Bags as decor and storage

Hi, my name is Carol and I'm a bag collector. 

Phew, there it's out in the open, my weakness is for bags. 

Not shoes or dresses or cars or one of many, many other things I could collect. 

It's bags. 

I'm not sure when my fascination with bags first started. I wasn't interested in them in high school and I lugged a backpack to work when I first started working. Nothing flash, just a plain old backpack. It kept my stuff dry as I cycled to work. Job done. 

I guess the first time I can really remember thinking about bags was when I was looking for a decent camera bag after I bought my first slr. I wasn't happy with the cheaply made bag that came with my camera and I started looking at better quality waterproof bags. Especially Lowepro bags. At that stage back in the late 80's, Lowepro was the only bag type I really knew about and knew I could buy here in New Zealand. I first spotted them mentioned in an American photography magazine. I looked at British Photography magazines too but couldn't find a lot of the brands they mentioned there, over here. Anyway over the years I've owned many different camera bags as my equipment has grown and changed and then shrunk again. (Over the years I've owned a Minolta film camera and large lenses and huge flash unit and correspondingly large bag. Then a couple of Canon dslrs and lenses plus a large backpack and then I downsized drastically to a Canon G11 that could nearly fit in my pocket, while I saved up for the gear I now have. My Olympus OMD EM5 and lenses that I carry in a Golla Riley Pro shoulder bag. A much smaller and lighter kit than my Minolta and Canon gear.)

Over those years I tried out numerous backpacks for my heavier gear and since buying my Olympus gear in 2014 I've tried out 3 or 4 shoulder bags too. I have to say here, that I think most photographers are on the lookout for the perfect bag but I don't think it exists. The perfect bag is really a couple of bags. One larger one to fit all your gear in when you need it and one smaller one to carry only what you need when you need to travel light. The one perfect bag is a myth. Which is a shame really. (I really like Hermione's bag in Harry Potter. Could carry everything including the kitchen sink and still be light to carry. I think that could almost be the perfect bag.)

Somewhere during that time I started to get interested in other shoulder bags. Not purely women's handbags per se but a mixture of messenger bags, handbags, cross-over camera bags and bags for your electronic devices.

I must say here that I've never been interested in designer or high-end handbags. They clash with my hiking boots and I find them a bit gaudy and sparkly for the places I like to hang out. Most birds would be scared off by shiny sparkly bits on a bag except perhaps the Magpies and after having been dive-bombed by a nesting Magpie in the past, I'm not too keen to attract them.

Anyway, that brings me to my current collection of bags which I had stashed in my wardrobe. I pulled them all out to go through them and donated  three handbags to the local Hospice shop. This has left me with five bags left. One handbag, one colorful bag my sister brought me back from Thailand and three messenger type bags. I didn't really want to stash them all back in the wardrobe and I was sick of shifting my currently used bag around the house as it didn't have a set home. So I came up with the idea of hanging my current bag on the wall where I could easily get it when needed. Then I put the handbag I wasn't using in the larger messenger bag along with a smaller messenger bag and hung that and my Thai bag on the wall too. (see the picture above) (My current passion is for army style canvas bags. Soft and moldable to your body whilst being tough and hard wearing.)

I've found the bags on the wall have added a bit of color to my bedroom whilst also adding some extra storage space. (Storage space is sadly lacking in our home. No hallway cupboards and no linen cupboard either so any small places I can add storage is good.)

So what do you think? Do you have some bags or baskets tucked away in a cupboard that might look good displayed and provide some extra storage?

  

How easy is it really, to walk away empty handed?

"It is desirable that a man... live in all respects so compactly and preparedly that if an enemy take the town, he can, like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty-handed without anxiety."

David Henry Thoreau

I love the idea of the above quote. To be so unattached to my things that I'm able to walk away after a fire, flood or war and miss nothing. To have nothing that can't be replaced. It sounds so freeing.

