What’s harder than finding a husband?

I can actually think of a few things that a harder than finding a husband (I mean I’m on to husband number two) ..

1. Eating loads of chocolate and not getting fat
2. Sleeping in when you have two kidlets or even;
3. Getting an entire nights sleep when you have two kidlets

But more importantly and the reason for today’s blog post ..

Finding the perfect gym bag!

I know – total first world problem, but a problem nethertheless, believe me I’ve been searching nearly my entire life and have nearly as many bags as I do shoes (and that’s a fair few).

I look around the changing room each morning and I wonder how on earth every one else gets their gear to and from the gym.

Some women have tiny gym bags – super cute but tiny. To counter that they bring their work clothes on hangers in a suit bag and their handbag holds their make up and other such girl related items.

Other women have the “typical gym bag” that carries everything and others counter the cumbersomeness of the typical gym bag and use a backpack and some even bring a luggage bag with wheels.

I tend to change weekly (I have a lot of bags I can do that lol), then I remember why I don’t use that bag and try another. Hence the reason I’ve been asking Mr Google and other internet bloggers “What is the perfect gym bag”.

I have a few non negotiable requirements in a gym bag.

1. A big main compartment that opens up completely for easy access.
2. Outside pockets where I can put things I need to get to quickly (keys, perfume, deodorant)
3. A separate area to hold my training equipment (skipping rope, strength bands etc) that I can access without having to enter the main compartment.

During my research I found two bags that I thought could “be the one” but both were pretty spendy so for the next month I’m going to do a bit of an experiment and use a selection of my existing bags and see if I can get any of them to work before I throw away yet more money on “close but no cigar”

This is what I lug to the gym every day ..

Wet bag, work clothes, work shoes, shower towel, hand towel, hair ties/clips, shower jandals, hair dryer, hair product, hair brush, ghds, toiletries, moisturizer, deodorant, perfume, training gear and locker padlocks.

I also need to take on occasion my boxing gloves, my cleats or my yoga mat (or a combination of the three)

My gym does have hairdryers and GHDs but my hairdryer is faster than the ones they have it’s also a GHD hairdryer so my hair dries nice and smooth AND I don’t have to wait for a hairdryer, I just plug mine into a spare socket.   I think I’ve used my GHDs once in the last two months so I probably don’t even need them maybe I’ll see if I use them in the next month if not I’ll take them out and leave them at home.

Anyway I’m going to start this month long experiment with a Duffel Bag.  It’s a Billabong medium duffel I’ve got a couple that are bigger but they get REALLY heavy so I’ll see if this is a good compromise.

Here it is fully packed with the stuff in the photo above ..

One end pocket has my training equipment the other end pocket has my shower toiletries.   There are three open flaps on the front and I’ve popped my perfume in one, my deodorant in another and finally my padlocks in the center “pocket”.  I’m am  a bit worried about my perfume bottle falling out because I have to tilt this bag on it’s side to get it to fit into a gym locker.

Everything else fit quite comfortably in the main compartment and I probably even have room to throw in my cleats or gloves (maybe not the gloves I’ll try it and see on Tuesday.  Tuesday is boxing day) and my yoga mat could probably lie comfortably across the top.

It’s heavy but I didn’t cringe when I lifted it but I’ll reserve judgement till I’ve carried it a decent distance (like from my carpark to the gym and back).

So tomorrow the excrement shall begin 😉

Till next time