When I was pregnant and on the verge of going on bed rest, I had to make sure my bag weighed less than 5 pounds. Insanity! I was so accustomed to carrying a wallet, a phone, chapstick, water, a snack, gum, a snack for Ryan, kleenex, a Franklin Covey planner... Luckily, well unluckily, I only had to walk around feeling practically naked and absent of all of my stuff for all of 6 weeks before being put on bed rest. Problem solved.
After having Logan, I realized carrying a shoulder bag presented a whole new set of challenges. I admit, I am a bit clumsy. I found that when I would bend over to pick Logan up, the bag would slip off my shoulder, swing around, and smack him in the face. Um, I was not the biggest fan of accidentally smacking my child on a daily basis. It was time to switch to a cross-body bag. After quickly tearing through some inexpensive bags, I spotted this beauty in lavender at Anthropologie (my happy place) and fell in love. It is one of the only things I have ever purchased from Anthro full price!
This satchel and I have had some good times and I still think it's beautiful but, sadly, it's time to say goodbye. In the last few months, as my pain has progressed, bearing the weight of the things I carry on one shoulder, even with a cross-body strap, has become very uncomfortable. In the back of my head, I know I ought to reduce what I carry, but the prepper in me refuses. (In a future post, I'll show you what I carry each day just in case of emergency.) In addition to that, if I stop at the drug store on the way home or bring my lunch in to work, which I do on most days, I find myself carrying a shopping bag on one shoulder. That poses additional problems because I have to support that extra bag with my hand near my shoulder. Looping my thumb into the strap to keep it on my shoulder is very uncomfortable because I have pretty severe pain in both of my thumb joints.
Who knew commuting to work could be so painful and so complicated?!
A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to move on to a backpack.I had a few specifications for what I was looking for in a backpack. It needed to be:
- A dark neutral color (I wear a lot of fun colors, so I didn't want it to clash on a daily basis and I have a two-year old and find myself wearing food, milk, or snot on a daily basis so I didn't want it to look destroyed after one week)
- Affordable
- Roomy enough for my everyday stuff in addition to lunch/a cardigan/diapers
- Full of fun pockets
- Not reminiscent of a standard student backpack
- Not reminiscent of a hiking backpack (yes, I am an aspiring prepper but I will always be a girly girl!)
Last night, I stumbled upon this Mossimo backpack at Target and I think it fits the bill!
It reminds me of my beautiful satchel, it's a dark neutral color, it was only $30, look at all those pockets (!), and it doesn't look like a Jansport. This morning, it fit all of my everyday carry stuff easily plus a full lunch cooler bag and reusable water bottle with room for more. Most importantly, it felt pretty comfortable. Since I'm not willing to be stranded away from home without some emergency supplies and prefer to save money by bringing food with me to most places, I think this is the best option for me.
Seriously, who knew choosing a bag in the morning could be so complicated?
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