The Lazy Genius Podcast - #264 - What Should Be In Your Bag?

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

Carrying a bag around is such a simple, daily thing but super important because most of us leave our homes fairly often and sometimes need different things based on where we’re going. So today, let���s Lazy Genius your bag and figure out how you can leave your home each day with the things you need.   Helpful Companion Links Check out all 13 principles in my first book, The Lazy Genius Way Selum bag and Abera Commuter from ABLE (use code LAZYGENIUS15 for 15% off!) The Summer Docket: The Lazy Genius Guide for Making Summer Fun Download a transcript of this episode.   This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, you're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I am Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 264. What should be in your bag? Or what do you want to take with you every day so that you feel prepared for wherever you're going? It's such a simple daily thing, but super important because most of us leave our homes fairly often and sometimes need different things based on where we're going.

I'm guessing that whatever is in your bag is just in your bag, right? Because we, like, who has time to think about what's in their bag? And to clean it out and pack it differently and like whatever you think needs to go in your bag. So today, let's lazy genius your bag and figure out how you can leave your home each day with the things that you need. Today we're going to go in the right order when it comes to our bags. Go in the right order is a lazy genius principle, one of the 13 that I explain in my first. first book, The Lacey Genius Way. The right order for many, many things, has three parts. First, name what matters. Second, calm the crazy. And third, trust yourself with what comes next based on what you need and what you think could work. So your first step in figuring out what should be

in your bag is to name what matters. I think that there are three general categories of people when it comes to bags. This is just for my own brain, you guys. Like there are other things, but this is the idea. First, I think there are people who look at bags as accessories to an outfit. Like, what matters most about your chosen bag is that it looks good with what you're wearing or makes you feel good as you carry it. Second, I think there are people who look at bags as an essential tool. What matters most about your chosen bag is that it has what you need and is always ready to go. And third, there are people who look at bags as a tool box. What matters most about your chosen bag is that you are always the most prepared for the specific

scenario you're in, which might require different kinds of bags. I don't know. You just don't want to be without. Now, there are obviously other ways to look at bags, but I think these are three pretty broad ones. And at least if you don't see yourself in them, like try to name what you do see. Now, remember that when you name what matters most, you're not like straight up ignoring the rest.

No, you don't have to sacrifice everything for the one thing. Prioritizing simply names the engine. What gets the final say? What's pulling everything else along? You might have a bag that holds all your essentials and all your be prepared extras and it looks great with your outfit. You could have one that checks all three boxes. But if something has to go or something has to win, you know what it is.

also as you name what matters don't forget to consider your season of life if you are a parent of tiny kids you will likely need a big bag to carry diapers and changes of clothes and snacks and whatever else this is likely not always but likely not the season for a tiny cute bag right one day it can be again but your season of life matters if you have moved from a suburban area to a city where you're walking a lot and you're using public transit and not your car anymore, this might not be the season of life where you can carry that big bag you used to carry when you were only walking from a store to your car in the parking lot, right? Maybe this is a season to really essentialize what you carry so you don't have to carry so much through a city or something. Your season of life matters.

Okay. Now I want to talk about the three specific bag energies, one at a time. Let's start with the person who sees a bag as an accessory. You're a, the aesthetics, that's a hard word to say. The aesthetics matter most. You want your bag to fit with what you're wearing and how you're feeling. Cool. Now, maybe you can add a secondary priority here too, like what would next be on the list. Is it having exactly what you need? Is it that you choose from as few bags as possible? Is it that you want to get out the door quickly? Having a secondary thing will help as we move forward. And that's true for all of these. Okay.

Now the next step after you name what matters is to call them the crazy. Okay? What might be making you crazy when it comes to choosing and using your daily bag? What is keeping you from enjoying the use of whatever bag you want to use on any given day? It could be storage. Maybe your bags aren't in an easily accessible place. And you're always scrambling to find the one that you want. It could be time.

