3 Crucial Things to Declutter From Your Handbag Today

Let’s look at exactly what you’re carrying around every day, and lighten the load – literally! This is your guide as to what to declutter from your handbag straight away to make daily life easier.

Where on earth has it gone?

You’re standing in the queue at the post office, item balanced on one arm ready to buy the packaging for it and then post it, and you’ve finally reached the front. All you need is the little piece of paper with the address on it so you can write it on the parcel when you’ve wrapped it…

You know you put it in your handbag, so you start rummaging.

Out comes a cereal bar that’s been squashed beyond recognition (forgot it was even there). Then a handful of old receipts (none of which are needed any longer). A pen that doesn’t work (not even slightly useful). Four (yes, four!) lip balms. And lastly – a handful of loose change that’s been jingling around for weeks.

The queue shuffles forward while you’re still searching.

Stress levels rise, and although you DO eventually find the address… it’s been much more hassle than it needed to be.

Sound familiar?

The thing with Handbags is that they have a habit of becoming portable storage units.

We drop things in because they’ll be useful later, or just because we’re out and about and need to keep it for a while, and before long we’re carrying far more than we realise as part of our everyday.

There’s nothing wrong with being prepared – but there’s a point where ‘prepared’ becomes ‘overloaded’.

The aim isn’t to carry less for the sake of it. It’s to carry the right things. A handbag should make everyday life easier, not make it harder to find what you need.

So take a look at this list of things to let go of today, and think of it as a reset. Go through it with your handbag to hand, and keep what genuinely earns its place, the rest can go.

Handbag Declutter – The 3 Main Categories To Look Out For!

It may feel like there’s lots going on when you open your bag up to sort it out – but realistically most things fit into 3 main types.

See what type you find the most of…

Type 1 – Paper Clutter

Receipts

Receipts are useful – a lot of us like to keep them so we can check what we’ve bought against our bank balance – and also some are needed for returning things or for proof of purchase.

But they can multiply fast – the supermarket, the petrol station, the coffee you grabbed on the way to a meeting. If we keep a receipt from everything purchase, they bulk out that handbag pretty quickly.

The trick is to keep the ones you genuinely need for returns or expenses (have a section in your bag for them so they can be collected properly ready to put somewhere safe as soon as you get home).

Empty wrappers

That cereal bar wrapper from your snack last week, the empty sweet packet, the crisp bag from three days ago – none of it is doing anything now except taking up room and leaving crumbs in the lining.

Let them go!

Going forward: Bin any wrapper the moment it’s empty rather than ‘later.’ It takes two seconds and stops the pile ever forming.

Old shopping lists

Once the shop’s done, the list has finished its job. Yet somehow it lingers – scrunched at the bottom, alongside two or three others from weeks before.

Do this instead: Switch to a list on your phone. It updates itself, and it never needs binning.

Handbag Clutter Type 2 – Things That Are No Longer Useful

Pens that don’t work

Handbags seem to attract dead pens the way drawers attract elastic bands. You never remember putting them in, and yet there they are – three or four, none of which actually write.

Do this instead: Test every pen you find. Keep one or two (one backup is fine!) you like writing with, and recycle the rest. If it doesn’t work first time, it’s not earning its space.

Holiday coins

Those euros from a trip last year aren’t going anywhere useful sat in your everyday bag. They’re not spendable right now – and so shouldn’t be carried around.

The tweak: Gather any foreign change into a jar at home for your next trip, rather than carrying it around the supermarket.

Loyalty cards

Most loyalty schemes have moved to an app or a phone number lookup now, which makes the plastic card in your purse redundant.

However – any that still don’t have an app can be decluttered by taking a picture of the card on your phone and keeping them in a safe spot you can access when out shopping. All the shop really usually needs is the barcode or QR code on the card – so as long as you have that, you’re golden!

Old gift cards

If you have any gift cards in your bag, chances are they have very little balance left on them – and they’re taking up unnecessary space in your bag as a result.

Simply gather them together and check their balance(s) online, then make a plan to spend it asap.

