Showing posts with label What's in my bag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label What's in my bag. Show all posts

Monday, June 17, 2019

What is in my bag in 2019

What is in my bag..

This is my Lowepro Event Messenger 150 bag. It is really a camera bag, but I've used it as a small 'man bag' since buying it back in 2012. I did a post on it when I bought it. As you can see it is still in very good condition considering how much use it gets.

The main advantage of using a camera bag is that it has dividers that you can remove or move inside the bag. Also it has a soft padded lining which is ideal for leather planners and plenty of storage pockets for a variety of things. I normally carry the bag on one shoulder, but you can extend the strap and wear it across your body. Or just carry it by the built in handle on the back of the bag.

This bag is no longer available from Lowepro, although I suspect you will find it available on Ebay and other similar sites. If I ever replace it, I would get something of a similar size.


The bag has an external open back pocket. I keep a shopping bag and my house keys in there. The keys are not normally showing as in the photograph.


The front zipper pocket has two decent size pockets, a pen slot and a small pocket intended for memory cards.


The inside of the bag has a full width padded pocket intended for an iPad, but it fits a compact/slim A5 organiser. I'm using it with my Van der Spek Custom A5, but it also is perfect for a Filofax Heritage A5 as well.


So emptying the bag here are all of the contents. I carry:




I recently bought the Delfonics pouch, it's very handy because it can store a lot of things, it has a lot of different size pockets and I can transfer everything from one bag to another by just moving the pouch to a different bag and I know I will have everything.

Delfonics do a number of different size pouches and in a variety of colours too.


In the pouch I carry:




I hope you have enjoyed the 'tour' of my bag!

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.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

What's in my bag - December 2011

I've been using my Lowepro bag for nearly 8 months now. The contents have fallen in to a settled pattern so I thought I would share with you what I carry. Read the original post for details about the bag and why I chose this particular bag.


So in the front row from left to right:
  • My iPod Touch 64 GB - I use this a lot for music, checking emails, Twitter etc etc. It is never far from my side!
  • Nokia C5-00 mobile phone - This is set up as my UK mobile, it has lots of great facilities built in which are great when I'm travelling back in UK
  • Nokia 6300i mobile phone - This is my French mobile phone, a basic phone which is just used for calls and text messaging. I fitted a new battery to this recently and it works fine. 
  • Sachets of decaff coffee - I've not been able to drink normal coffee for over 20 years now, so I always carry my own with me! These sachets are a simple way of making sure I have some with me. 
  • Pens - A marker pen and a couple of Pilot Frixion gel pens, I like these pens a lot. 
  • Headphones - Just some standard Apple earphones for use with the iPod 
  • Tape Measure
  • Car Key
  • Compact Camera - I carry a Fuji Finepix JX200 with me, it's simple and takes reasonable pictures for a compact, when I don't have my DSLR with me.
In the next row again from left to right:
  • Headphones for the Nokia C5, useful for listening to the radio whilst on a train or as use as a hands free phone whilst walking. 
  • A pocket magnifier - Sadly my eyes aren't what they used to be, so this comes in handy for looking at very small print. 
  • Mini Malden - My wallet Filofax at the moment. 
  • Personal Malden - My information hub, diary, contacts, information, maps etc. 
  • Hand cleaning gel - Useful after refilling the car with fuel, to get rid of the smell of diesel!
  • Tic Tac Mints
  • Small Maglite Touch
  • Cleaning cloth - This is a multi fibre soft cloth very useful for wiping clean displays or for cleaning my glasses or sun glasses. I just give it a wash every so often and it comes up clean every time.
  • Not shown, my reading glasses case..
And at the back the bag itself, which is shaping up very well. I don't find it too big or too small. 
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