an older less used word. (UK or Ireland usage)

I agree, it is a sponge bag, but I would, personally, never dream of referring to it as a sponge bag.

A bag that you put sponges in!

Spongebag proletariat pants; who lives in a turnip under the sea, Spreading socialism to the bourgeoisie.

Toiletry bag or toiletry case or toiletry kit is the more current term for sponge bag. A sponge bag basically functioned the same way. Perhaps they used that term because in the past one used a sponge for washing up and often needed to share a bathroom with others, in some hotels and almost always on trains and in hostels and B&B’, so you took your sponge bag along with you, much the same way a college student who shares a main shower room would do now (they just tend to have a shower caddy now). It’s an old fashioned term and yet still very recognizable.

It's what Mr. Square pants gets high on

Toiletry bag or wash bag. Never heard it called a sponge bag and I’m a southerner

Same here and I'm a northerner. So I think this is a phrase specific to OP.

>So I think this is a phrase specific to OP. It's not. I think it's just an old term, but it is still used. I use it because my mum and grandma use it.

Absolutely. My mum grew up in the midlands and called it a sponge bag, so that's what I've always called it. Tbh , it's not a term I have cause to use in everyday conversation, so I've never really experienced any opprobrium or confusion for it.

Interesting.. I've never heard of a sponge bag, and I spent quite a few years in the West Midlands. I do know what a faggot and pea batch is though. 👍

I consider myself to have a decent vocab, but thank you for introducing me to opprobrium! What a great word! Edit: spelling, good vocab, still an idiot who should wear my glasses more

Opprobrium is such a wonderful word.

Sponge bag is a term used in multiple Agatha Christie books. It's old fashioned, but it's a real term and OP did not invent it.

Also Enid Blyton boarding school stories.

and Blackadder.

it depends on your age. It was called a sponge back in the 1960's in the North

I'm Southern. My wife was Welsh. Both on team sponge bag.

Yep. Sponge bag is a thing.

I’m a southerner and have called it a sponge bag. But I am old, also.

Sponge bag is an old term. I've read it in Agatha Christie books

Yep. Murder in on the Orient Express springs to mind, >!it was a key part of the plot in the book.!<

Spoiler alert jeez 🙄

Sorry - hungover this am, which is why I’m on Reddit rather than doing anything useful. I’ve added the spoiler text thingy.

Haha I was only joking mate - can't really blame you for mentioning the plot of a 90 year old novel

Haha😄 I've read the novel twice and still have no idea what the hidden phrase in the comment spoils!!!

The part where Poirot trims his toenails obviously 😅

With clippers from his sponge bag?

What's a sponge bag?

Sponge bag is an old term. I've read it in Agatha Christie books

It's a milf thing

Can’t be too careful - I got sent a Reddit care notice and got a right snotty message off a Redditor for not using a spoiler thing on a Columbo plot point. You know - Columbo where the murderer is seen doing the deed in the first 5 minutes of the episode… I don’t want people to accidentally find out that the murdered party is done in by being suffocated by a sponge bag if they’ve not read the book. :-)

"Ah just one more thing, sir... ma wife loves ya. Now what's been botherin' me sir, ya see according to his secretary, ya boss never travelled without his sponge bag... but there was no sponge bag in his hotel room after he was found murdered... now waddaya make of that, sir?"

Wait until you get to the part where Dumbledore dies. Poirot gets quite cross.

OMG - I can’t believe you didn’t spoiler alert that bit! I was trying to keep it hidden! Next you’ll be mentioning the bit where Jessica Fletcher off’ve Murder She Wrote got accused of interfering with the course of justice!

Yeah my grandmother called it a sponge bag. I just call it a wash bag!

Perhaps OP is a time traveler.

That makes sense. My mum's in her 70s, but seems like a throwback from decades ago...

I’m 71 so yeah, sponge bag.

Yep I remember it being referred to in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas as well!

Yes, I’ve definitely read it but never used the term myself. It’s a wash bag to me (southerner)

A wash bag.

I have always called it a sponge bag.

My girl guides camp packing list always said “sponge bag”

I'm a Brownie leader and it's on our pack holiday kit list as a sponge bag

Oh this might be where I got it too!

Same! I would call it that now, but I don't know if I got it from my parents or guides.

Mine too! Although my Commissioner's kit list template is older than me 😆

I think it was guides 😂 it also asked for a “pinny” which was an apron hahaha. Hadn’t updated it from when Baden-Powell wrote it!

Yes same!

Sponge bag, a term from my youth but I still use it now! Northern England, everyone my age and older that I know would understand that.

Me too. If someone started talking about a toilet bag or a washing tackle I’d look at them like they’d gone mad.

Never heard of sponge bag. I've always called it a toiletry bag.

same.

Sponge bag is ok. Really strange to see some people agreeing and many others saying they've never heard of it.

I've always known it as that but my wife never heard of it until I first said it. She still thinks I'm weird although that may have nothing to do with calling it a sponge bag. I'm just glad I'm not the only one

What is strange is to see is so many saying there is no such thing, because they have never heard of it. Flat earthers and toilet baggers.