After all – these usually have an expiry date – so you don’t want to miss out – even if it’s just a couple of pounds.

Mystery keys

Key rings are something we often don’t question as to what’s on them.

For instance – I realised of the 4 keys I was carrying around daily, one of them wasn’t even one I used anymore. I had just become blind to it – and had got used to having it there.

So take a look at what keys you have.

Any that you can’t place is either important and needs identifying, or it isn’t and can go. Either way, it shouldn’t sit in limbo at the bottom of your bag indefinitely.

The question to ask: Do I know exactly what this unlocks? If not, find out – or let it go.

Type 3 – Excess Essentials

Make-up

Make-up doesn’t last forever, and a handbag – warm, and jostled about every day – isn’t where it keeps best.

The ideal is to have just a couple of items that you really can’t live without each day when out and about.

No need to carry an entire makeup bag anymore…

Medication

A small strip of paracetamol for emergencies makes sense. Several half-empty packets from different brands, including a prescription you needed for a few days a few months ago, rattling around loose, doesn’t.

They also don’t last well in a handbag as it tends to get hotter than in your home – and that’s not recommended for storage.

Sanitary products

Carrying a couple, just in case, is 100% sensible. Carrying a week’s supply around 100% isn’t – it’s extra bulk for no reason.

Instead: Keep what you need for a day in a small pouch, because by the end of 1 day you’ll be home or able to get more anyway.

Hair ties and clips

They vanish the moment you need one and multiply the moment you don’t. Somehow a handbag always ends up with more hair ties in it than a hair dressers!

I end up with at least 4 or 5 every time I empty a handbag. It’s all too easy to drop one in each time I think about it – ‘just in case’.

If you have a hair brush in your bag – just attach one or two hair bands to the handle. That way you always know where they are – and you don’t end up with excess.

Loose change

A few coins for a trolley or a parking meter are genuinely useful. Handfuls of loose change are not.

They work their way into every seam and corner until your bag weighs twice what it should. Not to mention the annoying clinks you hear when you’re walking around.

Try this: Empty every coin into a jar at home once a week, and keep only a small handful for the things you actually use coins for. Then you can save a little cash for a treat, or take it to the bank when it grows enough.

Reusable shopping bags

One compact, foldable bag is genuinely useful for your shopping on the go. Five stuffed into different pockets is just bulk you’re carrying around for no reason.

Cables

A charging cable is really useful. Three different ones, for devices you don’t even carry anymore, are just tangled dead weight.

The tweak: Carry the one cable that matches what’s actually in your bag today, and leave the rest in a drawer at home.

Anything ‘just in case’

This is the catch-all section for the other excess items that could be lurking in that bag of yours.

They really are the things that do the most damage, because nothing in it looks like clutter on its own. This is things like:

• Plasters
• Spare buttons
• Notepad

Each item seems reasonable. But when you have too much, or something you could genuinely do with your phone (looking at you, notebooks), they’re the reason your bag is weighing too much.

The question to ask: Has this earned its place in my handbag in the last month? If it has, then do you have just enough to cover you when out and about. If the answer to either of these is NO, then it’s ‘just in case’ clutter – and it can go.

How to stop your handbag becoming cluttered again

One of the simplest solutions I’ve found and use regularly is a handbag organiser.

This is a simple container with compartments that inserts into your bag and then can be lifted straight from one to another when you want to swap the one you’re using.

Instead of transferring dozens of loose items every time you swap bags, everything moves together.

It also stops the ‘just in case’ habit. Why? Because you’re far less likely to end up with three lip balms or two packets of tissues because you weren’t sure whether they were already in your other handbag.

Definitely worth a try if you haven’t before!

Why not spend ten minutes giving your handbag a reset today?. Go through this list, and keep only what earns its place.

That way, next time you’re at the front of a queue, the only thing you’ll be pulling out is exactly what you need.

And the person behind you will appreciate it too! 😉

Next >> Now you’ve decluttered your handbags, this is how to store them!

Ready to take it decluttering to the next level? The 5 Day FREE Challenge is your perfect next step. You get simple tasks to nudge you through the first key steps – without it taking over your week.