Now that I think about it, I seem to have accumulated a whole ecology of carriers/storage boxes, from army surplus duffel bags half as big as me, down to little goretex pouches that thread on to a belt. There's the aforementioned day pack, a streamlined backpack for bicyclists (a lot of these things are gifts or freebies), and a camping pack with an aluminum frame.

I have a couple of old laptop cases, for the old laptops so big that the cases make serviceable briefcases. Then there's the small handtools toolbox; automative tools toolbox; hard suitcase for the Dremel Moto-tool and the x-acto knives; a small toolbox with tiny paintbrushes and small bottles of paint (a model-building phase). And lots of little cheap plastic "briefcases" and totes, handouts from tradeshows.

Used to have a couple of those fancy aluminum suitcases, too. Those were sweet, but over the years I learned to appreciate the virtues of soft-sided bags, especially as air travel grew more crowded, and more and more I resorted to carry on bags only.

I'd call this a snapshot of the current state of what may well be humanity's oldest technology. Hands were never enough for an acquisitive and mobile articulated ape.