Stuff You Need
Dr. Helen has decided to ditch the purse for a wallet. In the process, she asks:
How has it worked out? It’s hard! The first day I carried just a wallet, I kept looking for my purse and feeling that I had forgotten something. By the third day, I was over this but I didn’t have all of the things I needed such as various keys, my chapstick, stamps, my address book, my pepper spray, various food, gloves — and carrying spare change in my pocket drives me crazy. It jingles and falls out when you sit down. Is this normal? Are there some tricks of the trade that I do not understand here?
Yeah. I’ll offer up George Carlin’s response when he is confronted with the lament that someone’s “needs aren’t being met.” Lower your f-ing needs.
- Keys: left pocket
- Chapstick: don’t need
- Stamps: don’t need
- Address book: don’t need
- Pepper Spray: don’t need
- Food: don’t need
- Gloves: don’t need
- Spare change: don’t need
Seriously. I don’t carry spare change. I collect what I get in the day, and when I get home, whatever made it home in my pockets goes in the bucket.
What do I carry? Keys, a pocket comb and a Swiss Army Knife in my left pocket. Wallet and business cards in right pocket. Pen and iPhone in shirt or jacket pocket. (One of the reasons I got an iPhone was that I could carry it in a jacket pocket without ruining the lines on a suit.) I either hold my sunglasses or keep them in a jacket pocket. Anything else I do without.
I’m sure that you have a briefcase. Anything particularly bulky can go in there. Gloves go in the overcoat pocket. Won’t need one without the other. Sometimes I throw gum in my right pocket.
