Motivational Monday: Clean Purse

So as women we all struggle with having different areas of our life organized, but there is one area that seems to be the defining picture of the status of our crazy life….our purses. My purse now is organized and clean, but I am not the only one judging that status I have found out. When was the last time you had to go through security? As I was approaching the security at a local football game, I saw they had these plastic rods lying on the table….and I thought, that is odd what would those be for? I now know it is for the purses that are so deep that no security guard would want to stick his/her hand down it. I call that good planning ahead! So when I went through security the guy looking in my purse commented on how organized it was. So this got me thinking….what is the story that your purse says about you. Can the security guy quickly look in your purse and make sure there are no guns or cans of beer in there? Or does the security guy need a plastic rod to look in your purse? Or maybe you want to take the cans of beer in, who am I to judge? How long would it take you to find what you need? Can you open it and find it quickly or do you need a long stick?

When I was a mom of little ones my purse was defined by wet wipes, diapers, Happy Meal toys, bouncy balls, collections of rocks, power rangers, matchbox cars, crushed snacks, juice boxes and broken melted crayons. You would have needed a 10 foot pole to look in my purse then. Now that my boys are older my purse is defined as a bit more organized. It now contains:

• wallet (as the kids always take my money)
• umbrella (as I sit outside and watch sporting events for said kids)
• Kindle (as I wait for them at various locations)
• Blackberry (as I wait for them at before mentioned locations I can check my email and update Facebook. I can also give my phone to one of my kids to play a game on it while we are waiting)
• Camera (when I attend those kid activities, I always need to snap a few pictures)
• Flip video camera (just in case I am at a concert or athletic event for one of those kids and I need to record the memory….last concert I taped I found out my son didn’t even play the song….so I was a little too quick on the draw on that one)
• first aid kit (band aids and antibiotic cream as you never know when you need to assist a nurse at a football game….true story)
• business cards (as I promote my business www.ididit-fargo.com )
• Small notepaper, pens and highlighters (in case I need to take note of something in my daily learning adventures)
• Tide to Go (as sometimes salsa gets the best of me)
  

Some tips in keeping an organized purse:

• I have several small containers within my purse to hold items. I have a small cosmetics bag to hold the first aid items. In this one bag I have band aids, pain relievers, antibiotic cream, chap stick, lip stick, lotion and vitamin C drops I also bought a cool thing called a Pouchee that holds all of the smaller items in my purse such as my camera, Flip, pens, highlighters, paper, check book, loose receipts, gift cards etc. So I know exactly where to put my hand to grab the smaller items. The Pouchee is designed in order to transfer from purse to purse all of the miscellaneous items quickly.
• Clean it out every two weeks. I usually do this task right over the garbage can as it usually contains gum wrappers, old receipts and loose change (the change I keep).
• I really keep only what I need on a daily basis in my purse. I have a friend who keeps her kid’s passports in her purse…is that just in case she plans on taking a quick trip to Mexico?
• Having trouble deciding what to put in your purse? Downsize the size of your purse forcing you to keep just the necessities. Often the big purses just become a catch all of the errands you ran during the day, heck the week or even the month. Keep it small and you will have to keep it organized.
  

Take a look at your purse and see how it is defining you. Could you save some time and frustration by organizing your purse today?

To Simplified, Joyful Living,
MS. Simplicity