Saturday, February 20, 2010

I Have Issues with Purse Organization...

so it takes me forever to choose a new purse. I not only have to find a color that makes my heart happy, it has to be the right size and the right price (Good night! Purses are expensive today!). Then I have to be that hated person who takes all the stuffing out of the purse, shoves it on the store shelf somewhere, and checks out the inside of the purse. Because it has to have enough pockets to hold all my stuff. Cute just won't cut it - it has to F.U.N.C.T.I.O.N.

And I absolutely can't live without all this stuff I carry around. Sometimes when I look inside my purse I think of Monty Hall and Let's Make a Deal - where he'd end his show, eating up that leftover time, asking women to pull strange things out of their purses. And I'd know I would have won because of course I have all those things he came up with. And it all has to be with me every single time I leave the house, and be organized so I can pull it out on a minute's notice. Because you never know when someone needs to hear the Gospel or receive CPR or see what colors go best with their skin tone, or sew on a button, or repair their glasses. You just never know!

One of my dearest friends travels with a debit card in her pocket and her cell phone in the other. No purse at all! It's amazing we're friends, being cut from such different cloth! Or maybe, just maybe she hangs with me because I haul around everything she could possibly need.

Alas - I've been yearning for a mustard yellow purse. I blame it on the lack of sun here in PA the past five months - my heart needed something bright and sunny looking and since the sky wasn't producing anything other than grey, a mustard yellow purse it was. It was starting to feel like time to put my brown Vera Bradley on the closet shelf. You can't carry dark brown in February in dreary Pennsylvania.

Payless was a dismal failure. Possibly because a salesMAN tried to help me choose and made me itch to get out of the store.

T.J. Maxx provided this good solution for a reasonable price. Once you grab a purse that is supposedly a good deal at $165.00 and put it back on the shelf, you can feel quite smug with a purse that only costs $39.99. But it had inside issues -not enough pockets to hold the categories of stuff I needed. There's the TOOL category - to repair eye glasses, remove stains, etc. The FIX MY FACE AND NAILS category - lipgloss, color, nail file and mascara for when mine gives up the ghost and flakes completely off and my eyes disappear. The MEDICINAL category - really in a whole class by itself - aleve and migraine excedrin, zyrtech, solution for itchy eyes, restless leg tablets for when you're going nuts in the middle of the movie you paid $9.50 to see, motion sickness pills and bands and bandaids, and to be mentioned delicately - upset tummy issues. Or if you're not delicate you just can't travel without some beano in your bag. You never know when someone's going to offer you an unexpected bowl of chili. VISION category - glasses and sunglasses and a spare pair of reader glasses. Gum and mints and cough drops and notecards and a cell phone and keys - the list is truly endless but it all has to be in there. And pens and pencils and highlighters - have to have them in multiples of each.

So I remembered my friend, Tris - who lives at a more highly evolved level of organization - telling me about this: Pursekets. So I ordered one to fit the medium bag for around $21.00 in a color that will go with any purse I carry. Including shipping it ran about $25.00.

It'll make choosing my next purse much easier. Maybe when I've lived in hotter than all get out Texas and it's August and I just can't abide anything bright and sunny looking, so I yearn for a frosty blue purse. And it made me feel quite smug to realize I don't carry the 'large category' of purse - all that stuff only equals a medium bag. So there!

I'm wondering what's in those large bags and feeling pretty sure Monty Hall would be giving the prize to someone else after all. But by golly - go ahead - just ask me. I bet I can find just about anything now.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I had no idea they actually sold something like that. I have one that I made and I use it all the time. It is so great. You are going to love it.

Bev said...

There you go Becky, someone stole your idea! I would not have known about them if not for my organizing queen friend, Tris. I'm so weary of checking out the insides of every single cute purse out there, and think this will finally solve it!

Glenda said...

This post made me smile! Love the mustard yellow purse! One of my favorites - that I discarded - was yellow, but because I carried so much in it, the handles didn't hold up. My husband said, "Only you would buy a yellow purse!" Guess he was wrong; at least two of us like that color!

I need to try your newly-found organizer.

Cheri said...

I have a pattern....somewhere...for a purse organizer. Guess if I was (were?) more organized, I'd know where it was!

But I love the purse! I have been trying to downsize lately and carry less stuff and smaller purses, but there are so many cute larger purses out there (like yours!) that I think I will throw caution to the wind and get a big purse.

Susan said...

Cute post and nice purse.

Sarah said...

Wow, Mom, the next time I need, say, a KITCHEN SINK, I'll know where to find one.

Beano, really? Wow! My purse is very boring next to yours! Both inside and out!!

Gretchen said...

Where are all the crumpled receipts? xxxooo

pcb said...

We are so much alike...so I have one question...how does the thing keep from flopping over into the middle of the purse?

Bev said...

Pendy, the purseket is actually a very long, sturdy sided strip that you wind around to match the width of your purse. That's why it comes in small, medium and large. I suspect it has tall, rigid sides that will stand on their own, at least I'm counting on that. If my friend Tris recommends it, I know, absolutely know it will be worth it!

MarytheKay said...

Wow, I LOVE mustard yellow purse!! Also, I think we might be distant cousins...because my purse contents are very similar! :-)