'Throw it in my bag', I say, to my poor man who's busy tidying up with me and brandishing some posession of mine or the other. When I'm busy, and my head full of clutter, I don't use all my words, and men don't always read minds, the way woman do. I try not to be impatient. He can't be contemplating throwing my laptop in the wetsuit bucket or my towel in my handbag, can he? I bite my tongue. Maybe this logic is only apparent to me.

But I need my bags. If I don't have stuff organised in them, I'm totally lost. And what if there's an apocalypse and I don't have everything on me? So my life philosophy is pretty much to keep calm and carry all the bags, right?

I seem to live my life in bags, thrown into the van at haste but also with a degree of organisation - if I leave home and don't pack my wetsuit, what if the surf is pumping? Or if I don't bring my deodorant, god help the students when I rock up at school post surf without it. Etcetra, etcetra. I've always lived like this - out of cars, ready for anything at any given moment.

The first bag is actually a bucket. It contains a block of surf wax, a water bottle, sunscreen, a hat, a wetsuit and a towel or two. I love the towels with a hood, so I can throw it over my entire body and get dressed without revealing all. Any number of other things can end up in the bucket - earrings, my wedding ring, my watch, clothes. Today I also have a bag of chocolate covered pepitas, but a scroggin of some sort can land in any bag, or all. You never know when you need some nuts or a fix of chocolate, right?

I also keep a set of clothes in the van in another bag (not pictured) for when I shift between work and play - a pair of loose fitting pants for yoga, a tshirt, bathers, a jumper. There's nothing worse than putting work clothes on after a surf, or rocking up to yoga and having nothing to practice in.

Then there's my work basket. I actually have two of these baskets by the front door - one for jars that I take to wholefoods for bulk food purchases (more chocolate covered pepitas, of course!) and the other for 'work shit'. Today it's noise cancelling headphones to block out office sounds and listen to some calming music, two folders of marking, a few pens, some Lion's Mane tincture for mental clarity, a ten dollar note. my laptop and charger. Just before I left, in went two dozen eggs to sell at work and my lunch.

The 'wholefoods' basket is also stuffed full of calico bags, which I use for shopping. I do object to people keep trying to sell me more of these, emblazoned with product labels, because they aren't particularly environmentally friendly either (cotton is notoriously unsustainable, unless you're sourcing it sustainably, of course). But I have these, and so long as I don't lose them all, I dont need to get any plastic bags. Yay. I also have a camera bag, with my good camera, two lens, a charger, and some camera cleaning stuff.

I think I'm truly living the #baglife.

Then there's a handbag. I'm not very good at bringing a handbag, mainly as I have stuff in baskets and buckets because it's so easy to piff things in there when I'm tidying up or in a hurry. But I do grab the handbag on the weekend if I'm going out. I bought this one at the markets in Port Douglas a few months back, on holiday. Attached to it is a bag of mesh bags, for putting things in at the grocers, instead of using plastic bags. There's two essential oils, for no specific reason than to occasionally smell nice - a rose, and a patchouli, which the husband loves. Also, my ventolin - which is also in the work basket and the surf bucket, just in case. I know someone who died from an asthma attack because they were caught without it, so I tend to never forget it. There's also a ten dollar note - mainly as I'm selling eggs at the moment so I end up with fivers and tenners everywhere.

In the bag this time is also my natural deodorant, which is usually just in the van in case I forget. There's also a strange bit of wood or seed I picked upon off the beach - yep, all my bags and baskets end up with rocks, shells and sand somehow, as well as plants. Stupidly, there's a pen in there - I don't know why I do that, because the lid inevitably comes off and the ink leaks through, like, on every nice bag I've ever owned.

Okay, I see why the husband is confused. Anyone would be. But it's a system that works for me. What about you?

This is response to the Ladies of Hive question of the week! Inviting @mamrita and @millycf1976 to join in.

With Love,

Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here