This quote is from Thoreau's book 'Walden' published in 1854 and the paragraph this was taken from was discussing the merits of quality clothing versus cheap thin clothing. Taken out of it's context though, it sounds like everything should be easily walked away from and that's how I am taking it for this blog post.

I guess in 1854 it was a lot easier to walk away from everything. I'm not sure it's so simple now.

So I asked myself, what things in 2018 would I have difficulty leaving behind and can I find a way around losing them? 

After a bit of thought I decided there are three main things that I would have difficulty leaving behind.

1. Important documents
2. Photographs
3. Artwork

Important documents

I know from experience how hard it can be trying to prove your identity in a modern world without the correct paperwork. The modern fixation with red tape and bureaucracy have made it extremely frustrating, costly and time consuming to get anything done and if you don't have proper identification you pretty much don't exist in the eyes of some places.

A possible way around losing these documents could be keeping them in a fireproof safe or a safe deposit box at the bank. This wouldn't save them from everything that could possibly happen to them but it would sure take a load off your mind knowing they were as safe as you could make them.

Photographs

In a modern world where everyone shares their breakfast lunch and dinner with you online it can seem like there's too many family photos to keep safe but if you look hard at the images you have and only keep the very best photos, discarding multiples, blurry images, over or under-exposed images and the weird images (you know the ones where someone makes a face, or shuts their eyes or sneezes), you'll find that you have very few to store. 

I noticed a while back, on a news report about the Syrian refugees, that quite a few of them had packed photos on mobile phones and usb sticks in their belongings. I have a usb stick with important photos on it too, just in case, but in reality I know I might not have it with me if a disaster struck so I also have them online in cloud storage. As long as I can remember my passwords I can access them from anywhere. I also share some images on Instagram and Facebook so I can see them there too. 

Artwork

When I was a child and some of my artwork got damaged I used to get upset about it but nowadays I work small, take photos or scans of my work and sell it printed on items online. The original images stay with me but if they were lost or destroyed I'd still be able to see them online so I'm not really too worried about this either. 

It seems to me that anything I may be worried about losing in 2018 is in fact safely backed up or can be safely stored with a bit of forward planning. Maybe it's easier for me to walk away from home empty handed than I thought because everything I care about is backed up safely.

"But wait", I hear you say, "What about jewelry, or trinkets handed down?" 

Well, I don't associate things with people. I love photos because they can remind you of the people you love and places you've been, which I think would be very useful in later life if I had dementia but I don't get those sorts of feelings from things. They're just things to me. I have no interest in glittery things either. I don't wear rings. I only wear sleepers in my ears and own no other earrings. My only necklace is a Maori carving in green-stone on a piece of leather that my husband and children bought me one year for Mother's day and if that got destroyed in a fire I'd still know my family loves me. It wouldn't be the end of the world for me to lose any of it. It's just stuff. 

I guess at the end of the day, it is possible for me to walk out and leave everything I care about behind, as long as technology is backing me up. I mean really, if the world was ending and the cloud disappeared I think I'd have more to worry about than a few photos and drawings.

Is that cheating? Yep, I think so, we have so many more ways to access what is important to us now than they did in 1854, but, to be fair, I think nowadays we have become much more bogged down in red tape and bureaucracy as individuals and somehow we have now also become the keeper of our family histories. As we now document every little everyday thing thing that we do, I think we have created a huge load/responsibility for ourselves to preserve things that I'm not even sure should matter that much.

I guess as individuals we each have to decide what matters to us and what doesn't and that's what minimalism is all about really. Sifting through your stuff, your commitments, your life and decluttering the rest, so that we can all live as freely as possible.

(I hope it goes without saying that the most important things in my life aren't the above things. My family and our newest family member Bayley, a black Labrador are way more important than papers, photos or art.)

I'll leave you with a pic of Bayley.

Have a great week!

Okay maybe three because she's so gorgeous!