The Hidden Handbag Hazard

Women of the world, each time you sling those necessaries over your shoulder, you invite the hidden handbag hazard. Is your curiosity aroused? Great! Let’s explore what danger lurks in yonder purse.

Hidden Handbag Hazard – Overstuffed

Is your handbag overstuffed as the winner of a pie-eating contest at a county fair?

If you said, “Yes, Bonnie it is,” it’s time to lighten the load and give your sore shoulders and stiff neck a well deserved rest. After several years of toting a fat purse on your dominant shoulder, one shoulder is higher than the other. At day’s end, your back screams with pain, due to abnormal spine alignment. In addition, the action of constantly swinging your handbag over your shoulder creates neck tension.

If you’re experiencing these hidden handbag hazards, a trip to the chiropractor is in order. He/she will align your spine and massage those aching shoulders and creaking neck.

The American Chiropractor Association deems that purses should weigh-in at three pounds, or less. Also, experts concur that women should clear out their handbags weekly.

Now this can be quite difficult for a women’s purse is full all the time with smartphone, make up kit, hair brush and other accessories as they are no less than a safe for women, where these items are no less than their governmental property. They discuss it during kitty parties as though they are exchanging luxurytastic information amongst each other with the handbag constantly by their side.

Hidden Handbag Hazard – Danger Lurks in Yonder Purse

Are you ready to clean out your purse and confront the hidden handbag hazard? Here are a few helpers, things to toss, things to store and things to keep.

1. Accumulated Coins – remove them from your purse and store them in a pretty container. I have a hand-painted porcelain jar to keep my coins in until enough accumulate to convert to paper money. This action alone will lighten your daily load. Do it once a week faithfully.
2. Paper Money – keep it, but be aware that germs thrive on paper money. Flu germs can live on paper money for up to three days. Use hand sanitizer or wash your hands thoroughly after handling paper money.
3. Expired Makeup – toss it after three months to alleviate infection. Especially eye makeup; tainted eye makeup harbors dangerous bacteria, which can cause skin infection. If makeup looks or smells funny, toss it.
4. Papers – toss any receipts, worthless scraps of paper, expired coupons, etc. Valuable tip: make a copy of credit cards, driver’s license, etc. and store it somewhere safe. (Ooops! Excuse me. I took my own advice several years ago. But I have absolutely no idea where I put the copies.)
5. Pockets – keep your absolute necessaries, like keys, cell phone and wallet in separate pockets of your handbag. By assigning each item a home, you’ll no longer fumble for your phone, keys or money.

Hidden Handbag Hazard – Bacterial Accumulation

Without doubt, the most hazardous part of women’s purses is the bottom! Think about it. Do you plunk your handbag on the floor of public restrooms, restaurants, or on tables and counters at home? If so, you are inviting dangerous bacteria to invade your life.

In a mall-study where a team took samples from the bottom of 50 handbags, 1 out of 4 handbags contained E. Coli. (The E. Coli bacteria may culminate in serious abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea.)

Ideally, public establishments should provide hooks on bathroom doors to hang our purses, but in a study I performed, 4 out of 10 bathroom doors were hook-less.

Keeping these statistics in mind, it is prudent to carry Clorox wipes in your handbag. Give it a swipe, especially the bottom of your purse, several times a day. Then, clean the outside of your handbag thoroughly with soap and water or germicidal spray weekly.