Operation {Re}Organization: Conquering the Purse

"Organize your purse the easy way!"

Boy, does that sound like an infomercial or what? Sorry for that. It's just that I've got a seriously easy organizing solution for the gal who is constantly frustrated by not being able to find anything in her purse. I don't carry a huge purse but regardless of the size, I always find myself digging for my keys, phone, chapstick...and it drives me nuts. I felt like I could never grab anything easily, or that things got squished or buried deep in the bottom of my bag. Does anyone else have this problem? Please tell me I'm not the only one.

Enter a brilliant solution: the Bag-in-Bag. It's changed my purse's life, y'all. I'm so pumped.

I ran across this little contraption made by a Korean company called invite.L a month or so ago and decided to ask for one for my birthday (i.e. they're not paying me to write this review, nor do they even know I exist!). They've got various sizes, styles and colors, but the one I chose was the Dual Bag-in-Bag in coral. It fits perfectly in my everyday Longchamp purse.

It only took me about 10 minutes to clean out the chaos in my purse and reorganize it using the Bag-in-Bag. Talk about a quick organizing project (my favorite!). The longest part was waiting for that awesome little thing to arrive from Korea. They estimated shipping would take 15-25 business days, but it ended up only being 10 calendar days. Nice surprise!

So to show you the awesomeness of this baby, I thought I'd walk you through my quick organization process and give you a tour of all the nice features.

Let's start with the befores. Goodbye messy purse...

First I emptied my purse of all its contents and cleaned it - literally cleaned it because as you can see, it was gross. With all my stuff jumbled in there, I couldn't ever see the yuckiness of the bottom of my purse. Embarrassing? Yes. But that's real life, dear friends :).

Then I grabbed my purse's new best friend and placed all my necessities in its various pockets and zippered pouches.

The thing I love about it is that it has LOTS of pockets and pouches of various sizes. This ensures that everything from large items down to tiny ones has a designated home. No more jumbled chaos and I still have empty pockets to fill! Anything I add that's new has to have a home or it doesn't get to stay in my purse.

Allow me to demonstrate.

On one side, I have phone accessories (charger and headphones) in the small mesh pockets, and a pen. The pockets just above that are pretty empty except for a pack of gum right now.

On the other side, I keep my chapsticks and lipstick in a mesh pocket and my phone in the pocket above. The other pockets are empty.

Looking at the bag from above, you'll see that there is a large space in the center that's open, as well as zippered pocket on each side. I keep my wallet and my coupon organizer in the middle space (my keys also go in that small empty space when I head out of our apartment). One of the zippered pockets holds "personal" items such as Advil a nail file and (ahem) feminine products, and the other side holds my blog planning notebook.

Here's a view from the side. If you have less stuff than me, you have the option to snap the sides together to make the bag slimmer...

And another view from the top.

It slides easily into and out of my purse, making it easy to switch the contents to a different purse or tote bag when needed.

Isn't this thing nifty? Since everything has a home, it's really easy to keep my purse organized. I've been using it for a week or so now, and I can honestly say I love it. Not once have I had to fish around for my phone when it's ringing or fish in the deep dark recesses for my keys.

So tell me, do you use something like this in your purse? Or have any brilliant organization solutions for keeping the chaos at bay?

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This post is a part of the series "Operation {Re}Organization." To see other posts in the series, click the tab at the top of the page.

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linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, House of Hepworths, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, Sparkles and A Stove, Making Home Base