How often do you make a check-up in your tote that you’re always carrying about? Though you are aware that it’s piled up with things (some of which you don’t really need!) you never look. What’s the point of doing a thorough go-through if the next month it will be cluttered just the same? The bag and its contents can easily give other people the notion that we are always prepared for anything and have everything handy – except for the bath, maybe. There is likely to be a stock of lipsticks, a sheaf of receipts ages old, torn wrappers and what not. You may be surprised yourself at what you can discover in its depth!
What was originally conceived by unthinking designers as an exquisite accessory of (say) leather for holding the most necessary items turned quickly into a sort of a magic vessel which contains more than it physically can hold and seems to be able to generate practically everything one may wish.
Do the contents differ greatly from one bag to another? Well, they say that as for the unnecessary items, the difference is not so big, and we can guarantee that these 25 things can be found in any woman’s tote!
An impressive store of lipsticks
Of course you don’t go out with one lipstick only, and you don’t think twice about dropping a couple more into the bag – and you’re quite within your rights, only you don’t think that they pile up.
Datebook, another datebook
Maybe your keep your social and business affairs separate, or you need to jot down a lot of addresses – anyway, there are two or more lying about in your bag. Is one of them blank and bought on the go for an emergency that never materialized?
Samples in quantity
You take them and stuff them in – free mag samples, shampoo and perfume, no matter if we keep them in full at home, let them lie around.
Various condiments
No meal is delicious without salt, ketchup, mayonnaise and pepper, so why depend on finding them handy when we need them? Put them in!
A full pack of business cards
You may get business cards from other people regularly, and you stick them into your handbag without thinking. Then you wonder who these people were – and proceed to use the cards for nail painting or mascara applying, for which they are really fine.
Key to nowhere
Here’s a key that has been lying here for God-knows-how-long, and you simply haven’t the foggiest what it is to. Still, it’s better to keep it, who knows when it can strike you why it is here and what it does.
Duct tape
If anything is really necessary, it’s duct tape. Most of the time it is not, and you think it can be junking your bag, but when your bag strap suddenly gets unstuck or snaps when you’re out, that’s what you will be rummaging in the bag for. Hopefully, you’re handy with it, and will cope with the catastrophe successfully.
Some broken item
Something that no longer works – or even a broken-off piece of something that disintegrated in your hands during usage – is likely to repose on the very bottom. What would that be? Old headphones, a useless zipper or a torn phone case?
Tampons
Oh my. Here’s an old tampon that was the last in the pack and you forgot about it, or one whose wrapper got torn so it is a little frayed and a little dirty. Now it moves about the bag and sometimes catches at anything sharp. Can you find some use for it?
Blusher with a broken cover
You dropped it and the cover worked loose, but you decided that you will still be using it and put it back in the tote. You’re lucky if it is just lying there waiting for better days (that won’t come), but probably it begins to issue rouge upon everything that is in the vicinity. Isn’t it time to at least take it out of the bag?
Receipts and tags
Yes, we keep the receipts because we may need them to return the item and get a refund. But are they for new clothes that still can be returned, or for ones that you have been wearing for weeks?
A smaller bag
Your life is such that one bag may not suffice, so you always go armed with another bag or bags folded inside the one in your hand. Or maybe you keep different things in different small bags, so you know what bag to look into when you open your bag?
A pen that leaks
How many pens are traveling around in your handbag? Three, six? Once again, we put in another one unthinkingly, it will come in handy some time. Yet if you are set on doing a check-up, make sure there’s not one that leaks.
Opened wrappers
Your handbag is actually the most convenient rubbish bin. Eaten a chocolate and stuffed the empty wrapper into the bag? All right. When was the last time you removed all of them wrappers?
Coupons
A beauty coupon tucked away carefully, so carefully that you clean forgot about it and it’s expired now. How time kills things, it’s a shame.
Used tickets
A ticket is a good keepsake to brighten up your memory, but is your tote a right place for it? Make a scrapbook or just put it away in a special folder.
Coins
Are they scattered all over your bag bottom because you may need them or for the opposite reason? They allow us to get a small sweet on the way? OK, let them be.
False lashes
Have you lost a false lash? No time to deal with it, better put it in the clutch and let it wait until you get at it with glue. Now did you get round to doing it or is it still down there somewhere?
Things from the house
We thought we might need a clothes peg, a spoon, a razor working on batteries on different days. We used it or we didn’t, but we plumb omitted to remove them from the bag.
Fruit from way back when
What you took for a snack and left it for the next day, and then for the next, is slowly turning your nice Birkin into something like the wild jungle…
Tissues
One more necessary item that can go stale and crumpled with age, and amass and amass and amass. Which of them are still usable?
An old nail file
You really should have chucked this old cardboard nail file into the nearest bin, it’s badly bent and its emery board will soon come off – but what if you get a snag on the nail? So, let it lie around yet.
Deodorant
Consider another place for it. You have used it in the morning, right? And you are not going to use it several times offhandedly? A deodorant at home and another one in the office ought to suffice, why clutter up your bag?
Hair products
Oh, another canister. Really, it’s a bag, not a store, and you won’t want it to be called a hold-all in the literal meaning of the word. Save space by leaving hairsprays at work.
Pills and tablets
Is there a great supply of medication in your handbag, so that you go about equipped for all kinds of health emergencies? Once again, check them and see whether they have expired, and consider the additional weight on your shoulder and spine. Make your favorite tote as light as you can so you don’t kill your graceful walk.
