I have a very large and very teal bag from Target that I love. I love it. But I use it and abuse it.
I've been meaning to clean out my purse for a while now. Since I knew that I'd be "cleaning it out soon," I guess I didn't feel any need to monitor what was going in or what was coming out of it. Well, quite frankly, nothing was coming out of it.
It was starting to feel like I was toting around bricks. And there were so many bricks in there that the ones on top were never really sure if they were in or out of the bag.
I needed to do a total purse dump and figured hey, that's a fun blog post! But really it ended up being an embarrassing blog post. If the state of a woman's purse reflects the state of her mind, then here you will be given a most unflattering peek into my gray matter......
The weight of my bag before the purge was a back-breaking 9.3 lbs. I did the old measure self with and without bag on our people scale, and I measured it on our kitchen food scale and got the same answer. Pretty accurate scales, huh?
And was reminded about how much I love the inside of my bag...
And I got to sorting it...
The stuff that went right back into my purse...
diapers
wipes
mini pack tissues
makeup bag
lip gloss ($1 lip gloss from ELF is my fave!)
wallet
pack of gum (not random pieces of gum...)
The stuff that was a bit random. Or really random...
2 pairs Sky Zone socks (haven't been to S.Z. since January, I think...)
plastic baggie with two plastic darning needles
broken candy cane
little baggie of pain killers, which may or may not have been smuggled into the country by a family member
check book
$2.01 (ooohhh! I actually owe someone $2. perfect!)
9 pens, 2 regular pencils, 1 golf pencil (probably swiped from church) (would you believe me if I told you just this afternoon I was whining about how I can never find any pens in the house....)
3 mini notebooks (to entertain toddler at Mass, not used since January)
Diabetes related stuff...
notebook w/ notes from a carb counting class that was 10 days ago
paperwork w/ most recent A1C from last Endocronologist visit (early Feb)
random pod (for A's insulin pump)
glucose tablets (not pictured - an oversight on my part)
EXPIRED emergency glucagon injection kit. (EXPIRED JULY 2014!!!!!) Thank goodness I caught that!
Aaron's pediatric/diabetes specialist ophthalmologist appointment card for this summer (received at appointment last summer)
Books and papers...
half-used pack of HWT writing paper I bought at a curriculum sale (but haven't actually paid for yet...that's what I owe that $2 for...)
The Rule of St. Benedict (some Lenten reading. I like it a lot :) )
In Conversation with God (tip: daily meditations don't happen if the book is at the bottom of your purse...)
2 checks from the same friend - one from December that I won't cash b/c she forced it on me after our families shared a plate of Christmas cookies from a church youth group sale. And one from January that I should have already cashed. Oops.
Evidence of my craft addiction...
(no pic :( )
a 4 mm crochet hook (so that's where that was!!)
Jo-Anns flyers and craft store coupons--
7 expired sales/coupon flyers
2 current
Garbage...
3 full-size grocery lists
expired grocery coupons
6 ticket stubs to a show from Dec 6. 2015
a pediatrician apt reminder card from October, 2015
string cheese wrapper
15 receipts. The oldest was from last August, the next oldest was only from early January though ;)
After all was said and done, the "after" weight of my bag was 4.3 lbs. So, a hefty five lbs of unnecessary such-and-such was eliminated! That's quite the transformation :)
I've shared the (until now) unwholesome state of my purse with you in strict confidence. Don't tell anyone about it, ok? It will just scare them off, hehe! Though I must admit, I was pretty surprised (and proud) that there were no dirty tissues, used bandaids, or bits stale food in there ;) ;) ;)
How's the state of your bag? Is it time for a purse dump??
Lol at skyzone socks... Why only 2 pairs? Weird!
ReplyDeletehaha... The older kids are all "responsible" for their own and they're all tucked safely away in the SZ sock drawer. I think the ones in my bag were mine and James' -- I guess I don't hold myself to the same standards as I do my kids ;)
DeleteHey, January isn't *that* long ago. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy diaper bag is my purse most of the time, and thanks to flying home and back many times over the past few months, it stays pretty clean (I do a dump before getting it ready to be my carry on).
Well, yours is not as embarrassing as what I found in mine once. A moldy PB sandwich in a baggie. That was incredibly gross and I don't know how I didn't ever see it!
ReplyDeleteIt's so nice to have a cleaned out purse, isn't it!! So light!
Loved this post! You've inspired me to finally clean out mine :)
ReplyDeleteWow that was a hefty amount, you'll feel like you're carrying nothing now. I've been struggling with the weight of my handbag for a while now, so heavy and yet I hardly had anything in it. I switched bags and it's much lighter, it's the bag itself that was so heavy
ReplyDeleteYou still have 1 cent pieces??? In Australia 1c and 2c were removed from circulation years ago and I think 5c will be going soon too. I only have once small hand/shoulder bag (with several zips compartments) so I need to keep it well in order, always. Sometimes I even remove excess coins from my wallet to keep it lighter.
ReplyDeleteHaha! It really is amazing how quickly things accumulate in a mom's purse. A blogger friend once did a link-up about what was in our purses. I wasn't going to join in, since i had just cleaned my purse out a couple of weeks prior and didn't think there would be much to laugh about. I was so wrong. In only two weeks, I had managed to gather all sorts of random and gross things.
ReplyDeleteI am very impressed with the lack of dirty tissues in your purse.
I did this once (Kendra Tierney had a Purse Dump link up) and found a leftover chicken tender...eeeew!
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to clean out my purse for a while now
ReplyDeletepurses