I can’t help with a specific bag: my current day bag is ‘last season’. I can suggest my rules for a day bag though…

It needs to be tall and wide enough to take A4 folders in landscape orientation. That’s standard work files, and also the typical size of a laptop.

It needs to be deep enough to take a folder plus the various bits (purse, folding brolly or sunglasses, keys, A6 sized diary, pens – you’ll have your own list of essential stuff).

It needs either an overflap or a zip – i.e. it must do up so things are secure. Whenever I see someone on public transport with their bag hanging open, I get the urge to nick their purse then give it back so they realise how risky an open bag is.

It needs an inner, zipped pocket for valuables (my work ID and swipe).

It needs one or ideally two slots inside for my mobiles (work and personal).

It needs one or two outside pockets for quick access stuff (my oyster swipe card for the Tube as you *don’t* want to be rummaging for it in rush hour, a fan in summer, a compact mirror).

I prefer handles to a shoulder strap, as I’ve a damaged upper spine: carrying a bag on my shoulder increases the risk of trapping a nerve again. So I go for slightly padded handles long enough to hook over my forearm (and I try to resist hooking it onto my shoulder).

Oh, and it should look stylish! I want to be able to swing it as I walk down the street!

I have my eye on a rather nice red leather one from Filofax but I’ve not checked it out in person yet so I don’t know if it will really be right.

I’m always trying to carry as little as possible, but no small purse, would carry what I need in a day.

I carry around my everyday purse, plus a combination of totes and grocery bags. That’s cumbersome and is driving me crazy.

I’d actually love to hear people’s suggestions for big-enough purses and bags! Both the small purses that they put in their bigger bags, as well as the bigger bags/totes, that they carry.

What’s inside my slingbag:

-wallet
-calculator
-books
-handphone
-water bottle
-tissue

For my handbag, replace the books, calculator and water bottle with a lipbalm. Tell me, how are you going to fit all those things into a purse? It’s just more convinient to stash everything into one container than in your jeans backpockets.

Lastly, most women i know don’t carry purses/handbags that large. And even if they are, is it any of your business?

Here is why:
The author made a judgement based on gender. If the post had been all encompassing, perhaps about all the flotsum and jetsam that we cram into purses AND backpacks and laptop bags there wouldn’t have been such a strong reaction. I will assume the intent was innocent but when other items (backpacks and laptop bags) were elliminated the author made it specifically about gender.

Second, the author did not actually offer any solutions because I don’t think he fully understood the sitution. This could have been remedied by speaking to some of the woman around him. Organization is not about having the least amount of things. It is about having the right number of things, at the right time, stored in the right way. Clutter is defined to me as useless items. By the posts above I can see that many many of the readers do not feel purses are useless.

The author focused on a gender without understanding the situation and therefor failed to offer a soltuion.

I do not think the author is a bad person. But even good people are wrong sometimes.

(and to those that asked, I didn’t go clean out my purse. I did it Tuesday, and it won’t need it for another week or two.)

For me, if I had a clutch, I’d lay it down and lose it. Multiple bags to carry? Same thing. No bag? Everything I carry would get lost. Not big enough? Then I’m not prepared for all that happens in my 11-hour days – meals, water, workout, work itself, illness, boredom. One simple, notebook-sized, well-organized, nearly-attached-to-me bag helps me get through my day without with minimum fuss.

The women here carry bags in many cases because they’re responsible for someone other than themselves – children. I wonder what men with children to take care of or medical supplies do? I bet they have a largish bag they carry, too. I bet a lot of men who don’t carry bags have turned to their girlfriends/wives and said “can you hold this for me?”

My husband’s actually a convert to bags. For years he’d ask me to hold his stuff and was never prepared for anything. One day he figured out that the secret to my organization and preparedness for all was a bag, and now he’s working on perfecting what goes in his.

The problem is that it’s unfashionable for a man to carry a purse, so he doesn’t have the things he needs when he’s out and about. If he’s lucky, he’s got a wife/partner/girlfriend with a purse, and she’ll have whatever he needs.

My husband ocassionally jokes about me looking like a “bag lady”, but then comes the time I pare down. And when I tell him I don’t have something, he replies, “But, you always carry binoculars!”

1) I’m a graphic designer and I carry at least one sketchbook and a notebook with me at all times in case inspiration should hit. Also, usually a book or magazine pertaining to my latest project.

2) I’m diabetic and have a hella ton of medical crap that I have to carry with me, including but not limited to, a glucometer, test strips, insulin, syringes and alcohol pads. Not to mention, I always need to have a snack with me in case my blood sugar plummets.

On top of these, I have a lot of the same necessary stuff that most women need to carry with them.

• I don’t have a car, so I carry an umbrella at all times.
• I am an artist, so there’s a sketckbook and a digital camera.
• I have a child. thus the cellphone, mini first aid kit, towelettes, tissues, small box of crayons with a mini coloring book (for restaurants), and a few small toys. In the winter months, an extra pair of mittens, in case one goes missing. We are past the diaper stage thankfully.
• I carry a small make-up bag, with tampons, and a hair brush.
• A folder with coupons for the grocery store.
• A wallet, keys, a bottle of water, and a few snacks (again, I have a child.)
• A nylon shopping tote for picking up a few things at the market, so that I don’t have to use a plastic bag.

When I was a detective in Wyoming I had to have my hands free at all times and be able to move quickly without worrying about where my purse was but I also had to carry my various i.d.s, badge, camera, phone, firearm, mace, planner, notebook, pens/pencils, tape recorder, Leatherman tool, PDA, wallet, and breath mints. (Nothing ruins an interview faster than bad breath.) I’m a minimalist makeup person but since my lips are always chapped I at least had to have lip balm, and 9 months out of the year I was also in possession of gloves and a hat. The only thing that had a real home was my gun, which went in my shoulder holster. I tried waistpacks, backpacks, etc – too bulky. And you can bet I didn’t want to ind I’d forgotten my mace or my badge. Anyway, I found a great blazer in LLBean that had a few pockets —- then I looked at the men’s version and it had a TON of pockets and I got angry. Why was the women’s version functionally wussy but the mens’ wasn’t?! So I ordered the men’s, had it tailored to fit me, and wore that sucker every day of my career. Women envied me but didn’t have the kind of jobs that would allow them to wear one all the time; many of my male friends got their own blazers. It was fabulous. It held all my necessary gear plus a book and my lunch for heaven’s sake.

Then I moved to Arizona and am no longer a detective – can’t wear a wool blazer all the time (hardly want to wear clothes at all). Sigh. I’ve been trying to find a workable solution; I don’t have to carry as much, but when you’re unencumbered AND fully prepared for so long it spoils you. I luckily have a job with no dress code to speak of so I’ve resorted to wearing men’s cargo pants every day but have to leave at home many things I have regretted leaving behind.

So Matt, it’s a fair question but maybe next time you should present it with curiosity instead of with a sneer. And please let us know what your wife does with her time when she’s stuck in traffic, in the line at the grocery/atm/dry cleaners, eating lunch, waiting for meetings to start, since she can’t possibly fit a book or language flashcards or a crochet hook in that “sleek little clutch”. Those of us lugging around flight luggage (but learning French, finishing Moby Dick, or crocheting a scarf) are quite curious.