Inspired by this thread, for people (mostly men I may hastily assume) who don’t normally carry a bag, don’t you lose stuff all the time? If you consider that the average person needs to routinely carry around a bunch of small and valuable items, how do you keep track of stuff?
For me, I either carry a handbag or a workbag outside the home, which always contains (at a minimum) a purse/wallet (for cards, driving licence, loose change, notes, stamps), my keys, travelcard, iphone, inhaler, and sunglasses/umbrella, depending on the time of year. My bag is therefore my ‘go to’ place several times a day for stuff that I need to use regularly. On the odd occasion I go out by just stuffing my pockets, I get into all sorts of a muddle about where stuff is (particularly if I’ve just been down the pub).
So, what do you do without a bag? Are your jean pockets bursting with key bunches, loose change and credit cards? Don’t you mislay stuff both outdoors and within the home all the time? I have only one female friend who never carries a bag and she constantly loses her phone or keys, and doesn’t seem to understand that if she kept everything in one place, her life might run a little more smoothly.
What stuff? Left front pocket gets the phone. Right front pocket gets the keys and the minitool. Left rear pocket gets the wallet. If I’m out of the classroom, the belt holds a bigger multitool. Anything else is “worn when needed” or “in the truck/desk at work.”
Split between my front pockets I have my keys, phone, and headphones. In my butt pocket I have my wallet. If I need my sunglasses they’re on my head. If it’s night they’re in the car.
Really, I don’t carry that much stuff. And I only ever put stuff where they belong, so I never lose anything.
Hell, there’s been times checking out at a store when I’ll pay for something as opposed to my wife because she’ll spend five minutes looking for her wallet in her purse.
Daughter never carried a purse. Laughed. Sneered. Poked fun at “old ladies carrying pocketbooks”. Scornfully dissed celebrities toting around big ugly purses that cost a year’s salary (for a peon). Started working, found she HAD to have a purse for keys, wallet, cell phone, emergency granola bar, etc. Bought a little black canvas purse and learned to deal. We call it “baby’s first purse”. I never knew a man who toted around a man-purse, they keep things in their pocketses. Students have bookbags/backpacks. In the working world, you don’t need to tote around a lot of stuff, and if you do, you buy a briefcase (if you’re an office drone) or just keep stuff out in the car (if you’re a working man type).
Same as everyone else. The few things I need to carry just go in my pants pants (or sweatshirt) pocket. I have to admit, it is convenient in winter when I can keep the things I don’t need on me all day, but can’t keep in the car, in my coat pocket (keys, cell phone etc).
I’m a student. Wallet goes in back pocket, phone goes in left front, keys go in right front. Textbooks and such, when I need them, go in my backpack, but those wouldn’t go in a handbag anyway.
I carry my phone if I don’t have a pocket. My wallet is attached to my car keys and goes straight into by desk drawer when I get to work. At the grocery store or whatever I just carry them, or toss them in the handbasket.
I pretty much live at home or school, so things like emergency granola bars or whatever I bring in a box at a time.
Occasionally, when I go to an event like an academic contest I pack a canvas tote with my laptop, spare pens and pencils, books, that sort of thing.
Pants:
Left pocket - wallet + any loose change
Right pocket - keys, and where applicable: tape measure, box cutter
Coat:
Left pocket - gloves, when not in use
Right - Cell phone
Inside - Kindle
Now that spring is inching towards us, I’ll keep my cell phone in my left pants pocket, or just on my desk when at work. Not sure I really have a solution for the Kindle, although it does fit in the pockets of most of my pants. I don’t really need to carry it everywhere, though.
Female here; I wore a man’s suit for a costume once and was astonished by the quantity and volume of the pockets. If my everyday clothes had pockets like that, I wouldn’t need a purse either.
Things is… what if you don’t have enough pockets? What if it’s summer and you don’t have a jacket? What happens if you’re wearing something smart or fitted where you don’t want every pocket bulging with phones and wallets (or is that just a girl thing)? What happens when you want your wallet and realise you left it in the car/at work/at home? What happens if you don’t drive a car to work? What happens to your stuff when you get home – dump it in one place or scatter it around your home like my father does, so that my mother constantly has to answer the ‘Have you seen my…keys/wallet/credit card?’ question?
