National Clean Out Your Purse Day (and Get Organized) with Kathi Lipp {Giveaway!}

*While you are here, don't miss my other giveaway - a copy of Mom Connection and a bag of goodies - just for mom!*

Let's face it, as women, we keep everything in our purse. I don't care if I haven't needed it in five years, it may come in handy tomorrow...

But what do you do when you can lift it anymore? Let alone find what you need? Please don't ask my kids how often I lose the car keys in the bottom of my purse (or as I call it - the abyss).

If you are like me, you desperately need today -
National Clean Out Your Purse Day!! 

 The amazing Kathi Lipp has a new project book, The Get Yourself Organized Project - 21 Steps to Less Mess and Stress and today, she is helping us get ourselves organized by starting with our purses!

Here are Kathi's steps to cleaning it out and getting organized!

How to Clean Your Purse Instructions

Here’s my super-speedy way of cleaning out my bag. I simply take my purse and dump it out into a plastic grocery bag. I sort the dump into Put Away, Put Back, and (in this case) Throw Away.

Put Away

Anything I want to keep that doesn’t belong in my purse gets put away. This is also when I go through receipts I’ve carefully placed in my wallet (or, more likely, the ones I’ve quickly thrown into my purse…) and random notes or other pieces of paper. If you’re away from home while you’re sorting, just put these items into another bag to put away when you get home. And when you get home, put them away in the right spot.

Put Back

If it belongs in your purse, go ahead and put it back into your purse.

Throw Away

Anything that’s left over in your plastic grocery bag (food wrappers, cash receipts you don’t care about, and so on,) is now garbage that gets recycled or thrown away. The beauty of the grocery-bag organizing system is that you can do it anywhere, anytime. Just grab a grocery bag and start sorting while you’re waiting for your kids to get out of band practice or while you’re on the phone with your mom.

Clean it Up

Give your purse a good shake and get out any stray bits, crumbs etc. I’ve even used a hand held vacuum to really get the bag clean.

Label It and Put It Away

Assign a spot for everything that belongs in your purse, bag, or backpack. I use three zippered pouches. Everything goes into one of those three pouches or into your wallet (or in rare cases, onto your key chain). The fewer items you place in your purse, the easier it is to know what’s in there. 

Wallet. I recommend you keep in your wallet only cash, receipts, checkbook, and credit, debit, and gift cards. 

Pouch 1: Makeup bag

• Lipstick and gloss
• Eyeliner
• Powder
• Sunscreen stick
• Blush and brush
• Eyeglass cleaner wipes
• Hand sanitizer

Pouch 2: Emergency kit

• Fashion tape
• $20
• Needle and thread
• Nail glue
• Advil
• Couple of adhesive bandages

Pouch 3: Change 

Other Things to Keep in Your Bag

• Sunglasses case
• Cell phone
• Keys

Keep It Up

If I sort through the items in my purse once a week, it really is easy to stay on top of it. It takes only a couple of minutes to keep it up.

I am so proud of myself for jumping in. Want to see pictures? For posterity (and especially for my friends that won't believe that I cleaned it out), here are the before and after shots: 

Before - Like I said, everything is in my purse!

After - I can find my keys!

But this book isn't just about your purse, it really is "steps to less mess and stress". In 21 days, you will have your house (bedrooms, office, kitchen), your family (laundry, meal planning, kid's chores) and your personal life (schedule, computer, wardrobe) under control!

Side note: If you have never read a Kathi Lipp book, you need to fix that right away! She is amazing, funny and so great at breaking things down in to simple steps (Like I need!). Check out The Husband Project: 21 Days of Loving Your Man on Purpose and with a Plan, The Me Project: 21 Days to Living the Life You've Always Wanted or The Marriage Project: 21 Days to More Love and Laughter. You won't regret it! 

I am so happy to be giving away a copy of The Get Yourself Organized Project on my blog, but please don't miss out on even more goodies! Kathi is giving away some awesome prizes on her website - all you have to do is clean out your purse! So, enter to win the book using the Rafflecopter gizmo below and then head over to Kathi's site to get in on all the fun!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Love,