What You Need: The Utility Bag

By Lev Novak

You might need more than this article can suggest. It’s possible you need a job, a therapist, or even to believe in yourself, and none of these things will be involved in this article. Because here we aren’t talking about any of that, because all we care about is turning your backpack or purse into a hyper-potent utility belt, ready to turn you into a superhero at a moment’s notice.

You ready?

1. Phone Charger.

A dead phone is the nightmare of our generation. Save your phone and the phones of friends. You’ll be a hero.

2. A Deck of Playing Cards

Perfect for anything: a party, a plane delay, or a power outage when playing video games, a deck of cards gives you flexibility of options.

3. Gum Or Mints

Bad breath, bad times.

4. Two Granola Bars

Push comes to shove, this will change your day more often than any of the above. Going from “starving” to “hungry” or “hungry” to “kind of hungry” sounds like a small change, but in practice, it will change the course of your night.

5. Twenty Bucks

It’s college, and cash is short, but an emergency twenty is going to solve a lot of problems that could happen in a night out.

6. A Contacts Case

Super awesome to have. If you stay at a friends place, they’ll often have contact solution, but not a case for you. That means you can carry an empty case in your pocket, and you’ll feel so much better in the morning.

7. A Tiny Bottle of Alcohol.

You want one of these. Push comes to shove, you can celebrate, mourn, or pre-game in style or in an instant. At the very least, it’ll be three bucks less than the bar charges.

8. Condoms In a Condom Case

Don’t keep them in a wallet. Get a cheap, five dollar plastic case and carry it. It’s worth the investment.

9. A Pen

You’ll always need to write something, or, on occasion, open up some hard plastic. A pen can do both those things like a lazy swiss army knife.

10. A Beanie

I’m a huge proponent of the beanie, and you should always keep one in your bag. It’s an easy way to warm up, hide bad hair, or, in a pinch, make light drizzle a little less annoying to deal with.

11. Asprin And Tape

Look, if anything goes down, you’re going to be prepared. These two things can be used for small things, and, in the case of a sudden zombie apocalypse, these are two weirdly useful and durable items.

12. Something You Like

Lastly, you need something else personal and cool in your bag. Not everything should be useful; some things are just for you.

Plus, as an added bonus, it’s much easier to get back a missing bag if you can specify something cool about it. “I’m missing a blue backpack…though it’s kind of black?” might be sketchy, but “a backpack with a red toy robot in it” proves it as yours.

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