The Hunt for the Perfect Bag
I know that the search for the Perfect Bag is a lie.
I have known this since my junior year of college, when I lost my first Favorite Bag to a tragic bodily fluids incident and I went in search of a replacement. There was no replacement to be had, despite searching everything from thrift stores to Chinatown knock off vendors.
Eventually I found another bag that worked for me in a completely different way when I was working and not dragging around textbooks as much, and I loved that bag for years while I lived in the desert, but it’s years and years old now, the canvas is starting to give way and a canvas bag is just not ideal when you live in the PNW, so the revised search for the perfect bag began again when I moved up here.
I tried too big, too small, too heavy. I fought with trying to wear a cross-body bag while carrying the baby strapped to my front. For a while I gave up on having my own bag at all and just chose a diaper bag that I could also throw a laptop or notebook into.
Now that I’m working, I often leave the house without the baby attached, so it was time to resume the search for the Perfect Bag. This search is difficult for me because my aesthetic and what actually works for me when I’m carrying things end up being wildly different. I had to focus very hard to make sure I was taking into account my needs and not just my wants.
I took advantage of secondhand sales to try a wide variety of things I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise. In this way I was able to narrow down my needs. If you have access to a good selection of bags at thrift or consignment sales, I highly recommend this. This also means that I have a selection of other bags available when I need to meet specific needs.
If you can’t, take out everything you intend to carry on a regular basis and put it all together on your bed or table so you can see it all. When you stack it together, how much space do you need? What is the height and width of the largest item? For me, this is my laptop, but for others it might be a sketchbook, hardcover book, or knitting project bag, for example. A bag that doesn’t fit what you need to put in it is a non-starter.
How many small things do you carry? What are they? I am much happier when my bags have a couple of different kinds of small pockets — pen holders, a key clip, and a pocket sized for my phone are important to me. Having a bottle-sized pocket on the outside is great but not quite as important. It’s certainly possible to organize small items in pouches within the bag, but it’s good to know your needs and make your decision thoughtfully.
I like the look of beautiful handcrafted leather bags, but these aren’t in my budget and they’re rarely as comfortable as I’d like them to be, either. I’m not a hiker but I can end up walking a couple of miles depending on the day, and a shoulder bag that doesn’t sit high on my back and have a thick strap will leave me in a lot of pain quickly. I do have a small crossbody leather bag from Fossil that I love when I’m only carrying a few things, but in practice that just doesn’t happen often.
And another kind of bag that’s usually out of my price range but great for Portland is the heavy, waterproof nylon messenger bag favored by bike commuters. I don’t commute by bike, but they’re designed to carry a lot and hold it close to the body. I was fortunate to luck into a black Timbuk2 messenger bag at an estate sale. I’ve waffled back and forth on it since I bought it, thinking perhaps I had gone too large, but now that I’m working and commuting almost every day, I appreciate the extra space. Sometimes you just have to try something and see how it works.
There is no Perfect Bag, only the Perfect Bag Right Now, but it’s still worth continuing to look and re-evaluate until you find something you love and that makes you happy.
Originally published at www.dressingthespectrum.com on November 20, 2015.
