My keys are clipped to my hip. My phone is in my left pocket and money is in my right pocket. Books are in my saddlebag and in my car. My bank card lives in the breast pocket of my jackets and vests. Glock is on my right hip. I don’t need anything else.
Female biker here. Us bikers know to keep important stuff close. Thats why chains were invented 
No need for a bag, I just carry the essentials in my pockets:
tuning fork
scotch tape
arc welding rod
I think that my Leatherman has most of those functions covered. Well, except for the dedicated ear pick. So I feel better about the pen envy.
I’m still jealous about shirt pockets, though. Most women’s shirts don’t have useful shirt pockets. I should probably just start making my own shirts and skirts, and put cargo pockets on everything.
And yes, I absolutely DO need to carry books in my purse. Sometimes I don’t drive, and I get dropped off and picked up. I need my books.
Another female minimalist here. I will say, though, that if I’m traveling, I will carry a small knapsack-looking handbag or a big leather monstrosity I bought for a song a couple of years ago that almost eliminates the need for a suitcase :eek:
I also wear an apron with pockets at work, which gives me greater options.
All my stuff goes into my jacket when it’s cold out – wallet (one of those foldover cheapy Wal-Mart jobs) and phone in one pocket, cigarettes and gum in the other. Sunglasses get left in the glove box – otherwise they either stay on top of my head or hooked to my collar if I’m not wearing them.
When it’s warmer, wallet in right front pants pocket, phone in left. Or cigarettes/such in right and I stick the wallet into a back pocket. Really depends on the pants. Sometimes I leave the cigs in the glove box, especially if I’m doing something with nonsmokers.
Agreeing with most of the guys here - I don’t really carry enough stuff to warrant anything beyond pockets. Unless I’m taking my laptop, in which case I wear a backpack, but I don’t have that with me all the time by any means. The normal/minimum stuff I have with me is wallet in left pocket and my keys (including a little mini torch, a bottle opener, and a USB key), phone, and slinky spring in my right pocket. I impulsively check that I have those four things in my pockets when I leave anywhere, to the point that on occasions when I don’t have one of them (like say I don’t take my keys with me because I’m staying at someone else’s house), I spend the whole day having mini-panics because I’m constantly realising I’m ‘missing’ something.
Carrying all that stuff around sounds so** bulky.**
I guess guys are used to it, though.
At work I am always wearing “carpenter” style jeans. They have those extra pockets along the right leg. Those pockets carry a Stanley utility knife, a ballpoint pen and a black marker. In left front pocket, change and when I’m too lazy to put it in my wallet, folded paper money. Right front pocket is for a pocket knife. I have a bunch of keys I lug around, four separate keyrings clipped together on a lanyard. The keyring (3 keys) for my truck goes in my right front pocket. Wallet in my right rear pocket. Cell phone, when I remember to grab it, goes in a shirt or jacket pocket.
Phone in belt holster. Key ring with 3 whole keys & an ultra-slim card case / wallet in pocket. Maybe a comb. Glasses on face. Done.
Wallet: 2 business cards, 2 credit cards, 1 driver’s license, 1 medical insurance ID card, 2 $20s. Less than 1/8" thick fully loaded.
A man can travel the whole US armed with just that. Add a passport & I can travel the whole world. And do regularly. And while traveling the keys stay in the suitcase, so they aren’t in my pockets.
Stuff??? We don’t need no steenkin’ stuff!!
I wrestled with this question fairly recently. I found myself carrying more stuff once I had a dog (leash, training clicker, a treat or two, plastic bags, etc.). Plus, the usual knife, cell phone, keys, etc. I sometimes lost things, and was always thinking I had lost them because I got them mixed up between various pockets. And if I wore a different pair of pants, I had to switch everything over.
In the end I went with a belt pack. Belt packs get a bad rap because they quickly became associated with fat, dorky tourists. But there is nothing inherently ugly about them. And they are extremely useful. Wouldn’t be surprised if they became “in” again in the near future. Regardless, they work for me.
Skinny jeans wearing dude, here.
Front left: Money clip (cash, license, ATM, and health insurance card), keys (car, house, office, and a minimalist knife), and change (which gets dumped as soon as possible.)
Front right: Blackberry and a bic.
Rear: Pack of smokes.
Sunglasses get hooked over my collar when I’m not wearing them. If I’m bringing a paperback or a newspaper somewhere, I just carry it with me. I haul a laptop back and forth to work, but I carry it in a minimalist folio with a pad and a couple of pens.
