Showing posts with label Bags. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bags. Show all posts

Sunday, July 13, 2014

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.

Friday, April 22, 2011

What size?

If a bag comes in different sizes or several sizes, how do you choose which one to buy?

So excluding looks and colours and that sort of thing, you have decided on that already, but then the bag range of your choice comes in different sizes, how do you decide which size to buy?

I'm going through this decision thing at the moment. May be I'm taking it too serious!! (Yes ok I am!!).

I'm looking for a bag that is slightly bigger than the one I use at the moment as my 'Man Bag' which accommodates most things comfortably, but not everything.

The danger as I see it is going too big, so I have tackled this in a fairly systematic way. OK I've got this bag, what else do I want to carry.... this this and this. Then I realised, ah but if you wanted to carry all of that..... what about this bag you already own...

OK that solves that problem, but I'm not going to be carrying everything everyday.... so something smaller but not as small as what I'm using now...

So I have ended up measuring things for their sizes and then looking to see what size bag I actually need. I'm getting close to making a decision, which I suppose is a good thing.

I'm often accused of having too many bags, but to me they all serve a purpose, I never like to have a bag that is over or under sized. I prefer it if the bag I'm using is about 80% full. Then it's 'just right'

To me you can never have too many... as long as they all have a purpose then it's ok to have more than just a few... a bit like Filofax organisers I suppose!!!!!!!

So have I lost the plot..... or do you thing I have found a different way to approach the decision making process.... or just buy it Steve... enjoy it!!!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

2 Timbuk2 s

I was a bad girl last week. I bought not one, but two new bags. From the same place. On different days. So I didn’t even save on shipping fees. Oh well. I had been eyeing the first bag for a while and decided I would get it. I saw the second, decided I would buy it next month. But the of course, right after I bought the first one, I got a coupon in my email from the company. So I went ahead and bought the second one. I had a coupon! How could I not?

In any event…

Here are my two new Timbuk2 bags:

The first bag is the Scrunchie Tote. It is meant to be a gym bag of sorts. The main attraction to this bag—for me—is its ability to carry a yoga mat. For a long time, I’ve been using a mere yoga mat bag, which is okay but it lacks the extra room to carry anything but the mat. So when I saw this bag I thought it would be perfect. Let me just say that this bag is so great that it will definitely be used as a regular bag, in addition to the yoga mat/gym bag.

This morning I went to yoga but also had some errands to run. So I used the bag to carry all of my items, plus the mat. It worked perfectly. The interior is so roomy—I can fit tons of things in here. Plus, there are several small pockets for credit cards, cash, even a key fob for my keys. The bag is a little large for an everyday bag, but depending on where I’m going and how much I’ll be taking, it’s a great option. I love this bag already and I’ve only owned it for a little over 24 hours.

The second bag is the Anna Ribbons Tote. I have been wanting a simple tote for some knitting projects. Even though I already have a super knitting supply bag, this one would hold a project or two—easy enough to take with me but without having to cart around all of my supplies at the same time. When I saw this, I knew it would be perfect. The ribbons on the front even make me think of crafty things. The interior of this bag is very roomy and simple, without a lot of fuss—just what I wanted. There’s plenty of room for the current project(s), the book(s) I’m working from, my accessories and anything else I need to carry with me (like my knitting Filo – more info on this coming soon to my personal blog). It does have one interior pocket, which will be great for a pencil or two and my needles.

Needless to say, I need these two bags like I need a hole in the head. But whatever. I’m happy with both of them and I’m so excited to use them! Thanks to Yvotchka for introducing me to Timbuk2 bags. I’ll be sending her my bills later. ;)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Does your bag reflect your personality?

Usually I tend to ignore on-line advertising that appears on sites I regularly visit through RSS feeds etc.

However, I couldn't ignore this one this evening, and it prompted this post!
'Does your bag reflect your personality?..... get a bag that does... '
And the link took me to this site I think you will agree that the designs are beautiful. Simple not flashy, but well thought out designs. Expensive may be, but good design and quality never has been cheap.
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