What's in my bag?

I'm a bag lady

I carry lots of junk in my bag - envelopes, notes, hair ties. I always seem to have 2 or 3 pens running around in there too. 

Also, receipts. Lots and lots of them bunched up together and tucked like precious notes into one of the pockets. With these receipts, I will be a genius with my money because I will know exactly how much I am spending. I will record my expenses diligently, track my spending, save more, and live the dream of financial freedom. Except of course I don't record my expenses. So, they remain in their little wad in my bag.

Also, why is there always a lone paper clip lurking around in the bottom of my bag?

Amidst all these odds and ends are 3 essential things I always carry with me: a mask, a bottle of charcoal pills and some systemic enzymes (these are the coloured items in the sketch). These items help to reduce the symptoms brought about by exposure to chemicals. I have a condition called multiple chemical sensitivity that makes me extremely sensitive to chemicals. 

These 3 items have saved me from feeling ill many times. The mask helps with avoidance of perfume, paint, etc. When I can't avoid these chemicals, I take some charcoal pills - they adsorb toxins. Finally, the systemic enzymes go about the business of digesting pathogenic complexes that are a normal part of the immune response to toxins and this reduces inflammation in my body. 

And of course, my trusty sketchbook where I scribble my thoughts and to-do lists, and make drawings of the clutter in my bag.

Rummage rummage
You can see from the date of the first drawing that I drew the contents of my bag in May 2017. In it, my keys are one of the items of the pile of stuff that goes in my bag. This made for a lot of rummaging. I'd stand outside my front door going through my bag searching for those elusive keys. Why is it that I would always find them in the last place I searched in the bag?

But 2018 came around and with it came a renewed sense of purpose. This was the year I would get my life organized, or at the very least, I would know exactly where my keys were!

I went through my stationery drawers where I keep odds and ends. I love the potential of bits and bobs. I get lots of lanyards because I attend conferences regularly, and I am always thinking, hmm, how can I repurpose this? I keep carabiners and keychain findings because I say to myself, hmm, what can I attach this to? So, lying patiently in my drawers were lanyards, conference name tags, old keychains and rings waiting for inspiration to strike me so that I would recommission them into active duty as the management system of my life.

Rummage no more

So now, I am super efficient at opening the door. This key/train card/stamp/fluffy ball organising system clips onto the handle of my bag and my keys are always to hand.

It's so true that the little things matter - after months of using this set up, I am still basking in the glow of my resourcefulness and ingenuity. I may not be able to save lives, but I can organise odds and ends!

On an organising high 
High on the success of key governance, I looked around to see what other things I could organise. And it struck me that I could do the same for my office keys. Key cards, photocopy cards, photographs, emergency sanitary napkin, loose change and other random bits are now housed in a little purse and my office keys are attached to them with a re-purposed lanyard. And all this is attached to my bag with a carabiner.

I no longer have to go to the admin office to borrow keys to get into my office because I forgot them.

Just like that, the demons of chaos have been vanquished.

Fumbling be gone

Now to get the rest of my life organised.

How about you? What's in your bag? And what tricks do you have to keep your life organised? I'd love to hear about them and steal your ideas!

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