Mini Review: LeSportSac Miranda bag

Last year I bought a Miranda-style bag from LeSportSac.  It's a nice bag with some convenient pockets, but I find that it's not deep enough for my purposes.  It's always overflowing, and as it only has a snap closure, I am often liable to lose something.  Also, it has snaps for narrowing the sides a bit, but the snaps are a tad loose, so they unsnap quite easily.  Perhaps my penchant for carrying a bottle of water is not suited?

Conclusion: I really need purses that zip close.

A moomin totebag

http://kikra.ldblog.jp/archives/4966645.html
- super cute, but I have too many tote bags as it is.

orange! bags!

Gosh, I love the look of this orange blazer from Zara.

This orange shopper also looks amazing, but I need a zipper.

This brown square bowling bag is also cute, but not quite as stunning.

H&M is taking in clothes for recycling; they give a 500 yen coupon (good for any purchase 3000 yen or more) and will take any clothes, even if there are holes or stains, as they can recycle them for purposes other than re-wear.  Unlike Uniqlo, they will take any brand of clothing.  That's pretty awesome, as currently I just throw out such clothing with the burnable trash.

These bags look like they'd be great for work:

Brown H&M bag

 

Black H&M bag

Simplifying my Wardrobe: Bags

Inspired by The Minimalist Mom and other sites, I've started thinking more about how to get rid of things.  Composing this post forced me to be realistic and eliminate 4 additional items.  I found this point from http://www.xojane.com/clothes/project-33-capsule-wardrobe very apt:

Dress for your real life, not your fantasy one.

Eliminated:

1. A satin magnetic closure purse that I bought more than 8 years ago.  I've used it a few times, but that's about it.
2. red wallet that is too small to be useful (magazine freebie)
3. Large orange briefcase that can be split up into 2 sections - passed it to the SO
4. A large purse that is nice but too heavy
5. A small purse that doesn't hold enough for my purposes

Inventory:

1. Small black ostrich leather purse - super cute and looks like it will last me my lifetime.  After 10 years or so, it looks like new!  Partially this is because I only use it occasionally.
2. To be replaced: Brown computer briefcase.  Light and well designed, but showing a bit of wear on the leather accents.  If I ever wear it out, I hope I can get this sleek briefcase:This black purse is probably a bit more versatile and generally useful, but it's not as stunningly sleek as the briefcase: 
3. To be replaced: Blue crossbody nylon purse -> hoping to replace this some day with a sleeker, more durable alternative

On the travel side:

1. Orange weekender bag
2. Fold-able blue duffle for sports
3. Large suitcase - the zipper for the expandable section has broken, but otherwise it's in good condition
4. Fold-able thin black travel pack - ostensibly for when I might need an extra suitcase coming home, but it has only been used once for travel, and otherwise for hauling laundry.
5. To be replaced: Black Nike backpack that has an almost unusable zipper - practically new but I hate it because of the faulty zipper -> I would definitely like to replace this backpack with a better one, but am trying to get more use out of it first
6. Candidate for elimination: Maroon duffel from my college crew days - nostalgic and one of a kind.  Mostly just used for hauling laundry to and from the laundromat
7. Candidate for elimination: Orange duffel bag -> storing my unused-for-years snowboarding equipment.
8. 2 travel organizers
9. 2 toiletry cases
10. A sento bag for visits to the local baths

I may still have a small carry-on, or I may have dumped this as it was on its last legs.  I'm not sure as it may be inside of the large suitcase.

Other:

1. 5 simple totes (magazine freebies plus a こきんちゃん tote) - used for my toiletries, my belts, my weekend purse, and my hair things
2. 2 canvas shopping bags, 3 nylon shopping totes
3. 4 wallets
4. 3 pouches, 2 change pouches

 Next up, maybe shoes, maybe looping back to clothes.  This is an iterative process.