Think about how many things in your kitchen do more than one job.
Your air fryer probably does more than air fry. Your stand mixer has attachments for everything. Even the coffee maker has settings you may or may not actually use.
We expect the things we use every day to work for us.
So why do we sometimes settle for a purse whose only real talent is holding our stuff?
That’s where multifunctional handbags start to make a lot of sense.
And by “holding,” I sometimes mean creating one big dark hole where your keys, phone and lip balm disappear approximately three seconds after you put them in there.
A handbag goes almost everywhere with us. Work, errands, appointments, shopping, travel—and quite often it gets tossed into the passenger seat along the way.
I think it should earn its keep.
More Features Aren’t Always Better
I make bags, so obviously I appreciate pockets, compartments, straps and hardware.
But I don’t think adding more of everything automatically makes a bag better.
If a pocket, strap or compartment doesn’t make the bag easier to use, I’m not sure it needs to be there.
A good exterior pocket means I can grab my phone without digging through everything else. An adjustable strap means I can change how I carry the bag. Interior organization means the little things I need don’t spend the day migrating to the bottom.
Those are the kinds of details I notice when I’m choosing a design to make.
Not how many features can I cram into this bag?
More like, will any of this actually make someone’s life easier?
What If Your Purse Was Your Wallet?
This is one of those ideas that seems incredibly obvious once you’ve carried one.
Why put a wallet inside a purse if the purse can already be the wallet?
The Cream & Taupe Crossbody Wallet Purse is a good example. The card storage is already built in, there are separate compartments for the other things you carry, and the adjustable strap lets you wear the whole thing crossbody.
One bag. No separate wallet required.
It’s especially nice when you don’t want to carry a big purse just to have your cards, cash, phone and a few essentials with you.
There’s another advantage too.
You can’t leave your wallet in the purse you carried yesterday if your wallet is your purse.
Ask me how I know. 😂
There’s a Difference Between Lots of Pockets and Good Organization
I love a good pocket.
I do not love standing in a parking lot digging through six pockets because I can’t remember where I put my keys.
There’s a difference.
Good organization should feel almost automatic. The things you reach for regularly should have logical places to go.
That’s one reason I like organizer-style bags such as the Red & Mint Floral Organizer Tote.
The front organizer isn’t there just so I can add another pocket to the description. It gives cards and smaller items their own places, while the rest of the bag handles the bigger things.
That’s useful.
Making you conduct a small archaeological dig every time you need lip balm is not.
Sometimes a Hardworking Bag Is a Smaller Bag
Multifunctional doesn’t necessarily mean big.
Sometimes the smartest bag is the one that lets you leave half your stuff at home.
A wallet clutch is a perfect example.
The Floral Wallet Clutch keeps your cards, cash and smaller essentials together. You can put it inside a larger handbag when you need everything with you, then carry it by itself when you don’t.
I like that because we don’t need the same purse every minute of every day.
Maybe you’re going to be gone all day and need half the house with you.
Maybe you’re running into a store for twenty minutes.
Those are two very different purse situations.
Work and Travel Are a Whole Different Story
Then we get into laptops, tablets, chargers, paperwork and all the other things that somehow end up coming along with us.
At that point, one giant open tote isn’t necessarily the answer.
That was part of my thinking when I designed the Molly Laptop Travel Tote.
I wanted a padded place for the laptop, useful interior and exterior storage, enough room for the other things I carry, regular handles and the option of a crossbody strap.
I didn’t want to make a giant bag just because a laptop had to fit inside it. I wanted the space to make sense.
And Molly is a little different from the other bags I’m showing you here because it’s one of my own Bagadoo designs. If you sew and would rather make one yourself, the Molly Laptop Travel Tote sewing pattern is available as an instant-download PDF.
What Does Your Purse Actually Need to Do?
That’s probably the question I’d ask before buying another handbag.
Not just, Do I like it?
Obviously you should like it. Life is too short to carry an ugly purse.
But after that—what do you actually need it to do?
If you need your hands free a lot, maybe a crossbody or sling makes more sense.
If you don’t carry much, maybe you don’t need a full-size handbag at all.
If you carry a laptop or tablet, having a bag designed to protect it might matter more than having a huge open compartment.
And if you’re forever digging for your phone, keys or cards, organization probably needs to move higher up your priority list.
That’s also why I don’t think there’s one “perfect” handbag.
My perfect bag might drive you crazy.
Your perfect bag might not hold half the things I insist on carrying around.
That’s okay.
Pretty Is Good. Pretty and Useful Is Better.
Don’t misunderstand me—I absolutely care what a bag looks like.
Give me a gorgeous faux leather, a great print and some beautiful hardware and I’m happy.
That’s part of why I make bags in the first place.
But once the pretty bag leaves the shelf and becomes somebody’s everyday purse, it needs to work.
The pockets should make sense. The strap should be comfortable. The things you use should be reasonably easy to find. And if one bag can do the job of two, even better.
We expect the appliances sitting on our kitchen counters to do more than one thing.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the purse we carry everywhere to pull its weight too.
Pretty enough to make you want it. Useful enough to make you keep reaching for it.