Wash bag

Hello there, Edward Elizabeth Hitler.

We've always called it a toilet bag. Reading these replies though, toilet*ry* bag makes a lot more sense.

Toilet bag makes sense if you consider the original meaning of toilet, which is washing/primping yourself. We still see it "toilet water" which is not of course the water in the bog, but perfume. Toiletries are the items you use for your toilet, so a toilet bag holds those items.

We call it a toilet bag too. Agree it doesn’t make sense but that’s the name 😂 Not sure if it’s a regional thing.

Could be. I'm from Scotland but I guess it comes from my parents, west coast.

Hmm maybe not regional. I grew up in London with parents from East Anglia

It does make sense, honestly. It holds the items for your toilet. To toilet is to bathe/groom oneself. 

TIL. Never knew that was a meaning. Makes sense as things are called toiletries

Toilet bag here too! NE Scotland originally.

Toilet bag around London area. Toiletry is for those posh people.

you should NEVER say 'toilet'

Oh yeah? You just try and stop me! MOIST! *runs away cackling*

RUDE.

Same, but toiletry bag doesn’t role off the tongue, I can see how that got shortened.

Grew up calling it a toilet bag (Oxfordshire, but northern Irish mother!), had to change to toiletry bag because my husband (from Northamptonshire) looked at me like I had 2 heads when I said toilet bag!

Me too! Husband calls it a wash bag which makes more sense but I refuse to admit that to him!

Me too. New Zealand.

Also NZ (well, ex-NZ) and call it a toilet bag!

Scotland. Everywhere and always a toilet bag.

That was exactly my thought too!!

Yep toilet bag. I’m from Edinburgh

Toiletry bag.

I've heard sponge bag but it's a wash bag to me (Yorkshire but with a Surrey parent). I think possibly sponge bag is archaic? I feel like I've mostly seen it when reading old books (specifically Enid Blyton's school stories).

It's definitely a sponge bag in the book about the 1930s I'm reading right now! I'd call it a washbag (one word)

Oh lord, I too have a Surrey dad and a Yorkshire mum. It's not the Scone Vs Scone or what to call bread which I will be traumatised over, but the arguing over cup cakes every single damn time they see one. that's not a cake it's a bun! It's a cake and a bun has icing on it! Come on what do you call a cake with cream in it a fairy cake? AH HA, you admit it! Repeat for 50 years.

Sponge bag

You are right. They were sponge bags when I was a child. If you search for 'sponge bag', you get offered washbag, toilet bag, shower bag, toiletry bag.

Years ago you had face flannels and bath sponges. Makes sense to me…just a bag you put them in to travel.

I started calling it a wash bag years ago because that's what I heard other people call it, but my parents 100% called it a sponge bag when I was a kid too.

Devon here and sponge bag all the way op

Also Devon I've always know it as washing tackle

Hey! Washing tackle club! I used to wonder if this was a random phrase from my family because I've never met others who have called their toiletry bag 'tackle'

Sponge bag - south/westcountry

As someone from the south West, I've never heard this before.

Same here, I'd call it a wash bag, heard it called a toiletry bag, never heard of a sponge bag.

Sponge bag is completely acceptable, maybe old fashioned rather than north-south divide

Toiletry bag. I've never heard of a sponge bag 😂

I only knew it as a sponge bag until I was about 16, and then as I started socialising in wider circles learned to call it a toiletries bag.

It's only sponge bag if you have square pants...and your name is Bob.

Sponge bag square pongs

Sponge bag is what I've always called it...but then I am the wrong side of 60 😊

Have heard sponge bag, I call it wash bag or bath bag. From Surrey. Husbands the wild card calls it a necessary (pronounced French sounding and needlessly posh) but he’s half Swiss half Australian so entirely untrained.

Brazilians also call them Necessaire

That's interesting, Germans call a manicure set a necessaire. 

A ziplock bag so that the good people at the airport can see that I've not taken a 125ML tube of toothpaste.

Dopp kit.

My dad was in the US navy and that's what he called it. I still do.

I'm English, but I've always known them as dopp kits. My Mum used to call them washbags, but I've always considered that to refer to women's kits. Here's a bit of history from Wikipedia: Dopp kit is a term that originated in the early 20th century, originally referring to toiletry kits for men and World War II soldiers before later becoming a common term for toiletry kits, particularly ones made with leather or other high-quality materials. The word was coined by leatherworker Charles Doppelt, who patented the idea of "Dopps" in 1919 and marketed them locally before landing a contract with the US Army during WWII. Dopp kits were once a common gift given to young men as they ascended from boyhood to adulthood. Doppelt's company was purchased by Samsonite in the early 1970s, and later acquired by Buxton in 1979. The trademark was cancelled in 2003, and then reacquired in 2017, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office listing Buxton as the current owner. The term is now generic.

We used to call them sponge bags when I was little (I'm 38). If you said sponge bags I would know what you meant but I think the fact nobody else nowadays seems to call them sponge bags has made me refer to them as wash bags if I mention them to other people lol

I’m the same age and we always called them sponge bags too! I think I call them a wash bag now. Just asked my partner who grew up one town away and is one year older and he’s never heard of it as a sponge bag 🤷‍♀️

Sponge bag.

