It’s day three of lockdown in South Africa. Ladies (and any men who have one-like my Uncle Rob), I have a challenge for you:
Clean out your handbag!
And… if you want to trot down the lint-lined carpet of shame, share on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or whatever social media tickles your fancy and tag it #HandbagChallenge.
Or just do it quietly and feel good.
I shall trot first, seeing as I did mine on day one.
It was shameful I tell you. My cheeks burned and there was nobody to see. I went about it very scientifically and took photos to prove just what a slobby old baggage I really am.
First, I weighed my bag with all the contents in it. As you can see from the pic, it weighed damn near 2kgs. This is something that I carry around on my shoulder daily. There’s a nice dent where each new bag fits perfectly after all these years.
Then I tipped all contents out and weighed my bag again – 402 g – all by itself.
This is what I found:
- Cell phone (224 g)
- Purse (289 g)
- Kindle (262 g)
- Water bottle (344 g)
- 7 hair thingies
- 3 notebooks + 1 piece of blank paper (I write)
- 6 pens (I said I write, didn’t I?)
- R13.50 loose coins rattling around in various pockets
- 2 boxes of smokes + 1 lighter (don’t even smoke ffs – Emma does)
- Spare car key for Chris’s Peugeot (in a bag)
- Business cards (old and new)
- Sewing kit
- Lucky marble (Luan gave this to me when he was about 8)
- Revolting pile of old manky tissues and receipts
- Teensy mirror (from MTN Sciencentre days in Canal Walk)
- Magnifying glass (for when Chris forgets his glasses and can’t read the menu)
- Credit card pocket knife kit
- Hand cream (13 years old – never used)
- Lip ice
- Mozzie repellant (thanks Toni)
- Plasters (in a little container that Chris brought back from Belgium many years ago)
- Assortment of pain pills
- Bag in a bag
- Toothpick (covered)
- Nail files x2
- Empty container (for when I ‘come across’ seeds in public spaces)
- Tissue pack (clean)
- Odd sweets – mom gets a dry mouth often
- Torch (can’t get caught short during load shedding)
- Paper clips
- 1 cable tie
- Cool puzzle that Mike Bruton gave me 13 years ago
- Spar Saver card
- Woolies voucher and envelope
- Letter from Dr to go for a mammogram (2 years old)
- Municipality bill (proof of address)
- Address book
Years ago, when the kids were little, my friend’s teensy daughter used to sidle up and whisper in her sing-song little voice, “Aunt Gin, whatchoo got in your ba-ag?” Back then, I used to have a never-ending supply of snacks and sweets (yes, in addition to all the same sort of crap above) that would magically appear in times of need. Now that she’s big, I wonder what she has in her handbag?
I threw away all the cruddy bits of tissue and receipts. They only weighed around 45 gm – did not make much difference weight-wise, but made one hell of a difference in volume and mankiness.
Then I put everything else back into my bag.
Now it’s your turn.