Lighter

I'm trying an experiment to see how little I can carry.

For I-don't-want-to-count-how-many years I have, like most women, carried a purse. While I've refused to ever carry the huge purses that my mother and grandmother always carried, my "little" purses have always been crammed. In high school, friends and some acquaintances knew that if you needed something, Amanda probably had it. Band-aid? No problem, it's in the small first aid kit. Lotion? You bet. Travel chess game? Of course. Book to read? One for me, and probably a second as well that I'd lend out (if I knew I'd get it back, anyway).

While I did ditch the travel chess game and books, when I cleaned out my purse it contained the first-aid kit, a small bottle of lotion, 4 bank debit cards (one for each of the two business accounts, one for my personal checking account and one for the personal checking account shared with John), 2 checkbooks (one for each personal account), 5 credit cards (one business card, the American Express card with a good reward system that I prefer to use, a Mastercard for the places that won't take the Amex, and two store cards that had their own in-house reward system), about a dozen store-reward cards (mostly grocery and drugstore), health insurance card, blood donor card, driver's license, 2 tubes of lipstick (I wear makeup maybe three or four times a year), a travel tin of dental floss that had come open and was a tangled mess in the bottom of my purse, and some cash. Probably a few more things that I've blocked out, too. It did not contain any change; I always end up putting that in a pocket and dumping it into a container at home.

But when I travel, I leave nearly everything at home and travel with just a small wallet. Even that wallet was too large, and when I went to GenCon in August I bought a smaller wallet that fits into my jeans pocket nicely.

It finally occurred to me-- if I can do it when I travel, why can't I do it always? The biggest answer is the stupid reward cards, of course. But ultimately, I rarely use the rewards, because the rewards come in the form of a piece of paper that has to be taken somewhere before an expiration date, and I never remember to do it. So I ditched anything that would give me a non-instant "reward" (except the Amex, which sends a check in the mail). For everything else, I've either dug up the key fob that came with the card, or I'm applying for a new card to get a key fob. If it doesn't have something I can put on a keyring, it doesn't get used.

While I was at it, I took all the keys I never use off my keyring, and split office keys from personal keys. I now carry only:

1 small wallet, containing cash, my driver's license, the Amex, the Mastercard, one business credit card, a health insurance card, and my blood donor card (which I'm debating about dropping, but it's nice to have something indicating my rare blood type on me somewhere).

1 key ring containing car keys, house keys, and all those "reward card" key fobs.

1 key ring that splits into two pieces, containing business keys-- my office, post office boxes, the main office door-- on one half, and a USB thumb drive containing an Evernote database (and the install file, should I need to use it in a different computer)

It's ... different. I've been doing it for about a week, and while I love having less to lug around, I still always feel like I'm missing something. I'm constantly checking myself-- do I have my car keys?

Lighter

I'm trying an experiment to see how little I can carry.

For I-don't-want-to-count-how-many years I have, like most women, carried a purse. While I've refused to ever carry the huge purses that my mother and grandmother always carried, my "little" purses have always been crammed. In high school, friends and some acquaintances knew that if you needed something, Amanda probably had it. Band-aid? No problem, it's in the small first aid kit. Lotion? You bet. Travel chess game? Of course. Book to read? One for me, and probably a second as well that I'd lend out (if I knew I'd get it back, anyway).

While I did ditch the travel chess game and books, when I cleaned out my purse it contained the first-aid kit, a small bottle of lotion, 4 bank debit cards (one for each of the two business accounts, one for my personal checking account and one for the personal checking account shared with John), 2 checkbooks (one for each personal account), 5 credit cards (one business card, the American Express card with a good reward system that I prefer to use, a Mastercard for the places that won't take the Amex, and two store cards that had their own in-house reward system), about a dozen store-reward cards (mostly grocery and drugstore), health insurance card, blood donor card, driver's license, 2 tubes of lipstick (I wear makeup maybe three or four times a year), a travel tin of dental floss that had come open and was a tangled mess in the bottom of my purse, and some cash. Probably a few more things that I've blocked out, too. It did not contain any change; I always end up putting that in a pocket and dumping it into a container at home.

But when I travel, I leave nearly everything at home and travel with just a small wallet. Even that wallet was too large, and when I went to GenCon in August I bought a smaller wallet that fits into my jeans pocket nicely.

It finally occurred to me-- if I can do it when I travel, why can't I do it always? The biggest answer is the stupid reward cards, of course. But ultimately, I rarely use the rewards, because the rewards come in the form of a piece of paper that has to be taken somewhere before an expiration date, and I never remember to do it. So I ditched anything that would give me a non-instant "reward" (except the Amex, which sends a check in the mail). For everything else, I've either dug up the key fob that came with the card, or I'm applying for a new card to get a key fob. If it doesn't have something I can put on a keyring, it doesn't get used.

While I was at it, I took all the keys I never use off my keyring, and split office keys from personal keys. I now carry only:

1 small wallet, containing cash, my driver's license, the Amex, the Mastercard, one business credit card, a health insurance card, and my blood donor card (which I'm debating about dropping, but it's nice to have something indicating my rare blood type on me somewhere).

1 key ring containing car keys, house keys, and all those "reward card" key fobs.

1 key ring that splits into two pieces, containing business keys-- my office, post office boxes, the main office door-- on one half, and a USB thumb drive containing an Evernote database (and the install file, should I need to use it in a different computer)

It's ... different. I've been doing it for about a week, and while I love having less to lug around, I still always feel like I'm missing something. I'm constantly checking myself-- do I have my car keys?