Here's What Happened When We Asked A Bunch Of Women To Dump Out Their Bags
We surprised coworkers and had them dump out their bags -- and yes, we found a knife AND a dildo.
Celebrities tend to carry the coolest, most expensive beauty products in their bags.
For us common folk, we carry a lot of weird shit.
We surprised our coworkers and had them dump out their bags and purses for the world to see. It's a revealing look into the personality of the bag holder, and it also lays bare the changes we need to make in our lives. And maybe some cool products too? We'll see.
I'm a messy person who swears it's an ORGANIZED mess, MOM. But I do feel like it's important to point out all the things I have half of: a charger without the cord, a sunglasses case without the sunglasses, my pencil case without the pencils inside, one single sock. All the Aleve and Advil is there because I get migraines and apparently forget I already am carrying a bottle around. Shoutout to the mouthwash and mini lip balm my dentist gave me at my last visit.
I'm personally shocked I don't have more trash in here. But am not shocked that I only remembered one sock for my exercise class after work. I actually bought that pair of socks at a spin studio because I forgot socks before. Basically, this bag shows my attempts at organization are wildly imperfect but hey, I'm out here trying my best.
I highly recommend this Glossier lip balm because it's great. Also I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my mother for collecting and giving me all her Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons. Truly embodies a mother's sacrifice.
The first thing I see is the flag. I grabbed it thinking that it was a Colombian flag, but later discovered that it probably is Romania's. This was shocking as I had apparently not been able to recognize my own country's flag. So I kept it... as a reminder of my stupidity.
The prayer card under the sun glasses was found on the Metro North during the time I was applying to BuzzFeed. I grabbed it, read it, and put it inside the same school bag above. I moved on to check my phone and at that exact minute, I got an email with a job offer from BuzzFeed. That's not all. Less than an hour earlier I was on the phone chatting with my father, who is Catholic. He was telling me about a dream he had with the saint in the card in which I was involved. I'm not religious, but when that card comes up out of nowhere, very special and cool things happen.
Those two bottles are caramel spread on the left, and condensed milk on the right. I found them on a "free" table at work. Latin Americans eat those things individually with almost everything: fruits, cookies, cakes, flans. So when I heard they were there because people did not want them and some were even disgusted by it, I ran to "save them" and give them a better home.
First: I would like to explain the lighter. If my mom is reading this, I want her to know the lighter is for a candle I have at my desk. I do not smoke cigarettes, mom!!!!!!
Surprisingly, it doesn’t come across in the picture, but I am NOT an organized person. I have ADD, which is why the pill organizer is there. It’s for my ADD and depression medication. I think the lighting in this picture makes my set-up look a lot cleaner than it actually is. I included the trash in this photoshoot but I didn’t include the crumbs. That big green bad boy is my 40 oz water bottle that, when filled and in my purse, is responsible for 100% of my back pain. But I gotta stay hydrated, baby.
The most confusing thing about this photo is the rocks (underneath the hair ties). I have no idea why they were in my purse. It’s been eating away at me for days. I can’t stop thinking about why they were in my purse. I live in the city and I can’t remember the last time I was near some rocks. I bought some iPhone chargers on Amazon and I keep forgetting to remove them from my purse, so they’ve been sitting there in that bag for weeks.
I like to carry that orange shoe horn around with me all of the time because I wear a lot of sneakers and boots that I need help sliding into. If I don't have a shoe horn to help me then the back of my shoes would be RUINED and what's the point of having nice things. Shoe horns also save my fingers from the pain of trying to stuff my feet into high top sneaks.
I'm an organized person so I always know the exact contents of my bag. Except for the one rogue restaurant business card that I immediately threw away after this shoot. If I have any trash in my bag, I usually throw it out by the end of the day.
That deodorant looking thing is actually a stick face sunscreen. I ALWAYS have SPF on my face because skin cancer is real and also because I'd rather not buy new foundation.
This looks like a bag that belongs to a dork. I wish I had some drugs or human teeth in there to make it more exciting. Maybe a knife.
I think of myself as an organized messy person. I can be both. I never leave the house without an umbrella. It's one of the most aggressively uncool things that I do. My bag is full of trash. Receipts. You're lucky you caught me on a day without food wrappers--or worse, actual loose food in my purse.
There were used Kleenexes in my bag. I don't want to talk about it.
I highly recommend this lipstick. (the pink tube) It's Sephora's Cream Lip Stain in Cherry Blossom. I have organic hand sanitizer (the purple bottle). I hope that makes me look at least a little cool. If not cool, I'll settle for fancy.
Oh wow, I have a ton of crap. The penis is not a dildo or anything — it was a prop for a livestream about dicks later that day. The extension cord and drawer dividers were to be returned to Target. The Constitution and flag pin were for America. I’ve got a dog bowl just in case I see a thirsty puppy, and extra shoes in case I need to run from a mean puppy. A sweater if I get cold, because air conditioning is always at men-in-suits levels. And as always, I carry an extra bag in my bag just in case one bag is not enough.
