If you are seeking designer bag advice, I apologize as this post will disappoint. I have little fashion sense, which ends just shy of accessories, somewhere near appropriate footwear.
I'm writing today to tell you about the perfect travel bag and how to use it.
Perhaps you recall not so long ago when you would leave the grocery store and have seventeen cheap plastic sacks which you would tote home and then shove somewhere (such as the front closet or under the sink). It is possible that you threw them away immediately, but I was raised in a household where both conserving material goods and ingenuity were esteemed values, so I retained an inordinate number of these bags until I became overwhelmed and threw them all out at once. In the last ten years, it appears that people are starting to bring their own bags to the grocery store, a practice that is nearly as fascinating to me as what other people choose to purchase from the grocery store. Some folks bring bags they received from walk-a-thons, the library, a CSA, or other nonprofit organization. Sometimes they are recycled plastic or canvas. These are not quite ideal for the travel purposes I have in mind, although you may hear about them again in another post.
The world's most perfect travel bag is the nylon shopping bag.
Yes, I said nylon.
Have you seen these? They are typically constructed from one piece of fabric, have two handles, and are somewhat larger than the plastic grocery sack. Many of them have stuff sacks made of the same material, either attached or separate from the sack itself. I believe every individual traveling for more than two days should have one of these, for the following purposes:
1. Carry one's snack/lunch/dinner aboard the plane.
2. Carry one's purse (and sweater, book, lunch, or other small bags) aboard a plane without being forced to check one's roll-aboard.
3. Grocery shop at one's final destination.
4. Carry one's beach goodies to the beach.
5. Tether one's lunch to one's kayak during day trips (the handles can be tied together, keeping the contents inside, and then hooked to the kayak).
6. Sit on (empty) at the beach, a picnic, or whenever the seating space is deemed otherwise icky.
7. Contain one's soiled clothes after a day of hiking/biking/kayaking in the rain until one can launder them.
8. Replace one's purse, should one's purse choose a time during travel to spontaneously disintegrate.
9. Hold blanket/pillow/towel/extra sweatshirt/socks for air travel.
10. Fold tiny with almost zero additional weight into one's other baggage when not in use.
Key features of the bag: nearly weightless, very strong, handles that cannot be detached and are not constructed separately, washable, quick-drying, mostly close-able, compact when not in use, and inexpensive.
