clutter control: the purse edition

I had an intervention.

It was necessary, trust me.

Maybe it was the comment from a friend at church last Sunday, ‘woah! what do you keep all your filing in your purse?!’ when I opened it up to grab a body pump pass out for her (I then proceeded to torture her at body pump, with love of course).

Maybe it was that same friend’s comment a couple days later telling me my purse was going to hurt my back.

Maybe it was those things combined with me really knowing that my purse was getting out of control, so last night I had an intervention.

A purse intervention.  My purse never saw it coming.

And yes, Jacey, you are that friend.

I thought it would be fun to actually see how much my purse weighed.  Honestly I was surprised by the weight.  Both Jacob and I thought it would be more, but it only weighed 9 pounds. Only…

That’s actually a lot!  Think of curling 9 pound dumbbells all day long and that’s what I did.  I’m sure my right shoulder has a permanent downward slope from my pursing hanging on it all the time.  It just feels weird on my left side, so the right side it is.

The first step to my clutter control intervention was getting it all out.  Seeing what’s really hiding in each and every crevice of the purse.  All 5 pockets, big and small.

From the first 3 pockets in the front we’ve got:

• phone
• grocery lists
• tons of bobby pins + hair ties
• appointment card
• single jolly rancher from by in my first trimester to help with nausea
• keys… not sure what they’re all for
• make up, tweezers, hair spray, perfume sample and q-tips in red pouch, 2 chap sticks
• 2 USB memory sticks
• paper clips and small binder clips
• pens
• TONS of body pump stuff: cheography books, choreography notes, notes from my initial training, lots of random papers and body pump passes

Then in the big main pocket + small inner pocket here’s what we’ve got:

• wallet (stuffed FULL)
• water bottle
• gloves
• more pens
• nail clippers, nail file, brush, floss, pad, tylenol and deodorant
• glasses
• stop watch
• checks + register
• note pads, book I’m currently reading and body pump music
• camera charger (not that I keep my camera in my purse)
• bills, receipts, letters and coupons
• phone charger + ear buds
• sun glasses
• paint colors for the nursery
• work ID + keys

All together now.  I never said I was organized!

After taking it all out, I organized it into 3 piles.  The first was things to keep in purse:

• water bottle (always keep water with me!)
• wallet
• deoderant
• checks + register
• sun glasses (which I plan to leave in my car)
• work ID + keys
• phone
• 2 USB memory sticks
• just 2 pens (I think I had about 7 in there)
• stop watch
• phone charger + ear buds
• make up, hair spray, brush, floss, nail file, perfume, 1 chap stick and all the bobby pins + hair ties are put in with the q-tip red pouch
• random keys I need to find out where they go to
• coupons
• 1 note pad
• body pump passes
• the 2-3 bills/letter I need to keep in my purse

Things I left out:

• book I’m reading
• multiple note pads
• gloves
• paint colors
• pens, nail clippers, tylenol, binder/paper clips, all the body pump stuff (music, choreo + notes)
• camera charger

Things I thew out:

• tons of old grocery lists
• bills paid, letter not needed
• jolly rancher

Then I even took it one step further and cleaned out my wallet!

Here’s everything in there.

And the stuff I got rid of is in the pile at the top.  Mostly old cards.

I even put it in a smaller, new (well old, but not used much) wallet, hoping for a clean start.

Then it all went back into my purse.  So far not looking as stuffed.

But the real test is… how much does it weigh now?

Two weights:

• with the water bottle it now weights….. 5.75 pounds
• but without the water bottle it’s down to… 3.5 pounds!

My purse felt so light after the major clean and clutter control!  Seriously, from 9 to 3.5 pounds.  Crazy.

Now I just really hope I can keep it like this.  My purse really does turn into a throw everything in purse, but I’m going to work at only keeping necessities in there.

Was it a good intervention?

Yes indeed.

What’s your purse like?  In need of an intervention like me?

Share the latest clutter control you’ve tackled?

Here’s to a fresh and clean weekend!  I’m off to my massage shortly.  So excited!

Heather