Declutter Your Handbag: Simplify the Stuff You Carry with You

by Susan McCarthy

At some point in junior high, I remember that several of the girls started carrying purses. At age 12, what’s there to carry but for a pen, lip balm, and maybe the key to your house, but it was a thing, and I wanted a purse.

In response to my request, my mother pulled out one of her old purses, a structured brown object that was the furthest thing from the carefree boho bags of the 1970s. My pen and Bonne Bell lip balm rattled around in the boxy shape. I was…disappointed. However, since I’d told my mother that I needed a purse, I used what felt like an old-lady handbag. Thus, began my ambivalent relationship with purses.

I swayed from using bags barely large enough to hold my housekeys to those could have done double-duty as an overnight bag.

After I went on a day trip with a friend to New York City, I became enamored of her backpack that seemed to contain everything we could possibly need. She was so prepared that I felt like a slacker…I didn’t even have an aspirin with me (and I suffered almost daily headaches).

So, when I got home, I pulled out my backpack and filled with items that I might need because they seemed useful and practical. And even if I didn’t need the items, perhaps someone in my vicinity would and I’d come to the rescue!

Seriously, I carried a shawl, mini umbrella, a notebook and a couple of pens, lip balm, hand cream, mints, a small bottle of acetaminophen, a book, a pen knife, several Band-Aids, my wallet, a mangled meal replacement bar, my phone, hair comb, one of those windbreakers that fold up into their own pocket and come out with so many wrinkles that my students were embarrassed to be seen with me and wondered if I was really that cold to need such a horrible jacket.

Of course, I couldn’t carry this bag into stores without worrying someone would think I was planning to shoplift. Or risk turning around and banging into those displays they insist on setting up within aisles. So, I’d pull out my wallet and keys and phone and juggle them in one hand while I shopped.
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After far too much time passed and I nearly had a permanent dent in my shoulder from the weight of the backpack, I realized that for as useful as all this stuff was, I never used 98-percent of it.

I shifted back to a handbag large enough to hold my wallet, phone, mints, lip balm, and a small bottle of pain reliever. And a couple of bandages because I had the bad habit of biting my cuticles until they bled.

Then my father was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia and I found myself trudging from lawyers to doctors to banks trying to straighten through much disorganization. I quickly learned that everyone wanted to see the same series of documents, so I filed them into an accordion-folder and fit them into the tote bag that became both purse and home office for about a year and a half until I realized that everyone had stopped asking for health proxies, copies of the doctor’s diagnosis, and other such information.

With all that waiting to speak with people, I learned to carry crochet with me, so I’d have something to do. A crochet hook, scissors, and tape measure took their place next to the mints and aspirin in my new, smaller (but not small) bag.

Then my husband’s health issues meant that he’d have to retire at age 52. To get disability, we met with the retirement board and multiple doctors. Out came the tote bag. When one doctor was looking around the exam room for a tape measure to measure Mac’s neck, I pulled mine out of my bag and handed it to him. The doctor gave me a perplexed look until I pulled out the project I was crocheting.

I’m sure if I’d had kids, the contents of my handbags would have changed with my kids’ ages. As it is, my handbag – and perhaps more important – the contents of that handbag, has reflected both my life as well as my expectations for my life.

As it probably does for you as well. How much of that stuff in your purse do you use? Do you carry around a host of ‘just in case’ items?

Decluttering Your Handbag Is Simple Self-Care

If you use a handbag, you know how quickly it can get filled with receipts, change, and other items that you collect when outside your home.

Unfortunately, this means your bag, for the space involved, is likely the messiest place you deal with on a regular basis. Chances are your stress levels have shot up while you pawed through your purse looking for your keys or wallet or ATM card which you know much be someplace in there.

Decluttering your handbag won’t take long. You can probably do it while watching television. Not only will you reduce the weight of the bag (no more mystery neck pain!) but you’ll create a calm, organized, functional space.

This is an act of self-care that will repay your efforts.

I’m not going to list “10 handbag essentials” because there were times when I had no clue what I found necessary for my life and I won’t pretend I know what you need.
 

​How to Declutter and Organize Your Handbag

1. Find a flat surface to work on – the kitchen or dining table, a coffee table, the surface of your bed.
2. Spread a towel over the area to catch lint and any small object that might try to bounce across the table.
3. Dump the contents of your purse onto your flat surface. If there are zippered compartments, open them so you get everything out of the bag.
4. Sort items into piles – makeup, stationery supplies, receipts, food/mints/gum, and so on.
5. Toss the trash – receipts you don’t need, old shopping lists, hard candy that’s seen better days, dried up pens, expired coupons, etc.
6. If you have duplicates, pick the best one to keep with you and toss the rest – or move the items to where they’ll get used in your home. If you have multiple lipsticks, either keep the one that will coordinate with all your outfits or make a point of putting your lipstick-of-the-day into your purse each morning right after you apply it. (And then remove it each evening.)
7. Will you keep coins in your wallet to spend when shopping or will you remove them from your purse and put them into a collection jar, so you can cash them in later?
8. Do you often lose your keys at the bottom of your bag? Add a carabiner clip to your bag and always attach your keys to it.
9. Group items that have something in common into zippered pouches (or, in a pinch, plastic baggies). If you have the choice between a small pouch and a roomier one, go with the smaller one. This will help discourage you from collecting more stuff “because you have the space.”

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​Declutter Just-in-Case Items

Before you pop everything back in your handbag, question how many of these items that you carry with you that you never use. Go for brutal honesty here.

Maybe you think you should carry a comb with you but instead you just run your fingers through your hair. You carry an umbrella with you, but you never wrestle it from your bag for the few steps between car and building. You probably carry a lot of practical things with you because you feel that it’s the right thing to do. If someone ever needs a safety pin, you’ll be a hero! (Oh, yeah, I forgot to list that I carried safety pins and a travel sewing kit in my backpack-of-everything.)

No matter how small the item, why lug it around if you don’t use?

What if you’re convinced that you’ll need something the moment you remove it from your handbag? Take all those things and stick them together in a food storage bag that you can seal shut. Then put this bag in your handbag.

If you need something, take it out and then reseal the plastic bag. At the end of a month, you’ll see what you’ve never needed. Toss, recycle, or donate these items as is appropriate. 

Once you remove everything you won’t use, you may be able to carry a smaller handbag (which will help you avoid collecting more stuff that you won’t use).
 

Make Having a Tidy Handbag a Habit

If you regularly change your handbag so it coordinates with what you are wearing, instead of having duplicates of basic things in each purse, sort these items into zippered pouches that you can move from bag-to-bag.

Make a point of decluttering your purse regularly. Either empty it every evening or once a week. If you sort through your handbag regularly, then it won’t take much time. Tie this new habit to something you already do. For example, after you put away the groceries, immediately declutter your purse.

Remember, something that is important to carry with you right now might not be important to have on hand in a few months. And, something you didn’t need, may become a necessity. The items in your handbag should serve you and make your day easier.

When you declutter your purse and simplify the stuff you carry, you may start to notice the other things in your life that your are dragging along with you. What you carry (or don’t carry) in your handbag isn’t just about simplicity, it’s about being flexible to change with your needs. Seeing these changes in the microcosm of your handbag can help you recognize what you need (and don’t) in your home.

(If you’re curious, right now, I carry a handbag just large enough to fit my wallet, phone, keys, and a mask. This could change at any time.)

Simplifying your handbag is a great first step toward letting go of the things you don't need. Ready to declutter some more? Get my free guide, Live a Less Cluttered Life, and start clearing clutter and distractions from your life, today.
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