Where Bloggers Live: What's in My Bag

Welcome back to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live! I am lucky to have joined a terrific group of bloggers who give a peek into the places and spaces where they spend their time.

Today's topic is...What's in My Bag, and I have to tell you up front, this is going to be a short post because...

Since my office was shut down due to covid in March 2020, I have been working from home, and the contents of my handbag and commute-to-work bags that I actually ever use have mostly found new homes outside my bag. For example, my wallet sits in a rectangular ceramic dish on the desk in my office (where it is a strangely perfect fit).

Sure, a few things remain in their original bags, but those bags are currently used as long-term storage rather than something I take with me anywhere. A few months ago I was looking for something work-related, so I went through my three (!) commute-to-work bags, and it was a bit like looking at a time capsule. I have a large bag that I put my padded lunch box and a big bottle that holds a gallon of iced green tea...this was empty. I have a black leather bag to carry my laptop...this was empty except for a couple random pens, paper clips, etc. I have my beloved black Kate Spade rabbit tote (a gift from my husband, purchased second-hand) that carried various papers...this had various papers, but nothing of any particular importance; not the papers I was looking for (which I never found, sigh).

When I do go out somewhere like the doctor's office, instead of my purse - a black nylon Gap crossbody that I purchased used on eBay around 2000! - I put whatever essential items I need into a free string backpack branded with one of my husband's previous employers. Essential items include: phone, wallet, keys, Kleenex, hand sanitizer, lip balm, sunglasses, a bottle of water. It's kind of terrible because it's like carrying a totally limp sack where everything gets mixed up and what I want at any moment is always at the very bottom of the sack.

For outings in my neighborhood, to a park, etc. with my husband, I strap on my camera and put my phone and a Carmex tube in my pocket and otherwise let him worry about carrying everything else. (He has a couple sizes of robust waist bags that we have used for all hiking, birding, etc. outings for a couple decades. The biggest one easily holds a full-size field guide to the birds of North America as well as other essentials.)

My other bags have not seen use since 2020: a new rabbit-themed tiny bag for holding a phone and credit cards, a bird-themed quilted tote bag my mother-in-law made, and a sequined peacock-feather-themed clutch for fancy events (I don't even know where that one is at this point).

As you have probably gathered from the sparsity of my bag collection, I'm not really a handbag person. People who own a bunch of purses and switch between them regularly surprise and amaze me. I mean, there's some possibility I could get sucked into collecting and using multiple handbags, but there are criteria:

-The handbags are a variety of colors/leather finishes/etc. of the same basic model of bag with the same size and same compartments, etc., AND I have somehow developed the patience to take a minute to switch the contents from one bag to another identically-laid out bag...

-OR I can magically move items from their best positions in one bag to their best positions in another at the snap of my fingers AND I can magically remember what those positions are for each bag.

I know that you can buy purse organizer inserts so that you can remove these inserts from one bag and put them in another, but I don't see how that works for a normal structured purse. For tote bags and the like, where the inserts are pretty much creating all of the compartments and divisions themselves - yes, that makes sense. But I am skeptical that an insert system works for switching between purses that already have compartments in them.

Thanks for joining me today for a brief discussion of what is and what is not in my bag.

Next month's topic is My Five Favorite Things About Summer...and while this would be a hard list to create when I was living in the southern US, I think it will be easier to generate from Minnesota!

In the meantime, visit these lovely bloggers as they share about what's in their bags:

Bettye at Fashion Schlub

Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks

Em at Dust and Doghair

Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings

Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style

Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After

Are you a handbag collector? Do you have one perfect handbag that you always use? Or are you, like me, not that into handbags? What other kinds of bags do you carry for various purposes? Is the organization of your purse a science...or a mess? What do you consider your own personal essential items to carry in your purse? Have you ever used bag organizer inserts? Do they work?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.