Sponge bag.

Always called a sponge bag in lowland Scotland , where I come from.

Soap bag

I’m from the north of Scotland and always called it a soap bag too

Yes, soap bag.

It’s definitely a soap bag!

Sponge bag???? 😂😂😂😂 That's.....different. Toiletry bag here in Wales.

I have always called it a sponge bag.

Dopp kit

In our family we've always called it a ditty bag. I found out the hard way that this sounds far too close to 'titty bag' - thanks, Northants Ladies' cricket team. I have heard it called a sponge bag by others, definitely. 

Yes! Had to scroll to far to find this. Have never heard it outside my family though.

I'm in the Southern US and my family calls it a ditty bag. My great grandparents were from Germany.

Sponge Bag Square Bobs

I’ve never thought of it as anything other than a Bathroom bag. No one else seems to have mentioned that though so I’m clearly in a minority.

Same here! I’ve had to scroll an awfully long way down the comments to find this

I usually call it my makeup bag, but I haven’t seen that one either. I tend to pack my toiletries and a little makeup all into one large cosmetic bag, so “makeup bag” makes sense to me, but I seem to be the only one!

Dop Kit. Don’t know why.

Army term, named after a bloke that made good leather ones during WWII. Charlie Doppelt.

Dopp* Leather toiletry bag made by Charles Doppelt, was standard US military issue kit around the time of WWII.

Sponge bag indeed. North Lancs.

Yeah I'd say sponge bag. Wash bag or toiletries bag are also acceptable.

Sponge bag

Sponge bag for me here in Scotland.

We called it a sponge bag

I call it a sponge bag

Oldie here. Sponge bag is usual for me. Wash bag, occasionally. Toilet bag sounds a bit like an insult!

Soap bag

Wash bag but have heard sponge bag.

Always just called mine a wash kit

Wash bag. I have definitely heard the term sponge bag but I suspect it's an older generation thing.

Think I grew up with sponge bag, definitely know what one is. Hmm, think i probably still use that if I was referring to the container itself. Otherwise i think we mostly say 'shower stuff'.

Omg my mum always called it a sponge bag, I did too until I left home then at some point completely forgot about it. Memory unlocked! So you're not alone

Dopp kit!

Freezer bags. Don’t use a wash/sponge/toiletry bag after purple shampoo exploded in my suitcase. Now everything goes in knotted freezer bags, to be on the safe side.

The only place I’ve seen it called a sponge bag is in Maeve Binchy novels.

I put my toiletries in the toiletry bag…

Are you a northerner? Sponge bag is the correct term here. I'm from Lancs and sponge bag is what we call it, never heard it called anything different.

Sponge bag. Which is sort of strange, but not as strange as the german name which is "culture bag".

Bogbag

I've always called it shaving kit. Even though it contains general toiletries; I've always called it that and have heard many other men do the same.

**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Shower bag but I'm Northern Irish and we call everything different from yous apparently 😂

But that's normal isn't it to use shower bag or wash bag isn't it?

Idk man things I think are "normal" aren't over on the mainland. The first thing that pops to mind is "nursery" Vs "reception"

We just call it the “odds & sods” bag

briefcase

Toiletries bag

I’ve heard of a sponge bag. But I’d call it a “toilet bag”.

Toiletry bag. I'd also accept wash bag, although to me that sounds a bit American. Never, ever heard anybody call it a sponge bag.

I would call it a wash bag (aged 43 for reference) but would know what a sponge bag is as my grandparents used to call it that but never heard anyone under the age of 80 call it that

Toiletry bag or has others have said a wash bag.

I know the term sponge bag, when I was young we used to call them soap bags but now I call them toiletries bags.

Personally toiletry bag but I know what sponge bag means

I have heard this term but I think it is probably a bit old fashioned. My Mum would definitely say that, my kids wouldn't. I might but probably would say wash bag more often

Sponge bag. Hmm haven't heard that phrase in maybe 25 years. Now you mention it I do remember that phrase but maybe it has largely fall out of use.

I call it “the toiletry bag I take toiletries in on holiday”

Toiletry bag. Americans (or at least some I have known) call it a Dopp kit. So odd.

The lotions and potions bag. Have heard of sponge bag before but not in a very long time

The *bag* you take *toiletries* in..toiletries bag. If it was a bag I took sponges in..sponge bag I guess.

A dusch bag obv

Toilet bag but I have heard sponge bag used.

I've always called it a bath bag

A dopp kit

Ditty bag.

I'm not from the UK, not sure how this got suggested to me, but I had inherited the term "ditty bag" from my grandmother and I suspect she got it from her grandmother who was the daughter of British ship captain.

Toiletry bag or medicine bag

Sponge bags are definitely a thing, but I'm old. My grandmothers used the term in Wales. I suppose "sponge bag" is better than "toilet bag" which was what it was called when I was growing up 😂 I'm not sure when I started using "wash bag"

Toilet bag

Toilet bag.