I have a horrible habit of shoving things in my purse and moving on with my life. Similarly, my husband has a pattern of shoving things in my purse, without telling me about them of course. Combined, this makes for some pretty scary situations when I actually need something out of that purse-turned-black-hole! A few months back, I downsized of my bag to something much smaller, now that I don’t need to carry diapers, wipes, etc. everywhere my family goes. Problem solved, right? Not a chance.
Today, my husband and I needed to switch vehicles so I had to dig for my keys – and dumped the entire contents of my bag out in a fit of frustration. Even I was surprised at how out of hand my bag had become. Like many of you are doing as you look at the pictures, I wondered how so much junk could possibly fit in there, and what WAS half this stuff anyways? Let me do a brief overview.
Trash. An embarrassing amount of trash. Receipts, expired coupons, crumbled teddy grahams, crumpled up crayon drawings, a traffic ticket and bills (all paid, so why they were still there is beyond me). Once all of that was dealt with, I shook my head even further at what remained! While all of these items are useful and have their place, most of said places are not in my purse. They were bagged up separately to be put away when I got home, to avoid them becoming lost in the pit again!
When we go out to eat, it’s usually to Chick-Fil-A or McAllisters, because toddlers. I tend to hoard the kids meal activities that both places provide, because they make excellent distractions for my little Tasmanian devils when we live on the edge and take them out in public. These are definitely worthy of my purse real estate, but going forward I’ll keep these items in their own zip-bag so they’re easier to find and pull out when needed.
Next up, hair accessories. Seven hair ties. Two brushes (one doll, one human). Four Avery & Grey snap clips that I was losing my mind looking for the last couple of weeks. And an alligator clip used when styling my hair. At home. In my bathroom. Again, how the clip ended up there is beyond me. I blame my toddlers, as they like to sneak these out of my drawer and put them in their hair like mommy. All of these belong in their designated places at home.
In my “primping” bag, there were even more hair ties. An emergency deodorant, hand cream, a shea butter stick, and a slew of pretty lip products that are often overlooked in favor of plain ol’ Chicken Poop. Finally, two mascaras and an eyeliner – that should probably all be thrown out due to infrequent use (#lowbarlifestyle). This bag got a much-needed pare down at this point, to the few products that actually get used!
Last up is the miscellaneous category. A sewing kit, a paint-can opener (that looked suspiciously like a bottle opener at first glance), a lint roller, more Chick-Fil-A goodies (play-place sanitizing wipes for the win), migraine medicine (because again, toddlers), a dead power bank, tissues, and stale-by-now snacks. Most of this needs to stay at home.
Not pictured are my wallet, coupon book (refreshed to only include not-yet-expired coupons, go me!) and the five socks I found, two mine and three my kids’, none of which were matches for each other. On the plus side, I did find my missing driver’s license that I tearfully tossed in there when above-mentioned traffic ticket was issued a week prior! My hope, by putting this out there for all the world to cringe at, is that I will find a system that works for me to keep my purse minimal and clean, and as free as possible from some of the weird and random things that come along with motherhood!
Tell me, what’s the strangest thing in your bag right now?
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