Switching Bags Made Easier

If you’re reading this post, you probably love bags as much as I do.  The question is, do you switch bags as often as I do?

For the most part, my bags are seasonal, meaning each season I switch out my bags.  However, within those seasonal rotations, I also have occasion bags, meaning I switch out my bags depending on the occasion.  For each season, I have one bag for work, one bag for out and about (errands and the like), and another bag for events (going out to dinner, etc.).  Yes, I have that many bags, though I am contemplating downsizing my collection.

In any event, with as many as 2-3 switches per week, it can get hairy keeping track of what items I have in what bag.  For the most part, everything moves with each bag switch.  There are two items that always stay in my work bag and don’t leave (unless it’s a seasonal work bag switch).  But everything else moves as one unit.

This “one unit,” however, consists of many smaller items.  So, for example, when switching bags, the following is moved from one bag to the other: wallet, cosmetics bag (full of essentials like chapstick, hand lotion, hair brush and hair tie, etc.), glasses case, small wallet for my store cards, an extra set of keys, earbuds, and a few minor other things.  It’s not difficult to move these things, but it is easy to forget and item or two.

Enter the purse organizer.

You may have seen them.  If you do a Google search, you will come up with many items and styles.  (Looking at all of them now, perhaps I should have done a little more research on which style to choose from.)  I recently bought one from LeSportsac, one of my favorite bag brands.

Initially, I bought this organizer thinking I might be able to keep my planner, book, and iPad a little more snug and secure within my work bag.  Upon arrival, though, I knew it would be too small for this purpose.  So I decided to keep in it the items I move from bag to bag, making it that much easier to switch.

So without further ado, this is how I’m using the purse organizer:

First, here are the specifications of the organizer.  (You can see the actual dimensions on LeSportsac’s website, linked above.)  Both the front and back have several pockets.

What I refer to as the front has two smaller pockets and two pen pockets.

The back has the two smaller pockets, plus one full-length pocket behind the two smaller ones.

At either end of the organizer is a slightly bigger pocket.

The interior has a plethora of pockets for carrying those little items.  Then, of course, there is the large main compartment for larger items.

The main compartment is big enough to hold my planner, with plenty of room to spare.

But it’s not wide enough to hold an iPad 2 in the landscape position, which is how I tote my iPad.  (This ensures that it won’t fall out of the bag or get bumped around.]

So I had to nix the idea of carrying my planner and iPad in the organizer.

Instead, I decided to put all of those items that I move from bag to bag.

Starting at the top, I have my cosmetics bag, my glasses case, my small Vera Bradley wallet that holds all of my store cards, a pen, multiple packs of gum, my extra keys (for my husbands car, my mom’s house, basically keys for other people’s doors and not ones I need on a daily basis but that I might need at any given time, hence why they aren’t left at home), my regular wallet, my earbuds, and an extra phone cord for emergency charging.

All of the pockets that this organizer has allows me to keep all of these items safe and secure and of course organized!

The earbuds and extra phone cord go on one side inside.

My extra keys go on the other.

On the back, in the full length pocket I keep a hand-made coffee cup cozy that my aunt made for me.

In both the front and back small pockets I keep packs of gum.  (It’s helpful so keep so many packs on hand at once so that I don’t have to add new ones too often.)

On the front side, I also keep a pen.

In either end pocket I keep my glasses case…

…and my VB store card wallet.

Inside is where I keep the larger items of my cosmetics case and wallet.

True, I could do away with my cosmetics case and keep all of the items that are in there in the organizer itself.  But I prefer to keep these items in a closed bag—some items aren’t suitable for male eyes and if in the event I need to take these items to the restroom with me, I can just grab the cosmetics case rather than taking the whole kit and caboodle.

Once inside a bag, the organizer keeps everything contained.

It does take up a bit of room, though I still have room for other items.

The organizer probably takes up more room than I might need if these items were separated.  However, the fact that it makes these items easy to switch from one bag to another all but makes up for it, and I find that the only additional space I need is for my planner, which as you can see, is not a problem.

When it comes time to move from one bag to the next, just grab the handles and away you go!

Et voila!

Easy peasy.

The several moves I used to have to make in order to switch bags is now done in one swift motion.  It saves on time too!  But of course, the most important bonus is that nothing is left behind.

There you have it!  Any questions, please leave them in the comments below.

*Please note: I am in no way affiliated with the LeSportsac brand.  I am simply a happy long-time customer.  All opinions are my own.