If you could design the perfect tote to carry all your work/school/gym/office stuff what features would it have?
Wish I could find the perfect tote bag for hauling around all my teacher essentials. I’ve only been looking for the perfect bag forever ( a tiny exaggeration). Like the perfect purse, I wrote about in an earlier blog,( Surviving my Purse) the perfect tote doesn’t seem to exist. Oh sure, there are a plethora of totes, carry-alls, back packs, duffles, briefcases, and school bags available at Macys, Target, Office Max, etc, but none seem designed for the fussy selective high school teacher.
Here’s a few of my basic needs:
- Must stand up on its own. I have lots of meetings to attend and a floppy bag is just so…floppy. ( Bags that stand on their own are easier to rifle through)
- Must have a shoulder strap or cross-over length strap. This will be be good for hauling stuff long distances–like from one end of campus to the other.
- Must have room enough for iPad, a few books, lunch, pair of flats, and a stack of essays.
- Must have multiple outside pockets for holding: 1) my morning Starbucks, 2) classroom keys/campus ID, 3) cell phone, 4) random papers picked up at teacher mailbox
- Must also have multiple inside pockets for: 1) the dreaded red pen, 2) pencils, 3) iPhone cord, 4) flash-drives, 4) notepad
- Must be water repellent (sometimes is actually rains in SoCal!)
- Must not be black! Objects tend get lost inside a black-lined bag.
- Must have waterproof lunch compartment. (Most teachers bring their lunch and beverage, and I can’t remember how many times my lunch leaked all over essays or –yep–all over my iPad. Note: I tossed the Tupperware for some leak proof glass containers.)
- In fact, a watertight iPad compartment would be great!
- Points for stylish looks
Sort of sounds like I’m looking for a portable office–which is often the case.
waterproof lunch bag is attached to tote–not so stylish
I found an almost perfect book bag at Barnes & Noble. It’s just lacking a long shoulder strap.
The perfect tote for the office! Sigh. Maybe one day I’ll find it.