I’ve recently started carrying a handbag, since I’ve started having to carry an Epi-pen and bunch of pills around with me. And my Kindle. Before then, though, I used to have my debit card, Oyster card and keys in one pocket, my phone and cigarettes and lighter in the other - no need for a bag, really.
Keys, left front pocket. Knife right front pocket. Wallet right rear pocket. I keep my cell phone in a case on my waistband or belt.
I wear coats (as in outside type gear, it’s always winter here) a lot. But NEVER put anything of importance in the pockets. No need to.
As far as what I do when I get home? The stuff stays in my pockets. Why would I take it out? If I am not wearing the jeans the next day, I will transfer said stuff to the pockets of the jeans I will be wearing the next day before I go to bed. Simple. I’ve never lost a wallet or keys. I always know where my stuff is.
If I take a computer with me, or if I’m on vacation I might take a small backpack since I’ll be walking everywhere and may by some trinkets/gifts. Stuff stays in pockets. Putting your stuff in differnt places is an invitation to loosing it.
Female here and I’ve found that if I do use my bag I end up toting around a bunch of crap I don’t genuinely need and then I have to rummage through the damn thing to find anything. However, when I don’t use it I know exactly where the few items I need are. The money/cards (debit card, ID) take up less space than a wallet ever will and go in the same pocket as my phone, and keys & lip balm go in the other pocket. I don’t need a book or spoon or knife or lighter or gloves or any of that other shit that invariably ends up in my bag, and they’re always the reason it takes me more than 2 seconds to find what I actually need. I don’t have to worry about leaving anything behind at a restaurant or store, since I can’t accidentally leave my pockets behind.
I have a couple of small items (small hairbrush, gloves, umbrella, etc) I keep in my car in case I want them while I’m out, but even they aren’t a big deal to be without. One of the requirements for any pants I buy are that they have decent pockets. It frustrates me when I shop for women’s clothes and constantly find useless pockets.
ETA: When I get home I empty my pockets onto my desk, so no, I don’t lose things at home either.
I have a purse I carry when I am on a road trip because I need to carry more stuff.
If I am out for the day which is rare but emulates when I worked …
I put my cell phone in the right pocket, I read books on my droid, and it has internet so I don’t need anything else, and it also operates as a GPS when driving, and calendar/alarm clock. Pretty comprehensive unit )
Other pocket gets my keys and one strip of my pill dispenserwith a hair scrunchie wrapped around it in case I want to pull my hair back. My military ID, drivers license, and debit cards are in abusiness card thingy but not from walmart =)
I don’t collect coinage, I leave it on the counter or pass it off to mrAru or whomever is with me. I do occasionally carry my epipen with me if we are going out to eat somewhere I might run into mushrooms hidden in the food, mainly chinese stirfry places. We don’t eat out often anyway, I can cook pretty much anything you would get out at home for 4 people for the same price as cooking for 2 normally. When dressed up to go out for dinner my fancy clothes don’t have pockets so I use a small purse to hold everything.
Travelling I put in my entire pill dispenser, epi pen, my usual pocket stuff goes into the purse except the cell phone that sits in the cubby in the dash of the jetta, and some other assorted stuff that I normally have at home, nail clippers, eye drops lip goop, nail file - that sort of thing.
Pants pockets for keys, Swiss army knife, handkerchief, wallet (including money and cards), iPod, and a bunch of Post-it notes. Shirt pocket for pens (including a 13-function utility pen), a book of matches, an individually-wrapped wet-wipe, and thumb drive. Belt cases for multitool and cell phone. Coat pockets for gloves, earwarmer, and a plastic grocery bag. I do miss out on the plastic bag in the summer when I’m not wearing the coat, but of course, if I don’t need the coat, I generally don’t need the gloves or earwarmer, either.
Granted, there are a bunch of other things I’d carry, too, if I had a purse, but I think I’m doing pretty well with pockets.
Wallet in the back, money in the front, keys and cell phone clipped onto my belt. Plus I always wear carpenter jeans so anything extra I may need to carry just goes into one of the many pockets (though I may never find it again ;)).