Toddler Mom Bag + My New Bag Obsession

This post is not sponsored. I purchased this backpack with my own funds and am sharing it with you because I love it so much! The only way that I make money off of this post is if you decide to purchase your own via my affiliate link below.

There comes a point when you no longer need to carry a full-blown diaper bag with you, but you still need to carry some extras. For me, this point was around a year old with Graci.

Suddenly, your baby doesn’t need quite so much stuff, and they are far more mobile, which makes it best to have your hands free (aka not carrying the whole house with you like you do when they are teeny tiny).

Recently, I decided that my ginormous-yet-beloved tote bag just wasn’t cutting it for me. Sure, it had plenty of space, but the organization inside wasn’t great, and the thing was heavy. Plus, I found that required me to carry a toddler and a bag on the same side of my body, which was a ton of weight.

I needed to find a better solution.

Enter Amazon.com.

What I Needed

When we leave the house nowadays, we don’t pack diapers – instead, we have a backup stash of diapers and wipes in the back of our van. We also store backup water, a change of clothes and backup emergency toddler snacks in the back of our Honda Odyssey.

However, we do carry at least one sippy cup (and sometimes more) with us, as well as toddler-friendly snacks. Oh, and don’t forget about toys! Toys are now an essential for on-the-go.

When I started looking for a new mom bag, I knew that I wanted a backpack purse, which would allow me to carry what I needed, but give me absolute freedom to both carry and pick-up my toddler.

(Before we move on, I know that backpack purses are so 90’s, but hear me out!)

Of course, I headed to Amazon, and started sifting through a billion different backpack purses. Almost immediately one stood out.

UTO Women Backpack Purse

During my Amazon search, I came across this black, faux-leather black backpack purse.

Here’s why I love it so much:

There are 4 different ways to carry the bag:

1. Short handles allow you to carry it on your arm
2. Backpack straps all you to carry it as a backpack
3. Unclipping one backpack strap and using the other, you can carry the backpack as a cross body bag
4. An additional strap converts the bag into a shoulder bag

Customer service is amazing!

Somehow, I managed to lose the strap that converts this bag into a shoulder bag. I have no idea where I lost it, but when I emailed the UTO customer service to see about purchasing a new strap, they offered to ship one for free.

And, they got back to me within minutes of emailing them.

This definitely built brand loyalty with me. Any company that is that dedicated to making their customers happy makes me happy. I’ll definitely be checking this company out when I go to purchase another bag.

It is affordable.

My husband and I try very hard to stick to our budgeting goals. Buying a bag that wasn’t a 100% necessity meant that I didn’t want to spend a fortune. This bag was a great price point that made me feel okay about spending the money. (Check out the current price in the Amazon link above.)

NOTE: This bag is not the best quality bag that I have ever owned. However, for the price point, I’m really happy. I have been using it a few weeks now and there has been little to no wear on the bag and I am HARD on my bags.

The only area that I may have issues with down the road is the zipper pulls. The zipper pull decoration is attached to the zipper with jump rings, and I think those jump rings could let go at some point. If this happens, I’m just going to purchase different zipper pulls. (See photo below.)

A lot of stuff fits.

Currently, I have my bag stuffed with my own purse stuff, toddler stuff and first-aid stuff. Check out the list below to find out what all is currently in my bag! It is A LOT!

If you don’t stuff your bag full (which I usually do, as you can see above), you can even fit a sippy cup or two in the side pockets like so:

It doesn’t scream MOM BAG.

One of the things that I like about this bag is that I can easily convert it into a bag that I would have carried before baby. I adore the way that it looks when carried on the arm by the small handles. And as a cross body or shoulder bag, it looks stylish.

The most “mom bag” way to wear it is as a backpack, but even then, it doesn’t look like a diaper bag. (And who wants to carry a diaper bag around any longer than they have to?)

What Do I Carry?

As I touched on above, Graci no longer needs me to bring the whole house with us when we leave the house. Here’s what always have with us:

In the car:

• Change of clothes
• Diapers
• Wipes
• Emergency snacks
• Emergency water
• A couple of toys

In my bag for Graci:

• 3 Fisher Price Little People (Graci loves these toys!)
• 2 small board books
• Sippy cup with water or milk (sometimes we bring one of each)
• Diaper cream (I don’t like leaving this in the car with the diapers due to the Las Vegas heat)
• Baby Aquaphor (just in case she gets a rash or irritation)
• Snacks (our favorite are cereal and applesauce pouches)
• First-aid supplies*
• Boogie Wipe*

Other items for me (as pictured above):

• Inhaler for asthma*
• Glasses wipe*
• Ibuprofen*
• Extra hair supplies*
• Feminine hygiene supplies*
• Tissues*
• Face wipes
• Glasses case
• Pens
• Gum
• Makeup (in the leopard case)
• Wireless chargers and cords for electronics (in the sparkly case)

Items marked with an * are all within the little black case seen in the bottom left of the photo above.

Are you a toddler mom? What do you carry with you? Do you still carry a diaper bag? I’d love to hear in the comments below!