Good things come in small packages.

A common conception is that ‘good things come in small packages’ and they certainly do in this case. It was on one of my regular visits to town that I came across this ‘small package’ that would result in my attitude to all 'small packages' changing forever… I’m talking about a bag.

  I like my bags big, they accommodate my many items that I carry around with me on my day to day travels and never get lost. When I realised that Mary Poppins style bags don't actually exist, I knew that my next option was to find a big enough bag for my things to live in. I’m a bag hoarder, in my opinion, you can never have too many bags. A bag needs to do your outfit justice, needs to be practical and needs to serve its obvious purpose of transporting things from one place to the next. With this in mind one bag was obviously not going to be enough, I needed several, and without realizing it I have ended up with a nice, hefty collection of bags. Don’t get me wrong, this collection does not need a whole room to accommodate it but it does snatch a whole draw of my space. This is due to size mostly, the bags are so big they crawl over one another, squashing each other in the process as they try and squeeze and fit their way into this average size drawer space. It’s got to the point where my efforts to try to fit them into this limiting drawer have failed, resulting in an overflowing drawer of several, tennis court sized bags.

   It was one of my 2013, New Year’s resolutions to ‘try something new’ and to ‘give everything a chance’. I am determined to fulfil my resolutions and not cave (like usual) or just pretend that I never made any.  And so, I found myself firstly trying flat shoes (that I blogged about a few days ago in ‘Dancing on stoney pavements’) and now I find myself giving small bags a chance. I was inspired, not only by my flat shoes success but by a particular ‘small’ handbag that I fell in love with.

  To be quite honest I thought that the day would never come. I never quite understood the practicality of small bags, how someone could fit all their stuff inside such a small area of space. My attitude was a bit naïve I now realise, fashion can be limiting and so why did I ever think that a bag shouldn’t be? People who carry around these micromini bags are not making the bag work around them but making themselves work around the bag. They limit their belongings, take it back to the bare essentials; purse, phone, keys. It was whilst in a Topshop store that I realised that I needed to get over my small bag fear and ‘try something new’ and ‘give it a chance’, when I came across the smallest bag I have ever seen in my life.

  Labelled the ‘mini satchel’ it normally wouldn’t have been my first choice of bag because let's be realistic, you can’t fit much more than a purse inside one of these things. However this bag was different, it was unusually small making it cute, petite and not too much of a distraction for any outfit. This bag would also be a statement piece, its petite nature made it eye catching and doll-like. It sparked the realisation that this was a bag that should be worked around, not made to work. It also concluded that I had too much stuff, after all why do I really need to carry around my massive makeup bag, oversized purse, perfume, several magazines and many other random objects? Lastly it made me remember that ‘good things come in small packages’, so why not give it a shot?

My Favourite:

I liked the green mini bag because I wear a lot of green, it would be versatile and perfect for a quick trip out.  

To view this mini bag 

in more colours, go to

Topshop