What's In My Work Bag (After 25 Years of Trial and Error)

My work bag has been refined by a quarter century of forgetting things, carrying too much, and slowly learning what a shift actually requires. Here's the full inventory — and the things that got kicked out.

The non-negotiables

• A spare pair of Evirelle compression socks, in a sealed bag: the day a coffee spill or a code makes you need them, you really need them.
• Good scissors and a working pen (×3): pens are communal property on a ward. Three is the minimum viable number to end a shift with one.
• A compact notebook: for things that don't fit on the brain sheet.
• O'Keeffe's Working Hands + lip balm: hospital air is a desert. The full story of which cream earned its pocket is in my hand cream test.

The food strategy

• A real packed meal: eaten at midnight on nights, mid-shift on days. The vending machine is not a meal plan.
• Nuts and fruit: pocket-friendly, no preparation, survives being forgotten.
• One emergency chocolate bar with strict deployment criteria.
• Owala FreeSip bottle in the side pocket — the winner from my bottle test.

Comfort & recovery

• Painkillers, plasters, and blister patches: the tiny kit that saves a shift once a month.
• Phone charger that never leaves the bag: buying a second charger specifically for the bag ended years of morning panic.
• Sunglasses: for the post-night-shift drive home. Part of the wind-down.
• Uvex Skyper blue-light glasses: for the last hours of night shift — see my full test here.

What got kicked out

• The second cardigan: one is a backup. Two is a lifestyle.
• The full cosmetics bag: replaced by lip balm and acceptance.
• The just-in-case umbrella: carried daily for two years, used twice.
• About two kilos of guilt-driven maybes: your shoulders are part of your body too. Pack for them.

The principle

Everything in the bag earned its place by being needed twice. Everything that left, left because a year passed without it being touched. It's the same rule I apply to product reviews: not "is this nice?", but "did this actually get used when it counted?"

— Emma