I got annoyed recently when I wanted to leave the house and noticed my bag was half full just with stuff to deal with weather. In Tokyo, I usually carry an umbrella with me, maybe sunscreen, sunglasses, a mini towel etc. Others have fans, “neck fans” (not sure how they are called). Maybe a water bottle also counts.

All of this is “weather stuff” for me. I asked a friend what she carries around, and we started to think about some other categories as well. So I wondered how much of the stuff we carry around is actually about the thing we want to do wherever we go, and how much is just to cope with the environment? Also, I would be curious how this looks like in other places around the world. Things probably vary by gender, age, season as well.

Some categories are:

  • weather stuff
  • personal hygiene stuff
  • safety stuff
  • not being annoyed by others stuff
  • infrastructure fail stuff (e.g., preparing for when trains get delayed)
  • stoy
    4·
    5 months ago

    Swede living in a suburb to Stockholm, 36 year old man, living alone.

    Weather stuff:

    I put an unbrella in my backpack during autumn, I wear a hat during winter.

    I have sunglasses in my car and my new pair in my backpack, I wear regular glasses all the time.

    If it is really hot I carry an insulated water bottle, on special occations I have carried a thermos flask with hot mulled wine (glögg) when it is around christmas, very cold and I won’t be driving.

    Personal hygene:

    Nothing really, well I have some paper towels in my car for emergency nature calls in the woods…

    Safety stuff, nothing really, if I am going for a long trip, I will get some supplies, gloves, band aids, dressings, disinfectant, stuff like that.

    Oh, as a bit of a planespotter, I allways have ear defenders in my car, as well as a big pack of extra ear plugs for any friend going with me who forgot their own hearing protection.

    Annoyance filter, during autumn, winter and spring I allways carry my Bose QC35 II, suring summer I switch to some IEMs, currently using my Jabra Elite 3. I allways have my iPhone with me as well.

    Infra fail stuff:

    I carry my work phone to advice my work about delays, else my phone has all apps I need, finally I have biked from the suburbs to the center of Stockholm and back again, so I know my way around, should all public transport fail and I can’t get a taxi, I would just start walking.

    It would probably take 3-4h to get home, but I’d get there