I can’t believe it has taken me over a year and a half into motherhood to do a “what’s in my diaper bag” post! Maybe it’s for the best–by now, I’ve figured out what I really need/want to tote around town and what I can leave at home or in the car. I was skeptical about diaper bags when I was pregnant (“Surely I won’t need to carry around THAT much stuff!”) but I quickly realized that for me personally, feeling prepared for anything trumped feeling lightweight and minimalist (which was my sole prideful reason for not wanting to carry around a lot–I’m sure many other mamas are very different, and that is great too!). I’ve been using a Kate Spade diaper bag, and it has been fine, but I packed it pretty much to the brim, and now that Charlie is walking, it was getting tough to balance a heavy shoulder bag while holding his hand and corraling him. I just upgraded to a gorgeous Freshly Picked diaper backpack (a generous birthday gift from my in-laws!) and it is kind of wild how much I feel like my quality of life has increased, ha! Our daily adventures are all a little bit easier, but I don’t feel like I’m giving up style for function.

My outfit: striped tee (ethically made; as seen in this post), jeans, mimosa espadrilles, lipstick

And here’s what’s inside!

Roughly clockwise from top left:

• My wallet
• A book and alphabet flash cards to easily entertain Charlie on the go
• Baby sunscreen
• A zipper pouch with Charlie’s EpiPen and Benadryl
• My Copper Pearl multi-use cover: I blogged about this right after Charlie was born and it is still one of the handiest products I own! I used to use it all the time as a nursing cover and carseat cover, but now I use it as a shopping cart cover. I love that I can just ball it up and throw it in my bag or in the wash.
• Water Wipes (our wipe brand of choice)
• A changing pad (the one pictured comes with the Freshly Picked bag, but I used to use this one)
• 3-4 diapers (we use the Target brand)
• A silicone placemat
• A S’well water bottle: my go-to water bottles because they do a great job of keeping water cold and are so easy to take on the go, plus they fit in this bag’s side pocket perfectly!
• Honest Company hand sanitizer spray
• A zipper pouch with things I like to have on hand for myself, like chapstick, Advil, gum, etc.
• An extra outfit for Charlie
• A Tide to Go pen
• A granola bar (for me)
• My sunglasses
• Cheerios and a few other snacks for Charlie
• A burp cloth
• Not pictured: a plastic grocery bag (in case I need to store wet/dirty clothes after some kind of accident), my phone, keys

Plus a peek at how it all looks packed up…still plenty of room for random extra things :)

Mamas, I’d love to know, how do our diaper bag packing lists differ? Are you a minimalist or do you carry around evvvverything like I do? :)

P.S. Here’s a tip from my friend Marissa: if you want to buy one of these bags, do so at Bed Bath & Beyond so you can use a 20% off coupon. I know there’s one in the most recent issue of Southern Living, and they’re probably easy to find online too!