Our Minimalist Diaper Bag- Simple JanSport Backpack

Meet our diaper bag! We use and LOVE my old JanSport Backpack as our diaper bag for two kids under two. We didn't start with this, but after one year of messy pockets and losing items in traditional diaper bags, we decided this is the diaper bag that works for us. We are not minimalists, and I love how this diaper bag encourages us to cut down on the stuff that accumulates in a diaper bag.

Shopping for a diaper bag was quite a challenge when I was pregnant. I decided to go practical with my choice of a grey backpack with two main compartments, a changing pad, bottle holders, wipe holder, insulated pockets, lots of other pockets, stroller straps and more! It was highly reviewed on Amazon and after much debate I thought this backpack had it all, so I added it to my registry.

And boy do I regret it. What a waste of $50 (yes, a gift, but still!) for the HapTim Multi-function Large Baby Diaper Bag Backpack.

The backpack is HUGE, even with nothing in it. It's shape feels like I am carrying a box on my back. And all the pockets I thought I'd love were hellish -- I couldn't find a thing because things get trapped in the pockets. Even recently when I was re-cleaning out the backpack I found wipes, burp clothes, extra diapers and other randoms things in the pockets! Not to mention all the pockets look similar so it is hard to remember what goes where, and it makes it difficult to share this backpack with another caretaker (like my husband).

Thankfully, I had bought another backpack at a consignment sale at 3 months after baby #1. I got the J.J. Cole Caprice Diaper Bag, Large Capacity Tote (similar pattern). At first I LOVED this diaper bag. It had four pockets on the inside, bottle pockets on the two outside sides, and a smaller wallet like pocket on the outside. I used it mainly as a tote and my husband used the messenger bag strap. It met our needs fine, but the more I used it, the more the inside was just one large mess. Things would get lost in the four interior pockets so easily. Each time this happened, the pocket contents were dumped out in order to locate the needed item. It was hard to put things back in the pockets because these pockets were in such similar positions that it was hard to remember what belonged in which pocket.This lead to one large mess in the main section of the bag, and it drove me NUTS organizing this tote daily.

HapTim Backpack and J.J. Cole Tote Diaper Bags

This is when I decided to streamline our diaper bag. I knew I liked the backpack option, and I knew I needed Ziploc bags to store the items I'd normally store in the pockets. Ziplocs had the advantage of being see through and could be easily categorized! I got my high school JanSport backpack out, and that became our diaper bag. It was lightweight and had two pockets, minimizing our biggest problem of things getting lost.

In the small pocket I store: sanitizing hand wipes, hand sanitizer (I'm thinking of removing this soon), tissues, a bib, lip balm, mother's milk tea, and Elias' Avi-Q Epi Pen.

In the main pocket I keep: Elias' puffy winter coat (which is not car seat safe), a Ziploc with a change of clothes (short sleeve, long sleeve and pants), a changing pad, a second Ziploc with 4 diapers in each size (Size 5 for Elias and size 2 for Zoe), and a smaller Ziploc with wipes. I generally use a separate insulated lunch bag to transport food/snacks and drinks.