BETTER LIVING: 4 Steps to an Organized Handbag

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Candita Clayton, GoLocalProv Lifestyle Expert

Most women can’t live without their handbag – or more accurately, what’s in their handbag. Money, checkbook, makeup, pens and paper, hand cream, coupons… the list of what we carry with us goes on and on. As the years go by, many of us find our purses getting bigger and bigger to accommodate the stuff we haul around. And as everyone knows, the bigger the purse, the more stuff gets lost in its depths.

When you’re the owner of a well-organized handbag, you’ll know where everything is, and you’ll be able to find it blindfolded, one-handed, while dashing for the elevator. Follow these simple tips to a more organized handbag, and never lose your keys/wallet/lip gloss again.

Categorize

Take out everything that’s currently living in your purse. Clean out all those little side pockets, too. Check under the lining for lost objects. Now, separate the contents by category: one pile for money-related stuff like checkbook, change purse, credit cards, and receipts; one pile for makeup and other grooming items like hairbrushes, combs, hair accessories, hand cream, and nail files; one pile for candies, mints, gum, or breath sprays; one for paper, pens, lists, coupons, or flyers; one pile for kid-related stuff (if this applies to you); and one pile for everything else. 

Minimize

If you’re the type to carry an enormous handbag (like I am), chances are you’ll have duplicates of many items, especially small ones like lipstick and glosses, gum, mints, and pens. Keep your favorites, and set the duplicates aside. As for everything else, think about which items you use on a daily basis, and which you only need once in a while. For example, if you only do your grocery shopping once a week, do you really need to carry around your coupon file every day? If you wear your hair up most days, do you really need that hairbrush, or can you stick it in your bag on the days when you’ll actually use it? By minimizing the contents of your purse, you’ll make it easier to find what you need when you need it. 

Compartmentalize

Now, this is where the fun begins. If you like to carry a large bag, it’s a good idea to break it up into smaller sections using fun, colorful zippered pouches like the ones you’ll find at http://www.chilewich.com or at http://www.beneficialhemp.com. Once you’ve decided what’s going to stay in your bag, you can delegate smaller items to your pouches. Try to choose pouches in different colors and textures, so you can tell what’s in each without opening them. Larger items can free-float in your purse. Don’t feel like buying pouches? You can use clear Ziploc slider bags instead, or even clear food storage containers. Just make sure that your system works for you – and fits in your handbag! 

Organize

Repack your bag with your new pouches. Arrange larger items around them. Your handbag should have enough free space to allow you to retrieve any object easily. If the fit is too tight, return to step 2 and take out more stuff. Or (and this is so much more fun!) invest in a bigger bag!