My daily work clothes have 12 pockets. And that’s not wearing a jacket or additional layer in the winter or in the rain.
And yet I still only carry a wallet, a phone, and one key. Anything else can go in the car, or if I ride the motorcycle to work, in a back pack. But the back pack doesn’t have to stay with me all day, everywhere I go. It stays at work.
You carry an umbrella with you at all times? That is strange.
Mens’ pockets really are a lot bigger than womens’. My girlfriend gives me dirty looks every time that I tuck a small paperback into the pocket of my jeans, though I don’t do this for long periods of time because it’s a little uncomfortable. I can get my phone and keys in my left front pocket and my wallet and a pen in my right front pocket without any discomfort at all. Mens’ clothes, when fitted at all, are not anywhere near as tight as womens’ are, and besides, a lot of mens’ clothing (pants and jackets especially) are designed to hold wallets and the like without bulging badly. Leave my wallet? How could I? Every morning I transfer it from the pants that I wore yesterday into the pants’ I’m wearing today. Beyond that, it’s just a function of putting it back in my pocket when I’m done using it, the same way you put it back in your purse.
If I really have a lot to carry around during a day, I’ll grab my backpack, but that’s really just for days when I have my laptop with me.
On a day to day basis, I have:
Front right pocket: Keys, cell phone, pocket notebook, Swiss Army Knife (accept no substitutes)
Front left Pocket: iPod, various pieces of paper with info I have to keep with me, Challenge Coin.
Back right pocket: Wallet with ID Card, driver’s license, money, etc.
Right cargo pocket: Reflective Belt. +10 against automobiles. -10 against everything else.
Left cargo pocket: Liquid energy. Usually a can of monster or a couple little cans of coffee. Also usually temporary until I sit down.
The pockets to get a little “full” with all that stuff, so usually I take the notebook, phone, wallet, and iPod out of my pockets when I’m at work and just keep them on my desk until I get up. If I’m wearing my newer uniform, the cell phone and iPod move down into the cigarette pockets on my lower legs. (Look at those pockets on the ABUs, and try to convince me they could have any possible designed purpose other than holding cell phones and smokes).
If I need to carry more stuff every once in a while, I’ve got a cheap little backpack or a laptop bag that I can move up to, but both normally stay at home.
EDIT: Oh, and as for keeping track of all that stuff when I take it out of my pockets (or when I’m not wearing pants, which is usually only at home), I’ll invert one of my uniform caps and just pour everything into it. My wife says I’m weird, but she admits it is a system that works for me.
You know what? I think you’re onto something. I have the perfect idea:
Utility belts.
I mean, Batman doesn’t carry a purse, but he always has the exact freaking thing he needs. Grappling hook? Check. Smoke grenades? Check. Batarangs? Playah carries like fifty of them. Shark Repellent Spray? Never leave home without it.
Hell, I bet he’s got his cell phone in one of those pockets.
I don’t think guys really appreciate how under-pocketed women’s clothing is. Even when there are pockets, they tend to be small and useless, if not “faux” altogether.
I’ve only taken to carrying a small handbag recently; back when I didn’t, I simply didn’t carry much stuff. When all you’re carrying is a CC-carrier (ID there, it’s CC-sized), a wallet-sized but thin driver’s license (can’t wait to get the new one, those are CC-sized), a keyring and a bit of money, you don’t really need a handbag. The only handbags I’ve used any regularly are about 20x15x5cm (8x6x2in) and have a pocket specifically for the cellphone - which is the one thing that doesn’t fit well into my jeans’ pockets.
My biggest fight with my seamstress is about pockets (ok, the only argument we have): I say “put pockets in trousers!”, she says “then you place things in the pockets and that spoils the line!” I have a pair I got off a Moschino clearance which is currently in its 6th or 7th incarnation: when the current one is looking a bit ragged, I order another copy. Those do have pockets which are ample enough to carry even the cellphone without “losing their line” - unlike the jeans. (I’d buy them off Moschino only they don’t seem to make that model any more, which is a pity)
Having seen this question later on: at home I have, and have had since I was allowed my first set of keys, a “vacíabolsillos”, a spot (now a tray, way back when a box) where I empty my pockets. Nowadays that holds the handbag, stuff that may or may not go into it depending on what I’m doing (such as some OTC meds) and other related items (the guests keyring).
Female, no purse. I carry the smallest of small cell phones, a knife, wallet, and keys.
My car is a freaking wreck though, I’ve got all kinds of stuff in there so I suppose it’s just a purse on a grander scale.