Maybe you don't have the time to move your stuff. stuff from bag to bag each day and you get annoyed when you're in a rush trying to make sure that you did grab your wallet from yesterday's bag, right? It could be shame. The shame is making you crazy on the inside. We're going to park here for a second. I do not like that this exists. But women are shamed, often by other women, for being shallow because you like to look a certain way. I just want to say to you, you are allowed to love bags, to have multiple bags and to change them out every day if that is what matters to you, if that makes you feel good. Just because someone else doesn't care about bags at all or just has the one or doesn't understand why you have 10 doesn't

mean you shouldn't have 10. And if you are a person who doesn't care about bags or just has like the one functional bag and you internally maybe like roll your eyes a little bit at someone who goes through what feels like trouble to you to switch over stuff from bag to bag every day, first I want you to remember compassion. We all get to choose what matters to us. cheer others on when they choose. Second, remember that you for sure, all of us do, have something in your life that you spend extra time or money or energy on that someone else doesn't. And you would not want others to judge that choice simply because it isn't their own.

People and especially women who prioritize aesthetics and personal appearance at the expense of ease, and convenience get a bad rap and they shouldn't. So if you're a bag as an accessory person, the crazy could be the shame or judgment that you feel from other people. Once you name that that is there, you can calm it and you can start to let it go. Okay, that little pet talks over. Now, after you have calmed whatever the crazy maker is, you can trust what should come next. Maybe it's nothing.

Maybe you just needed to put your bags in a place where they're not all on top of each other. And everything else works great now. Maybe you just needed to receive permission to look cute when you want to. And that's the only thing that was keeping you from enjoying your bags. Or maybe, and we'll pause here for a second, maybe what's next is to make decisions that impact your flow around what should be in your bag every day. Make it work a little better. Systemize it. So that might mean having multiples of your basics, hand sanitizer, chapstick, an emergency mask,

a pen, a little packet tissues, whatever you need. And you keep those things in their own bags. That's like batching and putting everything in its place, two lazy genius principles. Another principle you could use here is to build the right routine where what matters most is that you don't forget your wallet, right? That's the biggest negative consequence maybe of having and using more than. one bag, the wallet, and you can't have multiple driver's licenses or metro cards or credit cards or whatever. So perhaps a way you can build the right routine when you come home and when you leave is to always take your wallet out of your bag along with your keys and your phone and put them in one place. That way getting your wallet is as natural as grabbing your keys or your phone.

or another way that you could build the right routine is if you want more time to choose and pack the right bag for your outfit, you need to create that time. We all have different times it takes us to get ready every day, right? And I think we often underestimate it. Why don't you add an extra five minutes to your routine for a few days and use that specifically for your bag? Not everything has to take time. Some things we want to be efficient and quick, right? If you don't want to wear makeup or you want to just grab one bag, like, great, do your thing. If you want to eat a granola bar for breakfast, like that doesn't take any time. But if there are things that matter to you, like wearing makeup, you take the time. What if you want eggs for breakfast? That takes a little more time. So if you want

to be thoughtful about what bag you choose and you want it to go with what you're wearing, you want it to make you feel good and you want to have everything that you need, make sure that you make the time for that. Create the time for what matters. We'll be right back. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flame thrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero, more like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon.

Aw, isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dacher Keltener, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. join me for cities of awe a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Our next type of person is the bag as a tool person. I think if you have one main bag that you use pretty much all the time, except for when you're going to a wedding or something, this is you.

So let's start with what matters. My guess is that a good word for you is versatility. You want a bag that can work for different occasions and needs, right? The ease and versatility and simplicity of having one bag for pretty much everything matters the most. Now, your reasons for that could be different. Maybe it's a budget thing. You don't have the money to buy multiple bags. Maybe it's a space thing. You don't have the space to store more than one bag. Maybe it's a convenience thing. You don't want to not have something because you accidentally left it in a different bag. But name what matters to you about having this single bag as a tool. Now we call them the crazy. Assuming the frustration you feel about your bag would not be solved by becoming another type of

