What’s in My Bag

I’ve been super excited to do this post for a while now. If it wasn’t obvious already, I love talking about myself. Oh it wasn’t? Well I do.

Plus, I’ve seen a lot of my favorite YouTubers do something similar and it was always fascinating to me. So I thought you guys might be interested in seeing something like this!

So here goes nothing…

First of all, there’s the subject of my bag itself. It’s a highly coveted (by my friends…ok friend…Maggie…) bag that I got from Forever 21 with the idea that I would use it for school. Well that lasted all of one day because I had way too much stuff to carry and opted for an adorable backpack (if you guys like this post, when I’m back in school I’ll do a school version of this). But I love this bag. It is the perfect size, it has just the right amount of pockets…ugh I just love it. There is a very handy zippered section in the back (or front I guess depending on the way you look at it) that I keep big important papers in, like bills that I need to pay, a scratcher for a restaurant, etc. Then on the inside there is another zippered pouch and this is where I keep lady things and my mini notepad and pen for keeping track of potential blog posts and a running list of my favorites for the month. Just across the way you’ll find two pouches. One is for my phone and headphones and the other is for my chapstick (soon you’ll find out how many I carry with me) and hand sanitizer.

Now that we’ve discussed the bag itself, let’s talk about what I have with me on a typical day…

• iPad Mini: I always carry my iPad Mini with me because I can’t always carry my Surface 3 (the laptop/tablet I use as a computer) and it’s nice to have when I’m at work. I use it mostly for Netflix and Pinterest, but sometimes I use it for more practical uses like writing a paper or checking my email. When I was working, I watched a lot of YouTube on there because I have a sick obsession with makeup tutorials.
• Chapstick/Lip product: I tend to have anywhere from 1-3 lip products on me at a time. I’ve never really had chapped lips before but I do have dry feeling lips sometimes and if I don’t have anything to fix it, I go insane. I have some personal favorites; Burt’s Bees, Nivea, and Blistex to name a few.
• Hand Sanitizer: As a self-proclaimed fishing gal, one always needs to have hand sanitizer around because you never know when the urge to fish is going to hit. Plus, we usually carry at least 2 rods with us pretty much everywhere we go during the warm months. Hand sanitizer is also necessary because sometimes, bathrooms don’t have soap or towels/dryers (I check for both before I wash) and one of my biggest pet peeves is having wet hands. Although is that really a pet peeve…? I digress.
• Wallet/Coin Purse: This is a no-brainer. It has my important cards, my money, my shopping list, my first born…ok I’m kidding about that last one. But this wallet that I got from Amazon (link) has been such a lifesaver to me, and it was a good price! It has so much room for all my important things before they get transferred to my large important things folder. The one thing it’s missing is a coin purse, which is why I always have one of those handy as well! I got mine at a consignment shop in town for 25 cents.
• Sunglasses: I wear prescription glasses and so I can’t just wear any old pair of sunglasses that I want to. I have these (picture) sunglasses that I got polarized too and they are like my best friend or whatever you can call an important inanimate object.
• Headphones: Now this one is very important to me, not only because I love music but because I sometimes don’t like holding my phone, and it irritates me to no end when people have a conversation on their phone in public on speakerphone! Like people do that all the time out here and it drives me nuts. So headphones really come in handy.
• Feminine products: I mean; do I even need to explain this?
• Medication/Advil: I carry an anti-anxiety medication with me at all times, in fact I have like 3 bottles of it so there’s one in my normal bag, one in my medicine cabinet and one in my small bag that I use.
• Lotion: Now that it’s summer time, I’m outside a lot and I’m starting to get a lot more color than I’m used to because I live at a campground. When I first got really burnt right before the 4^th, I was terrified of peeling (mostly because I didn’t want to lose my tan) so I was applying lotion like every 20 minutes. I’m happy to report that I didn’t peel too bad and I still have a fab tan!
• Perfume/Spray: I like to carry this with me for a few reasons: in case I forgot to put on deodorant, in case I poo, or in case someone else smells and I need to either offer them some or mask their stink. I got mine at Target for super cheap and it smells great; it’s the perfect travel size!
• Essential Oil: Ok, I know that essential oils get a lot of flak and people question their validity, and I still do with some, but this one works wonders for me. I don’t like to take my anxiety medication every time I need it. Sometimes I like using this handy little roller-ball of lavender essential oil to help calm me down.

So that’s it, that’s what I carry with me all the time! Sometimes things get left at home or switched out (ex: I sometimes leave my iPad at home and bring my Surface with me) but this is a pretty good list of what I carry and what is essential for me to have at all times.

I’m curious as to what you guys carry with you or what you think is essential to have with you all the time? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter or Instagram @iblog1988

-DF