How Do I Downsize My Purse Contents?

Many articles and blogs have been written on minimalism.  This most certainly includes the contents of one’s purse.  But what can you realistically remove and still have what you need to get through your day?

It doesn’t make one bit of sense to remove that large notepad if you are a writer and use it to jot down ideas any time the muse speaks.  If you are a business owner and keep track of your clients via email, it is probably not a good idea to take out your iPad.

Now, receipts and gum wrappers are obvious trash.  But some of the ‘essentials’ probably aren’t actually necessary.  I have tried repeatedly to downsize and my life is just not friendly towards the wallet on a string kind of purse.  One quick way to start the process is to actually pull everything out and start sorting through it.  You may find that five lipsticks and three lip glosses have been hiding at the bottom of the black hole.

The way I started was to sort through what I absolutely needed versus what I thought I might need.  I put the ‘might’ items into a separate bag and if I used any of the items throughout the given time frame, I moved the item to the ‘regular’ purse or to my desk at work.  By the end of the designated time (mine was a month), I realized that I hadn’t used half of the items in the ‘might’ bag so I left it at home.  I have not missed it yet!

This little step will help give you an idea of what you actually use versus what you carry ‘just in case’.  And FYI, the ‘just in case’ people tend to have the larger bags!