bag person because that is kind of a thing. You might want to have a completely different approach to bags. But let's assume that's not true. That's not the answer. What is the frustration? What's making your life with your purse or bag even mildly annoying? If you are a one bag person, I'm going to guess a likely culprit is a messy bag. You put literally everything in there every single day. So there are, you know, the usual suspects of wallets and stuff, but there are used masks and receipts and a collection of pins that have congregated in the bottom of your bag, but you don't know they're they. They're. so you keep grabbing another pen, right? A likely culprit is a messy bag. Now, you could keep it that way. It might not matter that much and that's totally fine. But if it does, if that matters, if you're overflowing, hard to find anything bag is making you a little crazy, how can you calm it? One thing that I do in my bag is I have all of the random little things that are essentials that I really want to have all the time. I keep them in a separate little zipper bag, like a cosmetics bag, hand sanitizer, pins, you know, chapstick tissues, whatever. Basically, I put all of those

kind of like secondary essentials in their own bag. My wallet and my phone and my keys are the most essential, but they just exist, right? They just like go in the bag. But I have a separate bag for those other things that could just sort of float around and get lost in there. They're in one place. I also have another separate little zipper bag for period related things because of that one time that I reached into my bag for cuticle serum and I came out with a tampon. So those are separate now. Then anything else that is not regular, right, in my bag that's a visitor is just in the bag. It's my laptop because I'm working somewhere else. It's a book that I'm dropping off with a friend.

it's Annie's toy that she wants me to hold for her because if she leaves it in a van it'll smell like the van. So my bag crazy is calmed by putting things in their place. Everything that stays in my bag all the time is contained inside something separate. So that makes cleaning out my purse way easier because I just need to grab the things that are not already inside something. If they're not inside something, they don't get to be permanent residence in my back. Now, I am, if you cannot tell already, I am a single bag person. But here's the thing. I own like seven or eight bags that I love.

So I own more than one bag. But I usually only use one for a stretch of time. Certain seasons of life require a certain kind of bag. And I'll use one for a while until it just feels right to switch it out. For example, I used my selim tote. I think that's how you pronounce it, but my celium tote from Abel for a couple of months. I love that bag. I love that bag. It's like a big hefty tote. And I used that for a while because I always needed a big

hefty tote. I always had a lot of stuff. I was book launching and on the move. I was going to meetings and I don't know. It feels like the kids had a lot of stuff. Like I just always had a lot of stuff that I needed to bring with me. Now, I used that for a while. And but because my permanent stuff that's in those separate little bags, right? Because those have their own place. I started to notice after a couple weeks that I did not put as much extra stuff in that bag anymore. It was just the essentials. And I had a ton of empty space. And it's a big bag. So I was carrying around a big bag that didn't have a lot of things in it. So I transitioned pretty recently to the Abera commuter bag from Able, which is about half the size. It's a crossbody. It is working so perfectly for me right now.

But I will let what's in my bag determine if I'm in a season where I need a bigger or smaller bag, right? Now, if my Abera starts getting crammed more than I would like, I'm going to switch to a, I'm going to switch to a larger tote. So I am a one bag person. I'm a bag as a tool person, but I own multiple bags depending on the season and I choose, you know, based on that season. But the point is, I calmed my personal crazy by putting the permanent things in their own little space in my bag. No clutter, no rooting around for things. And if I'm rooting around in a lot of stuff, I can very easily just like take out all that loose stuff, just handfuls. I can just grab it because the important things are in their place. And I think

that's a key. It definitely is a key for me and maybe for you too. The lazy genius principle of put everything in its place means that A, everything has a place and B, that you will return that thing to its place again and again. You can put your essentials in a cute little pouch. You can take that idea. But if you just throw your chapstick back in your purse, rather than put it back in the pouch and then zip the pouch so everything doesn't fall out, you're going to be back where you started.

