I brought this bag from Lakeland about 10 years ago and it is still going strong. I have used it constantly over this time to carry my bulky items such as mulitpacks of crisps kitchen rolls and other grocerys, as well as using it on trips out to carry the familys coats when now wearing them(at one time I had six medium weight jackets in this Tardis of a bag). It is washable and if you manage to rip a hole in the string, as I have just recently done, the hole does not run or get any bigger and is easily mended if you wanted to,(I just knotted the two strings back together). Now it is back in the Lakeland book I will be ordering one for family.