Inspired by Ceil’s column on the proper pocket for wallet keeping, I am curious what is the most popular wallet pocket, historical precedent nowithstanding.
I have always kept my wallet in my right rear pants pocket, and was surprised that Cecil said the left rear was the tradional wallet pocket.
What are your pocket preferences, wallet-wise?
PTF
Right front since high school, 37 years ago.
I have never lost a wallet or been pick pocketed.
I used to keep it in my right rear pocket. I learned that the ‘proper’ place to keep it was left rear back in high school when I got a chain wallet. All the wallets had the chain coming off the left side of the wallet. If I put it my pocket backwards, I’d be sitting on the snaps and then it wouldn’t make those cool worn out spots on the pocket.
Anyways. Now I keep it in my right front. I started doing that when I got a stick shift car. A combination of moving my right foot on and off the accelerator and whatever pair of pants I had at the time caused my wallet to work it’s way into a really uncomfortable position fairly quickly and I had to keep adjusting it. Now I just prefer it there.
In fall/winter, when just out and about, I put it in my right outside coat pocket. When wearing a suit, inner breast pocket. When not wearing a coat, or in heavy pedestrian areas where pickpocketing might be an issue, I put it in my front right pants pocket. I almost never carry it in my rear pocket…but will on occasion (if I’m wearing shorts with particularly shallow front pockets or something). I can’t stand sitting on it, though, which is why it’s almost always in the front or my jacket.
I used to carry it in my rear left pocket but I realized that I was much more comfortable sitting without a lump of wallet on my ass. So it now rides in my coat or in my front pocket if I’m coatless. At work, it sometimes stays in the glove box of my (locked) car.
Don’t carry a wallet anymore. I could never find a pocket comfortable enough, so I just carry my money in my right front pocket and my cards in my right back pocket. Even then if I’m driving I have to adjust them (the cards).
I also don’t carry a wallet. Money, keys, and transit cards (in a little sleeve-thing) in front-left; CCs/IDs/etc (bound with a rubber band) and cell phone in front-right.
For those who put stuff in their back pocket(s): Isn’t it uncomfortable to sit down?
About ten years ago, my chiropractor pulled my walled out of my back pocket and glared at me. Told me to never put it in a back pocket ever again.
Fearing for my life, I have complied. Only joking of course, but this guy knew some real-life Vulcan Death Grip spots on the body and could very easily put a person into a world of pain with little more than fingertip pressure.
Went to the chiropractor because my back was hurting. He said it was because I was sitting on my wallet, it was too thick. Then he said, “I’ll help you get that wallet a lot thinner”.
I used to carry my wallet in a back pocket and I had joint pains. On the advice of a co-worker, I switched to a front pocket and the pains stopped.
Right rear. It’s just natural. But my roll is always left front – big bills on the outside. Didn’t anyone see Donnie Brasco?
Left front pants pocket. I’m left-handed. Are most people who put it in the left pocket left-handed?
I hate to be a pole nit-picker, but I think it might have been better to ditch “left-right” in favor of handedness. Or maybe not – for all I know that’s not a factor for most people.
Anyway, I’m right handed and I keep my wallet in my back left pocket. I’m apparently in the minority, but I think this makes more sense than keeping it on the same side as my dominant hand. As Cecil’s column implies, it’s easier to retrieve one’s wallet from your pocket than to manipulate the bills and cards therein. Grab with the left, pay with the right.
Of course, the real answer is that the best way to do it is the way you’ve always done it.
Right front. It’s always been my understanding that keeping it in your back pocket is bad for your back, as others have mentioned.
Left front. I switched from rear (don’t remember left or right) 45 years ago when suit salesman blamed wallet for peculiar appearance of suit! :smack: Stuck with front for 45 years since it seems much less vulnerable to pickpockets or accidental loss.
I’m also curious about correlation with handedness. I was switched to the right as a youngster, and do a few things as a left-hander would, though my left hand is quite clumsy.
I’m a girl, but mine sits in my left rear pocket.
Left front. Keys, coins, train pass etc go in the right front. (I’m right-handed, and as others have said, it’s easier to pull out the wallet with your “wrong” hand and then retrieve stuff with your favoured hand.)
I’ve never understood why people put their wallet in their back pocket. For one thing it’s easier to pickpocket, for another it means sitting on your enormous wad of cash. Front pockets seem so much more secure.
Wallet in the front would interfere with where I bend, and is much more difficult to remove when in the driver’s seat, such as a drive-through restaurant or bank. I have carried mine in the back for over forty years, and never been pickpocketed, so I conclude the risk is low. I do remove it when driving long distances; otherwise, I don’t notice it when sitting.
I agree that it can be hard to retrieve while sitting down, but I very rarely need to do that. I’ve never even seen a drive-through bank, and I think I’ve been to a drive-through restaurant about three times in my life! If you live somewhere where these things are common, I can see it might get annoying, but the drive-through culture hasn’t really taken off in the UK.
Right rear pocket. I’ve always done it this way:
Left Front Pocket: cash, phone
Right Front Pocket: keys, and change in the little subpocket (I only buy shorts and pants that have that little pocket, if I can)
Right Rear: Wallet.
Yeah, I know, it’s easy to pickpocket, but I’m rarely in places that pickpocketers frequent, and when I am, I rearrange stuff so that it’s not so available. I also keep my wallet very thing- one credit card, ID, insurance cards, that sort of thing- as I said, I keep my cash in my left front. I don’t even use a trifold wallet- I use a business card holder, so my back never bothers me.
Those of you who keep your wallet in a front pocket- where do you keep your phone?