Productivity Creepin’: The Contents of My Purse
2 Feb
I owe you a wonderful, comprehensive Snapshot post but I am so behind due to the site relaunch so I’m going to catch up with everybody next week. I have some awesome sponsors to introduce and I just know you are going to love them. If you are a regular visitor then I can tell you love handmade in addition to vintage, and who wouldn’t love all-natural, luxurious toiletries, cheeky custom cards and invites, or handcrafted Blythe accessories and other handmade goodness? But I digress.
My life became ever so much more organized and productive when I took the small but necessary step of decluttering my purse. If you’re a creeper like me you love to nose around in other people’s bags. I took these photos in late December before the IG photo-a-day meme came out, so imagine my squeals of joy when everyone began posting their purse’s innermost contents.
My bag used to be a junk-filled receptacle housing dozens of unnecessary receipts and parenting detritus. I went out to dinner with a friend one time and it wasn’t until I went to settle my tag that I realized I had been lugging around a single toddler shoe for the last week and a half. She’d been missing that. It was that I decided it had to stop. Pre-child days I left the house with only my phone, keys, and a small wallet, which is still how I prefer to travel. These photos represent the most I will ever carry around now, with the occasional addition of my camera or life binder. Often I leave the house with just my wallet and the mushroom pouch–the essentials. If I’m traveling with Isobel, however, the granola bar, napkin, and hairbrush are pretty necessary.
The sharpie comes in handy if I need to add something to a box at the post office, and the blue notebook is a Christmas gift from my Aunt Trisha which I’ll explain in a minute. First, here are the contents of the all-important mushroom pouch:
The original reason I started carrying the pouch at all was because of my need for meds. I have too many things wrong with me to not be packing (medical) heat at all times. I’ve been caught without imitrex too many times and my entire day has been ruined by a migraine I could have nipped in the bud. I used to just let my meds roll around loose in the pouch until I took the whale watching trip. Virtually no space on the ship was safe from the waves and all my pills were ruined by salt water by the day’s end. While I was at it, I filled the pouch with other necessaries: emergenC (Isobel calls it ‘pink drink’), purelle, hair accessories, change, and wet naps.
My talented artist Aunt Trisha made this handy blue notebook pouch. I like to carry it with me to jot down notes and save important recipes. Look how gorgeous it is on the inside.
One Christmas she made a bunch of these and everyone got one in their stocking. NBD.
What are your purse essentials? I want to creep in your bags.
I posted about this last May – http://thebookguardian.blogspot.com/2011/05/hes-got-whole-world-in-his-hands.html
Since then, I’ve quit the custard shop job and gone back to school, so I mostly carry a backpack with school and personal supplies and a boatload of pens (which is amusing since I take most of my notes on my laptop). Also, there is a lot less junk floating around in the backpack, but maybe that’s because it’s only the second week of the semester and it hasn’t had time to accumulate yet.
I also, often, have at least one packet of Pink Drink in my bag.
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I’m going to be staring at that photo for awhile. There’s lots to look at. And! PINK DRINK!
I’d just like to commend you on how clean the contents of your purse look. If I dumped out my purse, random crusty things would fall out (like loose pieces of mini-chewy Sweet Tarts, a dirty spoon, a hair-gnarled comb, etc etc). Ugh.
LDiggitty recently posted..honeymooned, part 6
The ONLY reason it’s clean and not covered with bits of granola is because I pledged to declutter it every time I returned home. In the pre-cleaned, toddler shoe days I had so many crumbs I was justifiably worried about attracting ants.
Oh man. I used to be a wallet girl. All I needed was my duct tape wallet and a house key, and I was good to go wherever. Then cell phones got big and I had to carry one of those everywhere, too. Then I got a digital camera, and a PDA, and pretty soon I was carrying a purse all the time. I started out small – I wouldn’t carry anything bigger than, say, a brown paper lunch bag – but that faded, too. Now I have a gigantic purse in which I can carry my wallet, pns camera, ipad, and knitting bag, in addition to all the other junk I might need (granola bar, kleenex, etc). I really need to take some inspiration from you here and declutter/slim down!
Anne recently posted..The BUST DIY Guide to Life
Knitting! If I still had a knitting/crochet bag things would get dangerous. When I still worked at the library I used a large diaper-bag-sized purse so I could carry my crochet project AND my books. AND my camera. Heh.