Which is fine, which is totally fine. You're still a wonderful, lovely human if your bag is messy. It might not even matter. You can keep it that way. But if that calm is what matters, then putting your stuff in its place over and over again, and not just once, but over and over again, will change things for you. You might have other things that make you crazy about your one bag, but whatever they are, name it, calm it,

and then use a lazy genius principle or two to keep your bag in a rhythm that works for you. Okay, the final category of how you might use your bag is a bag is a toolbox. Not a tool, like the last one, but a toolbox. You want to have everything humanly possible on your person in case of any sort of minor or major emergency. Now, I think this feels highly true if you have kids, but it doesn't have to be exclusive to kids, right? But you decide what to put in your bag based on where you're going or what you're doing that day or what could possibly potentially happen. Are you taking your kids for a walk in the park and then you're going to do a grocery run after, but you also need to get gas?

Here are some of the things that you could potentially need for that trip. Wet wipes, extra clothes for the kids, maybe even extra shoes and socks for the kids, a plastic bag, to put those muddy shoes that might get muddy, your earbuds, if you're walking, if you're at the park and you maybe get to listen to something, reusable grocery bags if you use those when you go shopping, your grocery list, a pen to cross off that list, if you have a paper list, snacks, water, a first aid kit,

at the very least, band-a-a-a-a-worn, because, again, you're going to the park. The list can get pretty long when you want to be prepared. Now, what makes you crazy about that? Is it that you have too much stuff and can't find what you need? Is your bag too small to hold everything? Are you carrying so much that the big bag that holds it all is more cumbersome than you want to deal with? Are all the big bags ugly and you're bummed?

Because like you do care the most about having everything you need, but like barely in the second place is you want it to look cute? Are you visually overwhelmed when you open your bag? because there's just so much stuff in there. There's just so much stuff that all has like equal footing in your bag. Name what is making you crazy so you can figure out how to calm it. Let's use that last example to kind of blow this one out a little bit. Let's say the craziness comes from the visual overwhelm of all the things that you're bringing with you that exist in your bag at once, right? It's kind of like, you know, you need your keys, you need to grab your keys or you need to grab a grocery list.

but you have to dig through 17 granola bars to get to it. What if you put those, you know, always be prepared items like your first aid stuff, emergency snacks, wipes, those plastic bags for the muddy clothes or the diaper blowouts or whatever, those things that you might not need, but you want to have. What if you put those things in kind of their own compartment in your bag? You know how a lot of purses have like a separate little zippered compartments? Put those things in there and zip it so you don't see it. or put them in a separate little zippable pouch, you know, like I do my little things,

and zip it so you don't see it. Remove the visual clutter by putting those infrequently used items in their own place and then close it up. You can still bring them with you. You still have them. But if the visual clutter is making you crazy, make it so you don't see those things anymore. Or maybe there's a category of item that makes you feel crazy when you open your bag.

So it's not to be prepared stuff. Maybe it's like everything is swimming in receipts. because you keep receipts because you're on a cash budget or something. Instead of being overwhelmed by all the receipts every time you open a bag, have a little envelope for your receipts. It takes two and a half seconds, right, to put a receipt and sue that bag. Put them in their place. Honestly, you guys, I think this is your absolute most powerful principle here.

Put everything in its place over and over and over again. I think you probably know what you could do to calm the crazy of your bags that you but the maintenance of it, the systemizing of it, depends on putting that thing back. Don't just organize. You have to systemize too. So no matter what kind of person you are when it comes to bags, I think it's good to name that person. Like name what kind of bag person you are.

Maybe you're an aesthetic bag person who's been living the life of a tool bag person and you don't feel like yourself because you want your bag to match your outfit or your mood or whatever. Maybe you're a preparation toolbox bag person because that's how your mom was or how your mom friends are, but really you never reach for those things and they're just cluttering up your bag. And then you want a smaller one. Or maybe you've been in a season of being a toolbox bag person, but now your season of life has changed because of your family unit. Your kids aren't little anymore. Or where you live, maybe you move to the city or how often you leave the house because you work from home now. Pay attention to your season. What work to you?

