4 Tips to Purge the Purse
Monday, March 8, 2010 at 5:27PM | Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D. 
Tired of digging for misplaced keys or the cell phone? The key to having an organized purse — and a simpler life — is in the bag.
If your purse has become a chaotic carryall — a dark pit where things go to get lost — I share your plight. The right-sized shoulder bag can bring order to your life. Consider these four tips when shopping for a new hand-bag:
1. Don’t go too small.
Many women mistakenly think, “If I don’t have much room, I can’t carry too much around with me.” Good thinking, up to a point. If you don’t have room for all of your essentials, some items will wind up in your pants pocket — and you’ll lose them.
2. Don’t go too large.
Too many items (old trick-or-treat candy or broken glasses) in a large bag make it tough to find essentials.
3. Don’t go with too many pockets.
I made this mistake once. “Just look at those pockets!” I thought. “I can use one for my cell phone, one for keys....” The problem? I didn’t know which items were in which pockets, and I had to hunt for what I was looking for.
4. Go with one that is “just right.” Look for a purse with a cell phone pocket and a handy place to store or attach your keys. It should comfortably accommodate your wallet, make-up bag, and one or two other essential items. That’s it. A shoulder strap is good, to free your hands for important things, like steering your child through the toy aisle.
Reader Comments (7)
You forgot one other item. There should be a pocket (preferably with a zipper) to hold your receipts and prescriptions so all of those papers don't hide things and drive you crazy.
I agree!
What helps me the most is having slots for all those plastic cards and a holder for a pen. I've been buying the same kind of purse for years now and no longer feel overwhelmed looking for a particular card and a pen. Unzip one side of the purse and all the cards show, along with the pen. No more guessing or frantic looking for these things inside the larger zippered part of the purse. This type of purse is still not too large, not too large - "just right"!
I'm a guy and I carry what my kid's kindly refer to as a "murse" or as I call it, a man-bag! Why? I carry about half my world in there, what with the standard wallet I keep sticky-note pads, small jot pads, a large journal (that really isn't a journal), tools such as pocket knife, hemostats, pens, coloured markers, small scissors, screwdriver, liquid hand cleaner, cellphone, spare key set, bandages, flashlight, those broken glasses you mentioned, a magnifying glass, MP3 player, PDA, and more I'm sure but I can't recall. I started off with one of those small fanny packs 15 years ago and went to a knapsack and finally back to a large shoulder bag.
I have no idea how I got to this point, but here I am. I guess I thought if I had everything with me I'd always be ready for any event. The kicker is I seldom use any of that stuff. In fact it has become a bit of a toy box in that if I have to wait for an appointment, I have all these things to fiddle with while I wait. I have analyzed every bag I've had, mentally adding features to make it more friendly. A bag with different coloured partitions inside instead of pockets would help me sort this stuff, but I think my real problem is too much stuff.
I going to pursue the 4-Tips you give and see if I can get "real" with my stuff. Thanx Again!
I'd like to ask Camille what type of bag she has, and where she got it. I have been searching for the right bag for a long time!
I had a really bulky wallet full of different cards until a friend showed me how she kept her cash, change and cards all in a small change purse.It took up less space in her bag and was pretty easy to get to everything except maybe the change at the bottom, which she would generally empty at home for saving. I switched to this system last week and like it. I took out some plastic picture holders from my old wallet and put my medical cards in one and my car insurance stuff in another. Makes it easy to grab those. Shopping cards and the credit card I use most often are easy to locate at the back of the stack.
I have also attached velcro to something on my keychain and a spot inside my bag to help with that problem, but honestly don't use it regularly.
Every time I come to skoach.com you have another exciting article to read. One of my friends was telling me about this topic several weeks ago. I think I'll send them the link here and see what they say.