Does it ever feel like you’re walking around town with a gigantic mess in your pocket or strapped on your shoulder? A disorganized wallet or purse can be bothersome. You may lose track of important documents or become frustrated when you can’t easily find what you’re looking for.
How can you prevent this disorganization? We have some tips on organizing your wallet or purse to keep clutter at bay. Read on to learn about keeping these things in order once and for all.
How to Organize Your Wallet
Wallets are small. And the moment you begin adding things that don’t belong there, they start to bulge and become unwieldy.
Thus, the first step to wallet organization is ensuring the wallet you have is the right size for your needs. If you have ten credit cards and IDs, then a small, single-pocket wallet just won’t cut it, no matter how much you like the design. Find a wallet with the size, pockets, and appearance you like, and start from scratch with this new item. Buying a new wallet or purse will also motivate you to get organized.
- Go Through All Your Cards
Too often, wallets get overcluttered by excess cards you don’t need. Are you still carrying around your health insurance card from three years ago, or a car registration from 2010? You don’t need those things.
Every six months, go through your wallet and toss the outdated cards. Since these can contain personal information, be sure to dispose of them properly and securely.
- Digitize What You Can
One way to clean up your wallet is to reduce the amount you carry in it. You can use apps to store loyalty cards, or insurance or debit card information on your phone. You may also want to sign up for a digital payment plan that allows you to use an app on your phone in place of a debit or credit card, so you can leave your cash at home, too.
- Designate a Pocket for Receipts
There are legitimate reasons to save receipts. For instance, you may need them for work or tax purposes, or just to keep track of your spending. Instead of jamming all your receipts in the money section, though, make one pocket your receipt tracker, and only put receipts in there. Take them out at the end of each week to store them properly, or throw them away if you don’t need them. You could also use an app to scan, track, and manage your receipts.
How to Organize Your Purse
Keeping your purse organized depends a great deal on finding a system that works for you. The first step is cleaning out the purse. The second is setting ground rules for the future so you don’t find yourself back in the same situation a few months from now.
- Cleaning out Your Purse
Go through each item in your purse and decide which of the three categories below is most appropriate for it. As you select the item, place it in the pile you think it belongs in:
- Keep in purse
- Store somewhere else
- Trash
Throw away the trash, and put the items to store in their proper places. You should be left with just the things you want to continue to keep in your purse.
- Use Compartments and Bags
Now it’s time to organize remaining items. Ideally, your purse will have a number of compartments and different sections you can use to place similar items together. You can also use plastic bags to further compartmentalize. You might use a small bag to corral snacks or children’s toys if you have young kids. Another could be for makeup and another for a comb and ponytail holders. Keep like items together so you can locate all of them easily.
You may want to designate pockets for:
- Coupons and any remaining store loyalty cards
- Receipts
- Medicine or Band-Aids
- Pencils or pens
- Makeup
- Your wallet or card organizer
- Your phone
- Setting Purse Ground Rules
Now that your purse is clean and organized, think about why it got messy in the first place. Make a few rules so you don’t end up in that situation again:
- Make a no trash rule — no gum or granola bar wrappers, no pamphlets to read when you have time, no mints you grab on the way out of a restaurant. Mindlessly tossing these things into your purse to “deal with later” can lead to a big mess.
- Do a quick clean-out every week. Have a pocket for items you need to address when you get home. This may be business cards you receive at a meeting or an address you jotted down on a scrap of paper.
- Take time to put things in the right place. No matter how busy you are, it only takes an extra five seconds to place a receipt in the right pocket vs. tossing it into the purse.
Keep Your Wallet and Purse Organized With These Tips
You’ll feel less stressed and more in control when things are organized. By doing a big clean-up and then instituting a little discipline into your daily processes, you can ensure your purse or wallet doesn’t reach another crisis point. Find more money management tips and resources on our WalletWorks page.