Lately it seems like everyone is carrying heavier and heavier backpacks around with them to school. With laptops, textbooks, pencil pouches and more, the weight of backpacks steadily gets heavier and heavier.

What are common materials found inside the average Sabercat’s backpack?

Laptops

Binders

Textbooks

Pencil pouches

Don’t forget, if you are in sports, you also probably might carry around sport gear in your backpack or in a separate bag, making your load that much heavier!

Is it inevitable that backpacks are just going to feel like bricks?

35 students took an anonymous survey to answer a couple of questions about carrying backpacks at Fossil. The results are listed below.

After weighing my own backpack from a Tuesday odd schedule, I was shocked to see just how heavy my backpack is:

23.4 pounds

It contained a laptop, three binders, a planner and one textbook.

Freaked out? Totally understandable, but knowing what your backpack weighs can give you that mental push towards starting to make a change in what you’re carrying to school.

Just think, what is there in my backpack that I can take out, trash, or condense? Specifically, if you carry around 2 inch binders, your backpack will be so much lighter by switching to a smaller binder, like a 1 inch one, and organizing papers in your binder so that you are only carrying around a what you absolutely need. Also, take out the textbooks and carry them in your arms, that way the weight of what you have to carry isn’t so overwhelming!

Once your backpack load is minimized, you’ll feel a noticeable difference that will leave you and your back happy.