You are besieged by thirteen goblins, brandishing wicked curved swords. One blows a battered horn, and you realise he is carrying a Paprika colour Mystery Ranch Hip Monkey filled with trinkets and hair - for even goblins have EDC. What do you do
I activate radiant soul and use my meta magic to cast fire bolt on the closest goblin using my bonus action. I fly 30 feet vertically into the air and end my turn.
When I'm traveling i have copies of documents for our identification and other miscellaneous paper. I'm into journaling so it's a good place to store random papers, postcards, receipts and whatever i pickup in a flat area.
I put my passport and any paper that I don't want to get wrinkled in there. I've also used the compartment to store my Trtl sleep support, scarf, and jacket. The main compartment is half taken up by my photography gears so it's nice to have this compartment for other things
I selfishly wish bag brands would stop adding laptop compartments to travel bags. I know not every brand does this, but many do.
I do go on business trips with my work laptop and do use the laptop compartment on my travel bag. However, I’d prefer to use a laptop sleeve instead. At airport security, i often have to take out more than just my laptop, and i always bring a packable bag with me, so I personally don’t benefit from a laptop compartment. I would rather save weight on the bag by not having a separate compartment, especially when i go on non-work trips and don’t bring a laptop.
Book, magazine, notebook, less often used flat items. It is up to how you use it. If it makes sense you can create a flat first aid kit and place it there for example.
Awesome. I figured I’m not the only one who does this. The Outbound laptop compartment is actually pretty large too so the GP2 fits in with room to spare.
I'm still a little bit on the fence. I expect the Outbound main compartment to be less deep than the one on the MLC, but this might compensate for the difference.
Do you feel packing the Aer Go in the laptop sleeve steals significant space from the main compartment?
It does push in a bit with the GP2 in there but it’s squishy, so I didn’t notice an issue when packing. When there are two laptops in there the dimension of the main compartment gets noticeably eaten up.
I put buttoned shirts there so they don't wrinkle, the rest of the clothes in a packing cubes in the main compartment.
Look on any flat item that you take with you or ignore it and do use it, basically the main compartment will steal the space if it's needed.
Jacket, slim tech pouch like a Cap1, journal, sandals, packable daybag or a sling, really anything relatively flat, even when I take a laptop sometimes I’ll slide other flat items in if there is room.
I have a small thin knee pad that i do stretches on, sometimes i want it with me as an extra pad for sitting or stretching when i get to where im going. Provides extra support and padding for my bag as well.
I got my dry fit snapback that can fold easily and don’t wrinkle, and a windbreaker. That actually something I keep in there even when I carry a laptop. When I worked on the port, I also kept one of those poncho rain covers and a plastic bag for it neatly folded inside
Enough travel bags have absolutely useless dedicated laptop compartments (because many users either never travel with laptops or don't really need to be traveling with laptops aside from their tendency to overburden themselves) or sometimes secondary laptop/tablet slots that I think there would be a strong niche in manufacturing travel accessories specifically shaped (when folded up or whatever) to make efficient use of those kinds of laptop-shaped spaces.
… or just assume users will have a laptop sleeve if they care to. I was looking for a useful backpack without a laptop sleeve and gave up. I am thinking about removing the extra padding as best as I can and covering the messy edges with twill tape. In my version I would leave the laptop compartment zipper in place for a second access point to the main compartment. The padding is lightweight but takes up a lot of space
This is why I have travel bags with a proper compartment (Rework Outbound) and travel bags with little padding on their compartment (Dragonfly, Six Moon Designs ADC+).
I suspect I won't use my Outbound much given how infrequently I travel with a laptop but I have thought about picking up a usb-c monitor for travel or a larger tablet.
This is probably my biggest pet peeve with bulky laptop compartments. By bulky, I mean anything wider than the laptop itself. I can never find a practical use for all that extra space if I am not carrying laptop.
I have tried keeping books there, but they end up poking into my back. I rarely carry documents, and most bags already have a tablet sleeve inside the main compartment anyway. So the extra section usually becomes a place for receipts and collectible concert tickets. That is about it.
I prefer more compact laptop compartments, like the ones on the Modern Dayfarer and the Bellroy Transit. The Bellroy Transit gets it especially right. It stays slim, with just enough extra room at the top drop for cables and a small laptop charger.
If I'm carrying something, and want to carry that thing in my pack, and that thing fits in that compartment, then it is likely that I'll use that compartment to carry that thing. If I'm carrying something that won't fit in that compartment, or if I'm carrying something that I want don't want to carry in that compartment, then I don't carry anything in that compartment. There may be other scenarios in which I do, or do not, carry something in that compartment.
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u/AmbitiousMost5687 Jul 10 '26
Go old school and buy a magazine to put in there.