Regular-sized packages of shampoo, body lotion and other toiletries take up a lot of place when you pack to travel, and usually, of course, most of them are not full. You can buy them in small packages, but these are more expensive. Why not make rubber packages that get smaller as they get emptier, and this way they will never occupy more space than their contents actually take. The rubber would have to be rather strong, of course, but that can surely be managed.
-- Gwenanda, Aug 21 2002

Baked. Toothpaste Tubes.
-- BinaryCookies, Aug 22 2002


A rubber package with a strong inclination to contract could make for some very messy dispensing moments.  

Where does one get rubber toothpaste tubes?
-- bristolz, Aug 22 2002


Champagne Balloons!
-- BinaryCookies, Aug 22 2002


Hmmm .... to work, the container is going to have to have fairly thin, elastic walls. How do you prevent them from being damaged by contact with other objects ?

Binarycookes: Good point about the toothpase tubes.
-- 8th of 7, Aug 22 2002


Hot water bottles are made of rubber and they don't puncture. This wouldn't even have to be as strong, because it needn't be heat-resistant and needn't last for years. The contents' stickiness and the rubber's elasticity should make the container shrink, and not fill up with air.
-- Gwenanda, Aug 22 2002


Plastic would be more suitable but then they would just be resealable sachets. Why not just take a pile of single-use sachets?
-- chud, Aug 22 2002


shrinking condoms?
-- disarray, Jan 14 2003



random, halfbakery