by Moe Zilla

Created on: July 12, 2010

Many women treat their purse like it's magic. They expect it to produce everything that they're looking for instantly - that whatever they want will always be on top, without any clumsy digging or fumbling. The truth is that over time, a purse quickly becomes more like a portable junk drawer, eventually turning it into a big, cluttered mess where things can get lost. It's got everything in there somewhere - receipts, pens, aspirin, maybe even a digital camera. The trick is being able to find it!

Here's some tips for how to keep your purse organized!

* Important stuff in the corners

The problem with most purses is that everything shifts around. (You remember leaving something at one end of the purse, but now it's hiding in the other end, buried under something even bigger!) One solution to this problem is to tuck your most important things into a corner. Then there's always one specific location where you can look for it later!

* Know your pockets

Most purse-makers seem to know how easy it is to lose things - so they've added special pockets along the edges of the purse. This is the best way to store the things you'll need in a hurry, because they'll always be waiting for you in exactly the same place. Take a good look at all the pockets inside your purse, and see if any of them lend themselves to being the "home base" for things that you're always losing. I've seen several people who always carry their cell phone in their purse's outside pocket. That way when the phone is ringing, they don't even have to open the purse!

* Clean the purse out once in a while!

This may seem obvious, but it's the single most important thing you can do to keep your purse organized. The first time you clean your purse, you'll find things that you haven't used for months - things you've forgotten about, things that you didn't even remember putting in there. (A friend of mine once discovered some groceries she'd bought that weekend, which she'd meant to carry into the house!) The more clutter there is in a purse, the harder it will be to find the things that you really need. And it gets more and more cluttered the longer you postpone that eventual cleaning.

* Keep important stuff in a smaller handbag inside the purse.

Sometimes you don't want to carry around a bulky purse, and that's when a smaller handbag can really come in handy. Your ATM card, checkbook, or driver's license are waiting just on the other side of the zipper, so you'll always know instantly where they are. One advantage of this is that it's like a smaller, more tidy purse that's tucked inside your messy big purse! But they'll both easy to use if you keep the big purse organized too!

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