What's In Your Purse?

Is your purse something that would win you a chance on Let's Make A Deal? (If you remember that TV show, you're old like me (smile).) What's in there?

The purse thing is very much the same as the house thing. The clutter thing.

What do I carry with me now? I carry ONLY the keys that I use every day (the others are in the ashtrash of my car, ready, but not jangling around). I carry ONE lipstick -- and only that sometimes (now I use a "lip stain," and so in reality, I apply it like once a day. So I have one in my gym bag, and one in my car). My medical insurance card, driver's license, one credit card, business cards, cash.

If you are carrying a ton of stuff with you -- why? It's dragging down your side -- carrying a heavy purse or (forbid!) a "backpack" rumples up your clothes, messes up your posture, and definitely makes you more of a "target" than a Bond girl!

All the other "cards" that I might need (such as Costco card, Safeway card, coffee card and such) are in my car, all in a zipped bag in my glove box. This way -- I know exactly where they are. And if I'm going out shopping, I am not going out "on a whim." (That's how you get in trouble!) I plan to go out wherever I'm going -- so if I'm not driving the car, I can go into that little purple zip-case, and get out the "membership cards" that I'm going to need.

My "purse," in actuality, is a little wallet-thing, on a key ring. It's red leather, and my mom got it for me a long while back. It's sort of a wallet-business card holder cross-over. Very nice. And that's all I carry. I don't really carry a "purse" per se -- and I have a Blackberry which is my combo phone/address book/email/etc. -- which I just "clip" onto the leather keyholder part of this wallet/business card holder. So it's all together. If I'm going to be somewhere where I need to look a bit more "professional," I just put it into either a brown or a black purse (remember, you have all those categorized now in your closet -- R-I-G-H-T? (laugh)), and away I go.

I believe I talked a long, long time ago about getting all of your "lotions, potions, and makeup" down to one bag. This is what I call my 'gym bag' -- I happen to have a small ripstop bag that has everything in it. Spare contacts, a tampon, body lotion, deodorant, small brush, hairspray, blah blah. It's NOT a huge bag, either. Just small containers of everything. I have another little case (about the size of an eyeglasses case) that has all my makeup in it -- base, powder, blush, eyeshadow, lip moisture, mascara, etc. Together, these take up maybe.....I dunno, about 7"x5" of space, something like that? Very easy. Very portable.

Just this weekend, I went through boxes and boxes from under my fiance's bathrooms, stocked up with old "crap" from years gone by. Lordy, lordy. Look -- this stuff does NOT LAST. So GET RID OF IT. I don't care if you give stuff away (that's unopened) to your church, or leave it on a curb if it's opened where a homeless person might make use of it, or give it to your kids to play with for dress-up if it's one of the ZILLIONS of extra bits of makeup you have -- BUT GET RID OF IT! It is just weighing you down.

I really made this my "mission" a year ago -- and I remember how much stuff I threw out. It was amazing. The thing is, after that, you just don't collect any more. If they want to give you a "sample pack" when you get something at a makeup counter (and why are you buying that expensive "counter" stuff anyway...but never mind...), then go through it and assess immediately whether you're going to be using whatever is in there -- to REPLACE something you ALREADY HAVE AND ARE GOING TO THROW OUT -- or not. If not, then DO NOT TAKE IT. Or -- take it, and give it away to a homeless person.

I did this a while back -- I gave out the packs that you get on board an airplane (back in the day when I used to get to fly the "expensive seats") to some homeless guys. They looked pretty darned surprised. (Wonder which of them is using the Lavender Eau De Cologne and which is wearing the Virgin Atlantic footie warmer socks? (laugh).) Anyway -- you get the picture here.

We keep going and going and going back to the "de-clutter" concept. That's so important here. To me, the essence of a Bond girl is one that is surrounded by every single thing -- 100% -- that she loves and adores. Nothing is "catching dust" -- because neither is she! All she wants to do is please herself -- and when she's "tired" of something or it doesn't warm her heart any more -- she finds somewhere else for it to go. Because if your cup is totally full of beer, how you going to get the champagne in there? Get rid of the beer, get rid of the clutter. And then concentrate on the champagne. You might even be able to make use of a smaller "glass"....but think of the benefits!

Solitaire