Everyday Carry

Function over firearms

My bags are a disaster: 11 lbs of receipts, granola bars, and charging cables for the wrong device.

I alternate between two bags—a smaller purse for quick outings, and a larger backpack for bringing my laptop and the rest of it. If I was smart, the small purse would fit in the backpack, but, let’s be serious, the purse still needs to carry my knitting project, so it’s not that small.

I would like to blame the bag switching for the organizational issues, but the truth is my bags always veer towards chaos and all I can do is empty them out occasionally and pray that my keys are in there and last week’s apple is not. Then, before leaving the house, I add another granola bar, just in case.

Before our schedules switched back on for the year, I wanted to bring a little EDC order into my world.

EDC, or every-day carry, is a term that sometimes means a pared-down and thoughtful collection of what you want to have in your pockets/bag whenever you are out of the house. And then sometimes it means your gun and knife collection that you carry everyday, so that you will survive the coming apocalypse or, more likely, open an Amazon box in a really manly way.

I first encountered EDC in the productivity blogs in the 2000s, when people were worshiping David Allen’s Getting Things Done, and both embracing and rejecting technology. I definitely went in for the hipster PDA, not that I had a PalmPilot to compare it to. And it found me again in stationary world with pens and notebooks, though that butts up against the portable studio or travel watercolor kits, which I also love to ogle.

I think the diaper bag years taught me how to plan and pack for what we absolutely need, what we might need, what might make life a little better, and a few just in case items to ease the mind. And I still think in those terms: I absolutely need my phone, wallet, and keys. I might need a snack (for me or a kid), water, moisturizer, my phone charger, and a project to keep my hands busy. And what would make life better? A hot drink and my headphones. And just in case… I have spare set of glasses, some cash, my back up sewing project, bandaids, and another snack. I will say, the just in case kit in the car is bigger, especially in winter—a first aid kit, extra gloves and hats, a folding shovel, tire pump, etc.

Except now I am middle aged and I am supposed to wear sunscreen all the time, and my digestive issues mean Lactaid pills, a non-dairy creamer that I like, and a few other items to manage. Adding these extra items to the bag management system cracked my very thin veneer of organization, so a reboot was in order.

This is all a trial run as I figure out what is working, or needs regrouping, or is missing. And in that spirit, I didn’t immediately make bags for each—because I know I would fret about the ideal style and the right size… and I would never actually make the bag or get to the trials.

In my self care bag I have contacts (backup for glasses), bandaids, tweezers, flat-fold nail clippers, meds and Lactaid, a solid perfume that my friend made, and a new-to-me oatmilk creamer, because a few of my usual gas stations don’t have a good non dairy option.

I debated my pen and paper options for a while, because I spend too much time thinking about how to make handwriting easier—or, rather, what makes it more difficult. Notebooks that are too small and pens that need a lot of force make it harder to write, which means I capture fewer notes, or am more reluctant to pull out the notebook. This is a large bag, but it has space for a book if I am doing research. And my favorite highlighter and sticky flags plus one of my favorite pens for smooth writing. I am very curious to see how this works or what needs tweaking, since it feels wrong not to have a separate pencil case.

And a tech pouch. This was actually put together by my husband as a Channukah gift (we owned everything, he thought about what I needed and put it together for me from his drawer of cables). A battery with an integrated USBc, plus a lightning charger for my phone, headphones (a backup to my bluetooth headphones, which I also use at home). The bag is actually one I made for camping—it was a kit with ultralight Dyneema fabric and a waterproof zipper. It makes me happy to use it, and we can pull it for camping when we need it.

This is where I start 2026. Still missing the sunblock and, now that I look at these photos, where did my moisturizer go? I guess that’s the next mystery to solve. I’ll let you know how its going, or if it all falls apart once I decide I am going back to the Hipster PDA (aka: index cards and a binder clip).

I welcome your best, or worst, advice for any of these! What essential have I forgotten? Where do you think the moisturizer went and odds that I will see it again?