HOW ORGANIZED IS YOUR PURSE? We are all familiar with the countless jokes about the contents of a woman's purse, husbands often joke about their wives' purses and purse's weight with their pals. While some may adopted the minimalist lifestyle, there are still women who totes heavy purses with them on a daily basis. Okay some items might be useful, and necessary but as a Professional Organizer I often see client's purses full of long forgotten stuff, due to disorganization, lack of time and bad habits, sometimes a sum of all three. Other times it's a matter of being prepared for any situation, and I know you are out there....lol... I am speaking to those of you who have items in your purse "just in case", and the bigger the purse the more you can fit, so be mindful of the size of your purse as well. If DISORGANIZATION is causing stress in your life chance is your purse is not a source of joy either....lol... so the first step would be to clean out and ORGANIZE that purse (when was the last time you did that?), then create NEW habits to keep it that way and finally apply that method to all your purses, so you will never grab a purse and find it full of old gum wrappers, old pens that leaked ink and stained the bottom, expired gift cards, old receipts and more. A survey by Pilot Pen Australia found just how long we spend rummaging in our handbags. If you are in the habit of changing your purse often depending on the occasion, you might want to invest in a purse organizer that fit most of your bags, so all you have to do is take this insert with all its contents and swap bag. All you need is there. Here is an example I found on Amazon but there are many variations, in pattern, colors, sizes and prices. Just find the one that fits your needs. In our case we did not purchase anything, just used what was on hand. For privacy reasons the client's wallet and keys are not displayed in photo, but she carries them in her purse. We also removed all debris like torn paper, food wrappers, loose coins, pens caps etc for tidier pictures. This client spent precious time everyday looking for things in her purse, unable to find them, at times panicking that she had lost them, (sometimes they were left in a previously used bag) so we addressed this problem to save her sanity...lol... Here you see the BEFORE shot. The first step is to empty and clean your purse, like we did. We removed all debris and sorted and categorized the rest, the next step was for her to identify what she really needed in her purse. These are the items we found and they were separated by similarity. What is used together or should be stored together. We also tried to identify multiples, like 2 pairs of sunglasses, or multiple pens, lip glosses etc. Here is the AFTER shot, all the make up is in the red pouch, smaller items are in the side pockets where it is easier to access them and return after use, there is a little red coin purse for loose change, tic tac, gum, floss are all in the same area, sunglasses, sunscreen, brush, ear buds, charging cable etc are in the black pouch and there is even space for a shopping bag, since after the plastic bags ban lots of people forget to take one with them. This client was complaining of always forgetting so we compact folded one and stored in a ziploc bag to keep it nice and tight and ready to use. No more bags coming home and cluttering her newly organized space. We left some space on the right side since that is where her wallet will go. Everything else has found a home. This is a Fun Article about the Struggles of Women who carry big purses... it is full of humor but somewhat true, has this happened to you? Now the only thing left to do is MAINTAIN the organization, like anything else it requires maintenance, so take your time every night to assess if anything needs to be removed or added to your bag depending on the next day activities. I do this every night as soon as I come home, so my bag is ready for the next day. If you plan on changing your bag just take your pouches and transfer them, quicker than piece by piece. The bottom line is there should be no loose items floating around your purse, everything should be in a pocket or pouch or small container, and should be returned to its proper home after use, so you can find it next time you need it. If you have one of those "Neverfull" type of totes I suggest getting one of the purse organizers I talked about above. Good Housekeeping has an interesting test about the contents of you bag :-) "What the inside of your purse says about you". Are you a Minimalist, a hopeless Hoarder or Prepared for Anything? take the test if you want to find out. So.... How organized is your bag?? Leave a comment and let me know.
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AuthorHello, my name is Vicky and I am a Professional Organizer in NYC. I am passionate about anything related to organizing and most of all I fully believe in the benefits of it. Archives
January 2024
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