Have You Heard Of A PURSE BIN? You Haven’t Because I Just Invented It.
And no, it’s not about organizing your purses.
by Audie Metcalf
Think about what’s in your various purses right now. If it’s an endless abyss of crap and dirt-flecked gum and half-open tampons and semi-exploded lip balms and rotten cheese sticks and 37 receipts, hello.
You are my people.
If you have one purse, and it is pristine and organized, you might want to x out of this article now.
Ok. It’s just us now. The purse pigs.
We are smart, accomplished women. We are Type A about so many things. Our calendars are locked. Our laundry systems are legendary. And yet when it comes to our bags, and specifically when it comes to changing our bags for different outfits or outings, we are Pig Pen from Peanuts.
One of my purses would have my wallet and sunglasses. The other has 4 different types of gum and my prescription Pepcid. And I don’t even have that many bags—a big tote, a nice leather bag, a smallish fancy bag, and a couple crossbody things. But managing my core purse “necessities” aka, all the crap I need to bring with me when I exit the home, has been an utter hellscape all my life.
So I invented system that I believe could win a Nobel Prize, if the Nobel Prize people weren’t so pompous. What is it you ask?
IT’S A PURSE BIN.
And because this is already far too many written words for something that’s a purely visual idea, here’s a photo of my actual purse bin, not composed, just as it actually exists right now:
Ok, so how does it work?
Every day, when I’m gathering myself to leave the house, I take the bag I want for the day, and I visit my purse bin. Hello, purse bin. I gather the stuff I need, joyful that it’s all in one place, perhaps leaving a few bits and bobs in the bin depending on the breadth of my outing.
And every evening, when I am “in for the night,” I simply dump everything back into the bin.
Nothing is ever scattered. My inhaler isn’t hiding in my small purse from 4 days ago when we went to that dinner. My tweezers are always right there, ready for my bi-monthly single, chin-hair pluck in my car mirror. If I need my wallet to enter my credit card for some godawful checkout process for some random hand-held fan I want to purchase at 3:08 am when I can’t sleep, I don’t have to rummage around multiple bags. I just simply….visit my purse bin.
Ok, so. There are a few purse bin ground rules. And even if you have Big Rebel Energy, you need to trust me on these:
1. You mustn’t use your purse bin as your bathroom drawer. Meaning, just because you know your favorite lip balm is in there, you mustn’t take it out and leave it in random places in your house. Why? Because when you go to your purse bin to scoop up all your purse crap the next day, you won’t remember your lip balm isn’t in there. So then you’ll be at the mall at 4:48 pm with NO LIP BALM in the winter and you’ll begin to panic so you’ll just buy new lip balm and you’ll stay in this capitalist prison until you die. So no dipping into the purse bin unless you’re gathering it to Leave. Promise me on this.
2. Yes, this does mean you might need a few doubles of things. But they will be the best purchases you’ve ever made. I bought a cheap pair of “readers” and a cute glasses case to just live in the bin while my fancy glasses remain at home. I also bought an extra pair of tweezers, hand sanitizer, a baby Tylenol bottle for decanting into, and yes, lip balm. Two balms live in my purse bin in fact. I like variety.
3. Yes, those are epipens and liquid Benadryl. Yes, I have an anaphylactic allergy. I keep my epipens and Benadryl in my medicine cabinet and my purse bin only. Don’t leave your epipens in your car (niche I know but maybe someone out there?) because the heat and cold will degrade the medication. And this goes for all meds so keep them inside.
4. When you do your nightly dump, this is when you’ll deal with your receipts, that random, yogurt-caked spoon, your rotting slices of apple in a sandwich bag that you didn’t eat because your car veered into the McDonald’s drive through instead. Ergo, there is never a big garbage scow of purse crap anymore, which is a lovely little bonus.
5. My exact bin is THIS one and they’re stackable and I love them but obviously just use whatever works for you. I suppose you could even use a shallow DRAWER with some dividers which might also be exciting but perhaps limiting.
And here are a couple of semi-interesting bits of info that aren’t rules but are sort of voyeurisitic glimpses into the mundane habits of a stranger, and who doesn’t love that?
1. Yes, that’s a mini measuring tape. It’s shocking how much I use it!
2. I love keeping a nail polish and an extra phone battery on hand because they’re both immensely helpful.
3. I keep tampons with me whether I’m in my blood moon or not—it’s always nice to be able to give one out if necessary.
4. I think I broke my own rule and had my sunglasses in another room because I had just gone on a dog walkies and I wore them outside which I fully understand is a complex variant and I didn’t instantly put them back in the bin and I deeply regretted it. This is a newish invention so I’m still learning my own rules.
What I also love about the Nobel Prize Winning Purse Bin™ is that it actually forces you to look at all your junk and figure out what you never use and what you always use. God it’s so satisfying let’s look at it again at a different angle:
There is nothing more exciting than thinking of some of you, or even just ONE of you adopting this invention into your daily life. And if you do, dm me HERE and show me a photo of it immediately and I will likely cry a little because helping random women on the internet with the problems they didn’t know they had is literally my life force.
I’m off to search for my sunglasses now, which I wouldn’t have to do if I had JUST PUT THEM IN MY PURSE BIN.
Audie Metcalf is the Editor-in-chief of The Candidly, and lives in LA with her family. You can find more of her articles here.
At The Candidly, we try a lot of stuff so you don’t have to. We only recommend things we truly love, and that we think you’ll love, too. All products are chosen independently by our creative team, and all details reflect the price and availability of products at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to, The Candidly may earn a commission.
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