What's In My Purse

Once upon a time, Mother Edit went to a grocery store opening, and one of the fun activities they had was a heavy purse contest. Mother Edit had her coupon book with her, so she stuck that in her already-substantial purse, and she won the contest. The prize was multiple grocery sacks filled with a variety of the store's offerings.

Lately, I've been feeling like my own purse is really heavy. In the past, I've gone through my bag and gotten rid of things I'd been lugging around and not using, so I decided it was about time to take a new inventory. This time around, I also weighed each item on my kitchen scale, and determined how frequently I use the item. My kitchen scale measures in increments of eighths of an ounce, and my usage choices were never, rarely, sometimes, often, or frequently. Here's what I found (the first 2 items I had to combine because they were too light to register any reading separately):

Item	Weight (oz.)	Total	Use
earplugs & hairclips	0.125	0.125	sometimes
red pen	0.25	0.375	frequently
black pen	0.25	0.625	frequently
gum	0.25	0.875	often
Sharpie pen	0.375	1.25	rarely
Parker pen	0.5	1.75	often
mirror	0.5	2.25	often
mints	0.625	2.875	often
concealer	0.625	3.5	sometimes
headphones	0.75	4.25	often
painkiller	0.75	5	often
brush	0.875	5.875	often
car key	1.125	7	frequently
work keys	1.25	8.25	frequently
liquid Tylenol	1.625	9.875	as needed
Leatherman Micra	1.75	11.625	often
sunglasses	3	14.625	frequently
keys	3.625	18.25	frequently
notebook	4.125	22.375	frequently
wallet	4.875	27.25	frequently
iPod	5.625	32.875	frequently
phone	6.125	39	frequently
the purse itself	8.875	47.875	duh
Total:	2lb	15.875oz

Interesting.

I got rid of the Sharpie pen, since I don't use it much. I also went through my wallet and got rid of as many things as I could, which made it maybe half an ounce lighter. It's a start, right?

My purse is only 3 pounds. I never knew 3 pounds could feel so heavy.