Yesterday I noticed that a few of my fellow Irish Parenting Bloggers have been tweeting about what’s in their handbags. Nosey as I am, I enjoyed looking up their blogs and seeing how neat or not their sacred handbags are. 

My own handbag has been getting heavier and more cluttered as the year has gone on and I just hadn’t had the time or the inclination to sort it out. I mean there is enough mess around the place as it is without me adding to it. That said, inspired by the lovely ladies’ posts I decided to join the linky that Where Is My Mind Gone set up and clean my bag out, killing two birds with one stone as they say. 

So here it is, said handbag. 

I bought it the Christmas before last to match the purse my sister gave me for Christmas. “What?” I hear you gasp. “A mother of three with matching bag and purse!”. This is totally unlike me and will probably never happen again. If the opportunity hadn’t presented itself, I would probably still have my previous bag and purse, mismatched and battered though they were.

Last night I opened the bag and poured the contents onto the kitchen table, took a photo and started sorting. What I found in there can be divided into two categories:
1. Things I knew were in there
2. Things I didn’t know were in there


1. Things I knew were in there
 – My house keys
 – My car keys
 – A small pack of tissues
 – An empty soother pod
 – A couple of paid bills
 – A lipstick in a case, a gift from a more organised mother
 – A new nail file
 – My wallet
 – A seemingly never-ending tube of Carmex. I must have it three years. It is brilliant for cold sores.
 – Two vouchers
 – A Paperblank magnetic notebook. I hate it when I don’t have anything to write on.
 – One pen. I used to have three. I searched everywhere for the other two last night but they are definitely not in my bag anymore.
 – Two ‘Cars’ eyepatches. One of the children has bad eyesight.

2. Things I didn’t know were in there
 – A used tissue with a Santa Claus on it. That went straight to the bin.
 – An unused tissue with a Santa Claus on it
 – Two wooden toothpicks. I have no earthly idea where they came from or why there were in there.
 – The programme from a play we went to last week
 – A small key. It is probably from the lock of one of the children’s bikes.
 – An even smaller key. It is probably from a suitcase.
 – A bank statement
 – Several old receipts. They went straight to the bin too. 
 – A membership form I filled out, lost and never got round to getting a new one of. Handing that in to where it should have been handed in last September will be added to my to do list.
 – An empty envelope, probably from one of the vouchers
 – Tickets from a garden show we visited at the start of May
 – Two papers from the back of my child’s eyepatch
 – A note from the local bookshop to look up the name of the book I want to order because the name I told them was incomplete
 – A sheet of money-off coupons that went out of date in May. Bin!
 – A brochure for a festival we want to go to next weekend
 – One baby’s sock
 – A small plastic figure of the dog from Shaun the Sheep
 – A button from one of my cardigans
 – The site map of Playmobil Fun Park
  – Enough crumbs to make up a small scone

The paper bin filled uo quite quickly with all the rubbish. The cardigan will proably forever remain one button short, the membership form will probaby get ‘lost’ again and come Christmas I’ll probably still have that unused tissue. But at least that’ll make me look organised!

#whatsinmybag