means To carry or haul something, especially by hand — or the bag (a "tote bag") you do that carrying in.

from "Tote" surfaces in 17th-century American English meaning to carry, and its deeper roots are uncertain. Many trace it to West African languages — words like the Kikongo "tota," to pick up — carried across the Atlantic with enslaved people, which would fit its early appearance in the American South; but this connection is plausible rather than proven. The "tote bag" sense — the bag made for toting — is a much later, 20th-century twist on the old verb.