Your backpack needs a gym bag inside it

Your backpack needs a gym bag inside it.

The best way to organize a high school backpack with a laptop, textbooks, and gym clothes is to keep the gym stuff sealed off from the rest — a small drawstring bag or stuff sack inside the main compartment. Gym clothes are damp, smelly, and covered in floor particles. They shouldn’t touch your books or laptop.

Everything else has a simple logic. Laptop goes in its dedicated sleeve. Textbooks stack upright in the main compartment, heaviest ones closest to your back — that keeps the weight on your spine instead of pulling you backward. If you have a front pocket, that’s for pens, chargers, and small junk, not for anything heavy.

The only real trick is the gym clothes. Don’t just toss them in loose. A thin waterproof bag or even a grocery sack keeps the mess contained and makes it easy to pull out when you get to the locker room. If your backpack has a separate bottom or side compartment, even better — use that.

Pack the night before, and you’re done.

Future you doesn’t want to smell last Tuesday’s socks.