I’ve never been ‘just a wallet’ girl. BIG BAG FULL OF CRAP! Make the bag bigger! Fill it with more crap!! Gum wrappers and receipts for ALL!!! My bags have also had to start being big enough for a trail of meds and epipens due to allergies of death. That’s, actually, how I started making handbags which I used to sell on etsy. I was attempting to make smaller bags that still fit epi pens.
TOTALLY necessary for carrying around all those meds. The bonus of a large bag like that is that if necessary it can be used as a weapon.
I also love these posts. I love how organized your purse is. I need to do that. I really, really, really do.
Maybe if I’m feeling brave later I will pull out the contents of my purse later and snap a photo for you to see. But I fear what I may find. Case in point, a few days ago I found a muffin that I threw in my purse for breakfast…over a week ago. That’s the kind of thing you’d think one would notice in a medium sized purse. But me? Nah.
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Oooh! A fellow creeper! Salutations, creeper friend! I would love to see your purse. Muffin bits and all.
I love that homemade notepad pouch! This post just inspired me to dump out the contents of my purse to do a “what’s in my bag” post of my own. I love doing and reading these!
Van recently posted..Garden Show and Tell: Gardening Plans and Dreams for 2012
My aunt probably whipped it together in 2.5 seconds. She’s a genius. Can’t wait to see your bag, Van!
I love the notebook too! Can you get your aunt to whip up a tutorial?
Jenna recently posted..Celebrating the Groundhog & Mid-winter
I’ll ask very, very nicely.
My life/purse essentials:
-wallet, which includes the same seven pennies and guitar pick I have carried with me every day since I was a kid… I have OCD. It’s a “thing”.
-meds (lots and lots and lots of long- and short-acting oxycodone for nerve damage in my right hip/butt/leg, Claritin/Zyrtec to minimize the “narcotic itching”, Zofran for the nausea that has continued mercilessly throughout these 34 weeks of pregnancy, and children’s dye-free ibuprofen for Alex and Livvy, if needed)
-pen(s) – always one, sometimes more
-tiny Moleskine journal that I refuse to actually use, for some odd reason
-restaurant 3-pack of crayons and coloring page
-Hot Wheels car for Alex
-tiny little obnoxious barking puppy that Livia is obsessed with – sometimes the only thing that will ever make her happy, so I try save it for Absolute Meltdown Emergency Mode
-wifi hot spot
Creep away!
I think the guitar pick and pennies are sweet. And it seems I am not the only one carrying around a fully-stocked pharmacy. I’m not kidding when I say that this blog helps my anxiety because it makes me feel ‘normal.’
<3
The only reason I don’t travel with a Littlest Pet Shop menagerie is because Isobel always has her Pink Purse.
OMG I almost forgot my most-critical necessity!!
Sweet Fiesta Starbursts.
Mouth crack. Cherry mango, melon berry, peach guava, and strawberry pineapple flavors… I am beyond addicted. And sometimes they work better (and quicker) than the Zofran for settling my stomach.
If anyone gives you shit can tell them THOSE STARBURST ARE PRESCRIPTION.
Also, that makes a great swear/exclamation:
Sweet Fiesta Starburst!
The start of a new cross-stitch sampler idea! Just think how cute little graphic starbursts would be around the text, and then a little border of the Starburst candies.
Kristi recently posted..2012 Potential Recipe Roundup
OMFG my bag is always so full of crap! Necessary crap even. Then I add my little point and shoot camera and it gets heavier ^^
But it’s so worth it to have that point and shoot! So very necessary.
Are you familiar with the Flickr pool “What’s in your bag?” http://www.flickr.com/groups/whats_in_your_bag/ I’m kind of obsessed with it. I am a total bag creeper too!
I submitted a photo there, but since it was two years ago, it’s no longer accurate! I think I need to regularly post pics of my bag – and since I change my bag pretty often, it’d be new and exciting every time!
Here’s my old-ass photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mermaidpockets/4371916054/in/photostream
Jenna recently posted..Celebrating the Groundhog & Mid-winter
Am not! Excellent! Can’t wait to check it out!
I made it! The site looks great! Congrats on your relaunch
-aka Stitchify
Yay, thanks, IG buddy!
I always love these posts:) And your aunt is one talented lady, that is super cool!
Blue Eyed Night Owl recently posted..Owl Things Considered
She has more talent in her pinky than I have in my whole body! She’s pretty great.