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What I keep on me when I leave the house i.e what’s in my back pack – travel, school, etc

I was not a fan of purses and though I’ve accepted they are really useful I find a lot of options to be really impractical.

When I’m out I only keep what I need on me in the most efficiency way possible. I like to be hands free because otherwise I feel burdened. I do have a tendency to hold my phone, I admit, but ideally I wouldn’t hold onto that either.

I don’t like carrying purses, clutches are the dumbest shit I have ever come across but cross bodies are my preference. That said, every purse I have ever owned has been a gift resulting in not really seeing a need to buy another one on my own. All of them are crossbodies that don’t provide in my opinion sufficient space for some things I would like to be able to carry had I the space.

For this reason I often prefer carrying a backpack even though I can’t easily reach in and grab something I need. Hence carrying my phone regularly.

As to what I keep in my bag; this is what I Generally have or consider essential because I’d rather be prepared than screwed over. This list is just basic life things I’d rather not be left without if I’m not home and don’t include things like my laptop, wallet and pencil case etc.

I carry other things but again, these are the most important in my opinion.

I keep everything in a small make up pouch thing I got as a birthday gift back in grade 8 or high school as a part of a birthday gift.

  • Pain killers – I have naproxed but generally it’s either or a combination of ibuprofen, acetaminophen or naproxen because if my cramps kick in at the start of my day at school and I have to be on campus for several hours I’m in for a world of hurt.
  • Gum and tic tac – for the obvious smelly breath reasons but not something I generally use; I generally take about a semester to go through a pac of gum. I only have tic tac because it had been a long time since I last had any so I bought some.
  • Antacids and H2RA – I have/had GERD which was causing me issues for years until I convinced my 3rd doc to take me seriously. She sent me to a specialist and he didn’t explicitly diagnose me with GERD but he treated me as if I had GERD. So yeah, GERD. As he expected, I was pretty much completely healed after about 2 weeks of over-the-counter treatment. I did kind of relapse and undergo the same treatment again for about 2 weeks. Once I accepted that I would likely have to at the very least tone down on my trigger – extremely spicy food and vinegary/acidic foods – I pretty much have had almost no issues since except for when I do crave these foods or loosen up on my rules that keep me in check. Occasionally I will feel the GERD like symptoms despite my adherence to non pharm therapy and will end up taking an H2RA. I keep them on hand because I don’t want to have to buy them every time I need it and end up with hundreds of these tablets. Also, it almost always results in a very hard to otherwise control cough and this cough has literally been the bane of my existence for years. So I like to keep it in check
  • Halls – Again, that cough must be destroyed. Sometimes I’ll use like 3 in an hour. That was before I discovered everyone was stupid and I did have a problem that could have been easily treated years before with only over the counter medications and have spared myself years of inner turmoil. … So halls works great for a sore throat or that GERD associated cough I get. Don’t need it much anymore but it’s useful in case.
  • Tissue paper – I’m more of a sleeves kind of girl to be completely honest. But I understand that that’s disgusting and my mother also insists I have some on me at all times. So I’ve made the switch and keep some on me
  • Itr – I have always struggled with smell. Perfume doesn’t suit me. I sweat fairly easily and basically it’s stressful to think about so I try not to. I have this one itr that smells great though it is strong and if I use it too often I find I want to kill the smell. I use it rarely but it comes in handy if I’ve been sweating a lot or I want to ‘freshen up’ whatever that actually means. It’s also the only smell that’s never betrayed me and works well with my body. I may have bought 6 bottles of it the following RIS… and they still haven’t run out all these years later.
  • Spare change – I used to be terrible with spare change. I’d have it but it would be loose in my bag so I’d never really find it. I have a tiny coin purse now with just enough change for a bus trip in case I’m desperate and have misplaced my bus pass or something else comes up.
  • Lotion – I have some old sunscreen lotion I want to get rid of but I need to finish it first… It’s been 2 years and I can’t get rid of this tiny bottle. I do keep around some sort of vaseline for my lips because as anyone who knows me knows, I have crusty lips. That is unless I’m applying lip balm every 2 hours or so and once before bed… and that is why I pretty much always have crusty lips :’) I’ve actually tested this out and I need to minimally reapply vaseline at least a solid 3 times and one heavy layer before sleep consistently to avoid having extremely chapped lips. Very discouraging to be completely frank.

The following things are in my back pack but not in the small make up pouch because space.

  • Snacks – I counted 7 granola bars when I cleaned out my bag today. I like to occasionally throw in a few bars in my bag regardless of if I’ve had one or not in the last few days. I don’t like to be hungry and this also helps me survive long enough to not spend a ridiculous amount on food at school. It’s just good survival instinct really.
  • Pads – I think it’s amazing the amount of people who regularly are so unprepared in the event they get their period or may need another pad. Like with the snacks, I throw in a few pads every few weeks because I don’t like the idea of needing one and realizing I used up my last one a month ago or more commonly that someone asked me for one and now I don’t have any for myself. More people have asked me for pads than I’ve had to use in my entire career of having a period which is a fairly long time in my opinion. I currently have 5 on me and will generally carry 1-2 if I’m switching bags.
    • Having a period is literally the single most important reason for me accepting that purses were a very useful and important thing for anyone to carry. Fun fact.

That pretty much wraps up my list of things.




This post first appeared on Realistic Optimism | Change Perspective, Change Li, please read the originial post: here

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What I keep on me when I leave the house i.e what’s in my back pack – travel, school, etc

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