please empty your brain below

If it's a "serious" photo day then: Camera(s), lenses, tripod, batteries, memory cards,book, newspaper and a bottle of water (from my own tap!). But what everyone else's bag contains has often had me puzzled too.

you are a marvel - nearly 40 and no baggage! not many round here like that. well done. i'd have slept right through on friday night if i'd had bigger pockets.

You may see it as just a bag, but to me it's a portable life support system and mobile office in one easy package.

I cannot leave the house with at least 25 CDs. How should I carry those, eh? EH?

Let's see: Two towels, toiletry bag, and sweaty trainers. Trackies and vest, Speedos and goggles. David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas' and this week's 'Time Out'. Five Ball Pentels (four black, one red) and a spiral-bound notepad, one HB pencil and one mini-sketch book. This month's leccy bill, last month's payslip, and a crumpled receipt from Sainsbury's from sometime last year. Cheque book, disposable camera, a bottle of water and 42p in loose change. Just the essentials, that's all.

"A book, a packet of chewing gum and a bottle of Dasani?"

Pretty close. A book, a bottle of tap water and a small umbrella. I can't manage the commute without a book on the way home. Unless it's a serious photo day, as NiC pointed out. Camera, three different lenses, two different flashes, a couple types of film... (I'm a backwards type person with no digital)

did you see that DG? nigels got a bottle of water!!!
nigel - i thought your contents were very metropolitan (a mini sketch book AND a camera!).
scaryduck - convert all your cd's into mp3s and carry 800 albums on one very small expensive player (in your pocket).

suggestion for tomorrows rant DG - cargo pants. and why they have too many pockets (to fill with crap).

But DG, you don't need a bag as:

1. You don't have kids.
2. You don't need to go more than a few paces from your door for food shopping, so can do it outside of the working day.
3. You don't have a sport or photography habit.
4. You are happy to buy sandwiches and drinks at greatly inflated prices during the day as you want them.
5. You don't take work home.
6. You're rarely ill so don't need a 'just-in-case' portable medicine cabinet.
7. You don't need retail therapy - and,if you do happen to buy anything during the day, it's put in some sort of bag for you anyway.

If the weather forecast is good and I'm not taking lunch to work then I often just carry my book in a pocket and leave the bag at home, otherwise it gets to share my backpack with an umbrella, some sandwiches and (this week at least) some homemade date loaf.

Mmmm, date loaf....

Sorry, what I saying?

OK, lemme see...

Wallet, keys, oystercard, change... all pocketeable, I grant you, except my jeans have rubbish pockets.

Also: notebook, pen, umbrella, book, two short stories printed out ready for reading, pack of tissues and yesterday's media guardian.

Hmm, depends on the size of the bag I'm carrying, as to what's in it, but this is what I'll be carrying in my bag to London tomorrow:

Camera (I get paid to take photographs, I carry a camera with me at all times), Keys, chocolate, MP3 Player (for the everso long journey up on South Eastern Trains), Paper and Pen (I'm also a writer), Wallet, Purse, lip balm, Passport, umbrella.

That's about it I think. Bit too much? And yes, all that does fit in one, rather small, shoulder bag.

My bag contains a healthy, home-made lunch and general snacks (I hate paying corner shop prices when I need a quick bite). It also contains an umbrella (imperative in the UK), 'women's things', a bottle of water (refilled from my tap, again, I refuse to pay the amounts asked for this in shops), my diary, phone, purse, work-related paperwork, comb, keys, gloves, hat, spare contact lenses and my glasses.

And that's on a light day! I don't know how you manage without unless you live right on top of your workplace or are very rich!!

Always a book for the train commute, and if I am almost finished with a book book a spare as well for the ride home, wallet, keys, lunch, MP3 player, headphones, sunglasses, asthma inhalers, mints and sometimes an umbrella.

And it can actually be uncomfortable to sit down if your pockets are overloaded.

I don't understand how some men manage to keep their wallets in their back pockets all day

Hm, looking in my bag right now: wallet, keys, phone, digital camera, book (only one, today), tobacco, papers, filters, lighter, hairbrush, pen, notepad.

If I could pare this down to all fit in my pockets, I still probably wouldn't. Every time I've wandered around with my wallet or phone in a pocket instead of my bag, I've felt paranoid for the rest of the day.

my office keys alone fill up half my bag as i'm the one who has a key to everything.

Surely it's the bag itself and not what's inside it that's important to most people?

I take a bag to work every day, but I live in the sticks and drive so it doesn't bother anyone. I still have my wallet, small change and keys in my pockets tho. It fells wierd to not have them in my pocket, I feel like i've left them somewhere.

So that leaves:- hands free headphones, phone leather case?, anadin extra, a pen, yesterdays back up tape, selection of screwdrivers, selection of spanners, a stanly knife, and a tape measure.

All of which apart from the back up tape I don't really need.

Am I the only one of the DG readership (apart from "gwplf" perhaps?) that carries a laptop computer around? Surely not. You need a bag for that.

I carry my life in my bag - I once had it stolen, and I was devastated.

Book (always carry a book), makeup bag, other makeup bag full of women's 'things', brolly, tissues, aspirin, notebook, pen, couple of bills that need paying, lunch (obviously only in the morning), can of diet pepsi and bottle of (fizzy) water (again only in morning), old receipts, can of deodorant, spare shirt (on those mornings I walk to work), purse, wallet with credit cards in, cheque book, keys, phone.

And that's just off the top of my head. I am bound to have forgotten something.

I used to carry a laptop around, in a huge bag. But my shoulders dislocate too much to do that now.

Instead I carry around a Mobile Device (no, it's not a phone), it's a Pocket PC, fits in the palm (runs on Windows Mobile, *gag*). Much lighter, and does all the same as my laptop used to.

I personally hate it when men ruin the lines of their body by stuffing their pockets full of things - nothing worse than a mans mobile phone, fags and keys stratgically placed in his back jeans pocket - spoils the whole beauty of the buttocks.

And I've seen men on the underground with old fashioned hard cornered briefcases that only have a newspaper and their sandwiches in clingfilm.

I think women tend to need more stuff. I have a female friend who goes out without a bag on the weekend but she's what you would call low-maintenance (no make-up, dreadlocks, not prone to headaches). None of my clothes have any pockets however. And when they do (like in a coat) I don't want the pockets to get all stretched out of shape and saggy.

you know that continental clutch bag look for men, its a mans purse or a 'murse'

I'm with annipink - although I used to be a two bag person ages ago but fortunately have now weaned myself to one apart from the days I carry my laptop.

It's probably a girl thing, but I feel totally naked without a bag.

Newspaper, book, 2 biros, mobile phone, 5 CDs, bronzer, mascara, blusher brush, lip Vaseline, Terry's chocolate orange bar, house keys, umbrella, purse with notes, change and credit cards, gloves, 2 plastic teaspoons, 1 plastic fork, A to Z, nail file, cigarettes, 3 lighters, screwdriver, various receipts, 6 business cards, diary and notebook.

crikey, all my "handbag" contains is my murble, packet of baccy, rolling tin containing papers and filters, car keys and my purse. There used to be a multi-tool in there too, but I've lost track of what happened to it.

It's still fairly big, but that's so if I find/buy things I have somewhere to put them.

hmmmm.... well, there's the laptop bag, but although it has space for other things, if I load it up, it ends up being uncomfortably heavy for the 4km or so of walking I have to do between train stations and work/home. So I invariably end up with another bag for water bottle (refilled at home), book, mp3 player, diary, mobile, purse and keys. Oh, and sometimes climbing gear (harness, shoes and chalk bag) which means switching to the bigger bag.











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