Hey when you're heading out on a multi-day or even overnight backpacking trip and you're packing your toiletries do you tend to want to take just a little bit of leftover toothpaste or you're not carrying a whole great big tube like that into something like this which is what I've done in the past after rolling it up or perhaps you get a little fancier and you put a little bit of toothpaste in a container like this or as I've also done I've even filled these guys up only to find out that the toothpaste hardens up very quickly if you want to come back and get it next time. So on my last trip last week I had a little bit of an inspirational brainwave which I think could have me flying for a Nobel Prize or if not that maybe at least a thumbs up and I'm going to share that with you right now. Start by running around your house and collecting all the different types of straws that you can find that are all of a slightly differing diameter. Try sliding some into others to see which ones have the nice and snuggest fit. That one is fairly loose and this one seems very nice and snug and this one is almost two snugs but it will work. So now I have a couple of sets of straws that I know nest very well. Take your tube of toothpaste and fill the smaller straw with the amount of toothpaste that you think you're going to need for your upcoming trip. Here's an example of doing it with the face grips. Trim it as close as possible to your metal jaws that way it takes less time and melt it back and make sure that the metal your jaws gets on enough to melt the plastic as well. Now take your other straw and just calculate the distance and then we're going to trim it off with about three-quarters of an inch to spare and then we're going to repeat that sealing methodology once again and now I have two pieces of straw one with my toothpaste and one with my container and then you're going to get them together and that's not going to come apart. My toothpaste is separate from the lotion and how I'm going to do that is I'm going to put a reflective strip which will also help me find my toothpaste in the dark and then perhaps on my lotion I'll put on a weight reflective strip.