An appropriate purse or bag can help you be a better organized mom.
Believe me, I’ve experimented a lot with this. I have been especially dingy lately and carrying things around, like a laptop, purse and a datebook, has been treacherous. I’ve dropped the laptop a few times and it’s not happy with me.
My daughter says I need a “minder”, in the sense of someone to walk around behind me to make sure I don’t drop things or fall over. Many moons ago, I was speaking at a mom’s conference and had an assistant follow me around. I went to the bathroom and walked out with the back of my skirt tucked into my pantyhose. Thank goodness I had a minder to call it to my attention. (And yes we wore pantyhose back in the day.)
My work is very mobile. I work at home, at coffee shops, at the library, at friends houses. By necessity, that means carrying stuff around.
It’s a fundamental fact that the more organized our stuff is, the more productive we will be. I have been VERY disorganized lately so I have fished around in my collection of bags to help me get myself together.
I have a black bag very similar to this one. This is a good one to use when I am working on my tablet computer. (I have an iPad and a Microsoft Surface Pro.) This size tablet is a nice fit in this bag, with enough room left over for a calendar/datebook and a notebook, along with your wallet and other necessities. Although I usually don’t wear a bag cross body, it’s nice that this one has a long enough strap that if you wanted to sling it that way, you could.
With the move to carrying smaller laptops, I invested in a little external hard drive. You generally cannot use these with an iPad, but I use it a lot with my android tablet. I keep manuscripts and drafts that I am actively working on so I can have access to them wherever I am, which ever computer I am using. It doesn’t work for everyone, especially if you prefer a cloud service, but I really like mine.
Often I haul my laptop around with me. I have an older HP that is not at all sleek. In fact, it’s bulky and heavy. When I need that computer, I obviously need a bigger bag. When I was going to court for my law practice, I needed a larger bag as well to accommodate court files which are wide and deep. This size bag does the trick for both these items. You can hold a laptop and files and other papers and notebooks easily.
Helpful hint: When you’re buying a bag like this, consider whether you want it to be able to sit on the floor without falling over. If the bag has a more rounded bottom, you can leave it propped in a chair or lay it down flat. If you want to be able to put it on the floor to briefly attend to something else, you want a squared off bottom.
Consider also whether you want to be able to hang the bag on your shoulder. My favorite big bags are the ones that give you options: One strap allows you to carry it like a briefcase, but it also has a shoulder strap to give you options.
Wallets are a really personal decision. Different styles are for different situations. Back in the day, I carried a larger wallet that had space for a checkbook, slots for credit cards as well as spaces for bills and coins. Today, I never write checks (except at home) and rarely use cash! So I have a VERY small wallet which carries 7-10 cards.
So what suits you? Here are some options. Any of these would easily fit into your purse or larger bag.
If you travel with a lot of stuff, these are lovely:
If you travel smaller, this is great. It is similar to what I carry. (In my disorganization, I decided to buy a wallet in a bright color so I could easily locate it in bigger bags. Sheesh…)
Many women (my daughter #3 included) are carrying phone cases that also serve as their wallet. This model is available for iPhones or Android, so be sure to check you get the right size. It works well for my daughter, but personally, I don’t care for it. It feels bulky to hold it up to your ear to talk and I just don’t care for it but she loves it!
So, hey. Do you want to feel more organized and pulled together? Clean out your purse!
