The Mom bag 2.0

Alternate title:  Ask Your Blog Friends About Handbags Because Your Husband Doesn't Give A Crap.

You guys.  This is serious.  My mom bag isn't working anymore and I'm heartbroken.  One, because it took for-freakin-EVER to find a bag I liked.  Two, because I've found a couple of bags but I can't decide which one to use, and I'm totally second-guessing myself and wondering if I should just keep my old bag, if the new bags will be an improvement, or if I should keep on looking.  HALP!

Y'all ready for some crappy pictures of handbags?  All righty then!  

Exhibit A

I must have been in denial when I got this bag.  I must have been giddy that an Ebay purchase worked out, that it was real leather and that it was BIG.  Because I completely missed that this is a two-handed bag.  Meaning, it takes two hands to put it on because the arm hole part is too small to pick it up with one hand and sling it over your shoulder.  That's what I was illustrating in the above picture.  When I'm grabbing things and trying to run out the door when I'm late for something (which I always am) it's a pain in my ass to have to grab the bag with one hand and guide it up to my shoulder.  It's a small thing but it matters.

Additionally, once it's on my shoulder, it's hard to get inside the bag.  The arm hole is so small the bag sits right underneath my armpit.  I actually like this in a handbag but when I have the baby on my hip and I'm trying to dig for something, it's a pain in my ass to have to shimmy one handle off, dig for my phone, keys, etc and then try and shimmy my arm back through the armhole.  Most times I just leave the one handle off my shoulder and risk things falling out of my bag.  

Which brings me to my next point.  It's BIG.  I love that it's big because I can carry everything I need.  I hate being caught without something and thanks to my BIG bag, I'm never without whatever I need.  

But I can't ever FIND it!  Again, it had to be the denial because either my bag turned into a black hole of junk or it always was and I'm just now seeing it.  Either way, it's a pain in my ass to have to dig through my purse every flippin time I need my keys, lipgloss, or phone, one handed with a busy toddler on my hip.

Plus, the zippers on the outside are purely for decoration.  Because the bag is so awesomely slouchy, it's super hard to close the zippers once they're open.  So my brilliant plan to have things easily accessible on the outside of the purse is a big fat FAIL.  I need two hands to close the zippers and that's no bueno.

My point is, this is purely a pretty bag.  The leather is divine, the size is so chic, and I seriously love the way it looks on me.  When I'm standing still and don't need anything out of it.

So pretty to look at.

Sucks BALLS if you actually want to use it.

So I went on the hunt.  I am hugely against diaper bags that look like diaper bags, so that eliminated a ton right off the bat.  However, I need an actual diaper bag; otherwise, I'm going to end up in the same boat that I'm in now.  I Googled every diaper bag under the sun, starting with the cheapest ones and steadily climbing the price chain until I found one that didn't make me vomit.

Because this bag hurts my eyes and the zombie monkey thing scares me.

My search brought me to a nifty little site called justdiaperbags.com.  I entered my criteria, sorted by price and scrolled away until I saw it.  The Mom Bag 2.0.

Her name is Marilyn!

It's still brown, still stylish, but it's an actual diaper bag so Sofia's sippy cup can get stored upright and not leak all over the bottom of my bag!  All the interior pockets keep things separate so there's no more digging!  The exterior pockets mean I can grab my phone with ease!  The handle is long enough to grab it one-handed!  And if *maybe* I have another kid possibly maybe one day, it's plenty big enough for two kids' stuff!  And when I'm done with diaper bag usage, it would be a super cute weekender!  Oh the joy!

I quickly Googled for some coupon codes because yeah.  Apparently, zombie monkeys are cheap but an oh so chic diaper bag will cost ya.  But I got 20% off so that's not too shabby. (When I bought mine last week I used shop20.  I *almost* bought another one this week for reasons I'll detail in a sec and the shop20 didn't work.  But signup20 did!  Just in case you too are in the market for a diaper bag.)

I ordered it faster than Drew could say "Go ahead" and soon enough it came!

And that damn thing was YOUGE!

It's like a frickin piece of luggage!  Granted, it's super cute and it meets all the criteria but DAMN GINA!  I love me a big bag but this thing?  It's mighty!  I totally started second guessing my choice, going back to the site and looking at a different bag.

The Rachel is an inch narrower so maybe you don't hit someone with your bag when you turn around, but it's an inch taller than the Marilyn so it's pretty much the same size.

Plus the taupe-y, cement-y, gray-ish color makes me very happy.

However, the thing about Timi and Leslie is they give you lots of extras.  Which, kinda?  They better because you're paying for something that hauls poop.  BUT, I already have a lot of their extras and paying for duplicates seems wasteful.

Every bag comes with all this stuff.  You get a changing pad, which I already have.  A wet bag - I have, although theirs is bigger.  There's an insulated bottle holder, which I don't need, although I could put Sofia's sippy cup in it for extra protection.  The smaller mommy purse is GENIUS, and I seriously don't know why it never occurred to me before.  I don't know how many times I've gone to the grocery store and I've stuffed my keys, wallet and phone in my pockets wishing I had somewhere else to put them.  I literally sat with my mouth open when I saw the mommy purse on the site.  Talk about a DUH!! moment.  But, all Timi and Leslie bags are made of pleather, and while it's good pleather, it's still fake and the mommy purse looks especially cheap.    Besides, I have a little pochette I could use that's way cuter.  The stroller clips are another genius move and while I don't have those, I do have a hook on my stroller that I currently use that gets the job done.

SOOO, I'm paying for all that stuff that I already have because the bag is cool looking.  I decided to see if I could do better and I made a stop at the TJ Maxx this afternoon.

Steve Madden.  40 bucks.

This is an especially crappy picture, but I was like Baaaaabe!

Pleeeease take pictures!  I need to pick a bag!

Two exterior pockets, sits under my armpit but not so close that I can't put it on one-handed.  But it's a purse, not a diaper bag.

Sofia, you pick.

I'm not usually this indecisive and now I know why.

It's really frickin annoying!  I just want a bag that works and looks cute!

Is that so hard?!

My next step is to pack the bags with all the stuff I carry in a given day.  Maybe that will help me make a decision.  However, to keep the gray bag from becoming another black hole I have to get a purse organizer.

I did not know these things existed until last night.  Seriously.

I don't know how or where cloth diapers fit into one of these organizers but anything is better than what I'm working with right now.  Digging through all my crap is officially old and the TJ Maxx purse plus the organizer still comes out way cheaper than the Timi and Leslie, which is why the gray bag is Drew's favorite.  Who's surprised?  No one?  Didn't think so.

So after all those words and all those crappy pictures, I'm asking you.  Do I get an organizer and go with the gray purse?  Do I send the Marilyn back and get the Rachel because it's narrower?  Do I keep the Marilyn?  Do I keep looking?  

Do you have the best diaper bag in the world and you want to tell me all about it?  Yes.  Yes, you do.