before might not be your best move now. Pay attention to your season. Also, because lists are for sure fun and because this episode is titled, what should be in your bag, let's talk really quickly about what should. What should be in your bag? It depends on what matters to you. Ha! Of course it does. But something that should be in your own personal bag, a way to kind of like a lens to look at this through, is what's often missing? What are you usually looking for? Are you needing a pen? put a pen in your bag. Do you keep forgetting a mask? Put a couple masks in your bag. Do you get headaches a lot because the world is on fire? Put ibuprofen in your bag. Are your hands often dry? Put a little tubal ocean in your back. Think about the things that you often wish you had and consider if those

things are important enough to go in your bag and still fit what matters to you. So here's what's in my bag pretty much all the time. I mentioned a lot of these already. I have a little zipper pouch, right? with hand sanitizer, cuticle serum from Olive and June, a nail file, a glasses cloth, a travel pack of tissues, a pen, a mild liner, that's my favorite highlighter, gum, and rosebud salve. Those are the things I always have in my little bag. I also have that little zipper pouch of period stuff, you know, like I already said, wallet keys, phone, the usuals. I also have a little tear-off notepad. because I always feel like I need a piece of paper for something. I keep extra masks in my car,

so those are not in my bag. But I live in a suburb and I have a car, right? Extra masks are an essential, but I don't have to keep them in my bag. And that can be true of a lot of things for you too. And that's about it. Now, there was a time when I always had a bag of dried mango for snacks, but I went weeks and weeks without eating the mango. I didn't eat it. an emergency bite of dried fruit. So I stopped. I stopped putting it in there because it was just cluttering things up. I also used to have an extra pair of earbuds in my bag because I worked at coffee shops a ton and it's really sad to work in a coffee shop and I have your earbuds if someone's having a really long, annoying conversation next to you. But I work in my office now. So I don't need those

anymore either. So those are gone too. But that's it. Like that's what I have in my bag. And the key for me is keeping those essentials in their own bags. It keeps things from getting cluttered. It also makes it so much easier to quickly use another bag on whatever day. I don't have to go through a lot of trouble to make sure I got everything. I just get those two little bags and my wallet and I hit it. Now this is a pretty specific topic for an episode, but also it's pretty relevant to most of us. We all take stuff with us every day.

And depending on where we're going, you know, and what matters to you, like the way you approach that stuff is going to be different. So remember, name what matters, even about something as seemingly silly as what bag you use and what you put in it. Name what matters about that thing. Lean into kind of that bag personality idea if that helps. Calm the crazy with whatever is going on in your bag. And then you can use a lazy genius principle or two to maintain those choices. And I highly recommend put everything in its place. Now before we, go. Let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week. This week it's Jessica Rizig, and this is what she wrote to me. I always had a hard time remembering when I changed out bathroom items like lufas or toothbrushes.

So the rule in our house is everyone has their own bottle of body wash and toothpaste. When the bottle or tube is empty, you place the corresponding item, so a lufa or a toothbrush, in the cart, like you buy it at the same time. That is so smart, Jessica. That is such a great idea. It's so simple. And that's a great house rule. That's another lazy genius principle, a set house rules. You know that if somebody needs a new tube of toothpaste, you're also getting them a new toothbrush. It's just super simple, super smart. So thank you for sharing that, Jessica. Congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. That's all for today, friends. continue taking care of yourself with kindness, please. It's still a lot right now. One way you might

want to do that is to prepare for your summer with a little more intention. The summer docket is a digital guide to having fun this summer, to doing the things that matter to you, creating those strange summer routines that don't seem to fit anywhere else and to feel like yourself while doing it. It is a digital resource available in our digital store. It's similar to the Docket and that it helps you lazy genius a tricky season of your life, but it is not the holiday docket with summer colors and new calendars. It is a completely different resource with pages thoughtfully created to work for your summer. It is available in the store, like I said, in the Lazy Genius Digital Store, it's $15. It is not just for people with kids. It is not just for people

home with kids. It is for single people. It is for working people. It is a structure for you to create a summer that matters to you, if creating a summer that matters to you, matters to you. And it might not. And that's okay too. But you can check it out if you're interested. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. I'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it?

I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.