25 June 2011

The Bulge In My Trousers

I need a new wallet. Probably a new walleting model. It's way too thick. It's uncomfortable to sit on and not particularly flattering. I probably put too much stuff in it to boot. The contents of my wallet, with money folded and all the cards aligned into a single stack, are 14mm thick. Selecting only the things I have a 50-50 chance of using in any given week, this shrinks to 9mm. Not piling the cards in a single stack would reduce this further. My wallet, fully loaded, is 24mm thick. Nearly an inch! That's 10mm empty. That's thicker than my naked iphone (the slipcase for which regrettably adds another 4mm).


I should separate daily-carry items from mission-specific items and go with a more modular wallet approach, starting with something a lot thinner and more sensible than leather for the wallet. Let's see what mr. google suggests....


7 comments:

zim said...

this may be my next wallet.

i have no good sol'n, other than carrying my wallet somewhere other than my back pocket. sometimes it's the front, usually it's in a jacket pocket or whatever backpack/bag i have.

zim said...

forgot to mention: i have purchased several sleevecases from sfbags and have been very happy with them.

pyker said...

I am trying to split up the contents. For stuff I only need when I go to the US, I'll try putting that in one of the cheap wallets made out of housewrap, and for everyday carry I'm going to try this one.

JustJoeP said...

This is a tough one, because European money is so irregularly shaped. Not sure about British Pounds, but Euros (ATM 50E notes esp) stick out awkwardly out of my American wallet.

I've devised a staging area in my home, that has sub-divided walleting contents. Local, domestic travel, international travel - each rubber banded to keep the cards tidy. SO MANY damn stores want you to have their buyer card, it's truly unwieldy.

For security (pick pocket) and health (back pain) reasons, I keep my wallet in my front pocket, unless wearing a suit jacket with deep breast pockets. Minimizing wallet thickness helps to minimize the bulged/point loading it can cause in a back pocket, but it also makes it an easier target for thieves. Slimmer profiles are defintely better.

3 notes of caution - the first 2 electro-magnetically. i) do not get a eel skin wallet. While they are sleek and fashionable, the residual charge in the leather screws with credit card magnetic strips. ii) do not store phones in the same pocket as the wallet.
iii) if you slim down your wallet, and it was used to being over-stuffed and stretched out previously, be wary of the 'exploding wallet' phenomenon wherein you take it out of your pocket, go to open it up, and POOF cards that are no longer crowded in together spontaneously self-jettison onto the floor. When THIS happened to me last month, it was my personal wake-up call to get a new wallet =)

JustJoeP said...

AND.... 3 years ago, when your ever-expanding waist line & girth was carb-dictated, thinking about trimming a few millimeters off your wallet thickness would have been RIDICULOUS, would it have not? =P

With voluminous pockets and caftan-like garments, who'd have cared or noticed?

pyker said...

I can put a really big wallet under my muumuu.

JustJoeP said...

and.. btw.. this is one of the best double entendre titles since "" don't put sugar on my nuts =) LOL!