OPTED Magazine

The bottomless pit of your bag or purse  and the frantic digging and pulling out items to find what you need can be frustrating at best.  At times it can feel like we’re lugging around everything but the kitchen sink.  For anyone who commutes to an office, the gym, errands for the kids, or a frequent traveler, an effective organization system for our portable bag is a must-have!

The important thing to keep in mind is that less is more.  While being prepared is a Boy Scout motto and should be followed to the best of our abilities, there is such a thing as over preparing when we’re carrying items that we don’t need to.  Take a good look at the contents of your bag — pull everything out and set it on a flat surface.  I bet there’s not only a lot of trash and loose items, but a number of things that you carry “just in case” that you’ve never used.

Here are some tips to address the issue of clutter in our bags:

• Bag within a bag — the best thing I ever did was to purchase tiny containers or pouches to contain small items floating around my purse.  The “bag within a bag” concept makes it much easier to root through your stuff without having to dump out multiple loose items to find what you need.  For instance, I have my wallet, but I also have a small change purse where I colect loose change and place all my receipts.  I also have a small pouch where I put my lip balm, tiny tissues pack, safety pins, and a couple bandaids.  I’ve grouped like items in different areas of my bag so that almost nothing is floating around.
• “Less is more” exercise — if you put into practice the exercise above, spreading out your contents once a month and evaluating frequency of use, you’ll find that you don’t need to carry many of these things.
• Is it needed in transit? — if your bag is a tool to transport items with you to and from your office each day, consider how much of what is in your bag could be stored in a drawer at work.  Do you really need to carry a plastic water bottle and a phone charger to and from work each day, or can you have two of these items (one at home, one at the office)?  The test should be: do I need any of these things “in transit” or can they remain at one location on each end of my trip?

Numerous studies have been conducted about the long term impact that carrying heavy bags can do for our posture and how it contributes to back problems.  It is advised that your bag should be no more than 10% of your body weight to avoid these health problems.  So, do what you can to eliminate the weight of your items, even if you can’t eliminate quantity.

One thing that really baffles me, is when I see commuters or travelers carrying multiple bags at once!  For women, I’ve seen heavy laptop bags pulling down one shoulder, with a purse strapped on over the top — is everything they’re carrying an absolute essential?  With the introduction of portable laptops, iPhones and other multi-media devices, it’s a wonder why people have not chosen to pair down what they carry and use their devices to access entertainment or reading material they need.

Any other suggestions for keeping bags under control?

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