It looks better than I thought it would — it’s been at least a month since I cleaned it out (hence the piles of trash). I’m clearly a messy garbage person. Laying all these items out makes it very clear to me that I don’t need half of this stuff.
I always have to-go deodorant, tissues, and antibacterial on me. Those are necessities. Most of my make up bag needs to go in the trash, but I will never part with my dry shampoo. I’ve had Jonathan Green Rootine Dry Shampoo
for 8 months and it’s still going strong. The powders cost more than the sprays, but they last far longer and are actually portable.
My purse contents are actually not as bad as I thought. I use everything I have in it, especially the little portable fan. I am a very organized person! I honestly feel really off if my space is messy, so I always make a conscious effort to keep things as clean as possible.
I think the most important thing I need to clarify is the pocket knife. It was a gift from my boyfriend to keep me protected from creepy and/or scary men in the streets. Thankfully I haven’t used it yet, but I do feel safer knowing I have something that can potentially help me protect myself. I also just think knives are cool.
There are so many things I love inside my bag! Every item has a purpose or a personal story. I absolutely can’t live without my portable fan! I got it off Amazon and I used it every single hot summer day these past couple of months. TRUST ME, it is well worth the little money you spend on it. Also, I am a total Ice Breakers Ice Cubes evangelist. It is the best gum I’ve tried in my life and the flavor lasts a long time. I usually buy the peppermint one, but they only had the spearmint flavor when I went to the store.
The only other great thing inside my bag is my foundation, Clinique’s Even Better Makeup! It is super light, like a BB Cream, and it provides great coverage. If you don’t like wearing heavy makeup, this foundation is a great option. I also can’t leave my house without deodorant and a little bit of perfume. Summers in New York are tough, especially for a sweaty person like me. So in order to make my presence bearable to other people, I need to have something to kill my stank. No one likes a smelly person.
I think I'm generally organized but I think an ~organized person~ would probably disagree. But a messy garbage person would be like, nah, you're organized.
Inside my purse I keep allergy pills, lip balm, business cards, and my hairdresser's card. Right now it's looking a littttle bit worse than I'd like, but I'm still proud of myself. Like a year ago my purse was always a disaster. I've improved so much.
For recommendations, my Benefit lip balm is really good in a pinch if I need to look slightly more put together. And I love my wallet. And my phone case was like $8. Oh my gosh, and that Kiehl's hand salve is a godsend.
TBH this feels like a very accurate representation of my brainscape: Nintendo 3DS, half-knitted pair of socks, underwear (IT'S CLEAN). I wouldn't say I'm messy, but I do have a strong, anxious desire to be prepared for anything, whether that's a boring lull on a stalled subway or a night spent in an apartment that is not necessarily my own. For that reason, I lug around a giant backpack everywhere I go even though I could probably fit all the stuff I actually need in like, a normal-sized purse.
I'm obsessed with that Tom Ford eyeliner, which I wrote about and all the commenters got SO MAD OVER because it's wicked expensive. Which, totally fair! But I know me, and I know that I would have spent $56 just testing out eyeliners in the past year, and because this one is so great and long-lasting, I didn't have to. And the journal is by Adam J. Kurtz, who used to work at BuzzFeed and is a rad designer, and it's perfect for little moments when you're feeling stuck (creatively or otherwise) — it's full of little prompts and pep talks, and is just generally very comforting.
I don't really know how the googly eyes or my old Girl Scout patch ended up in there. I haven't taken them out yet, though. I feel like whacked-out Mary Poppins sometimes.
I'd self-describe as a person who lives an organized yet chaotic lifestyle.
Looking at my purse, you're probably thinking "Jesus, how many lips do you have if you need 13 products in your tiny-ass bag?" But I know every single tube's shade and color payoff and wear-time. Because I'm never in the same place for more than 6 hours, I wind up changing my lip color sometimes as many as four times a day because I want to wear them ALL and I don't have days in the week for just one a day.
Also, I swear that I actually live in Manhattan even though I have a very touristy ticket to Madame Tussaud's in my purse. It was from a trip to the museum with my boyfriend and it's a nice way to keep a memory that doesn't take up a lot of space. Sorry for being sentimental.
I carry a pretty tiny bag on a regular basis so there's not too much room for surprises. The only really ridiculous element is the amount of lip products. The very bright pink lip gloss tube is NARS Easy Lover lip gloss (sounds very hooker-ish, but it's actually just like a nice sheer pink glow). I also love the Crush color of the Generation G lip color from Glossier..
The weirdest thing in my bag is probably the crystal I got at Otherwild in LA that is supposed to banish bad vibes. I constantly forget it's in my purse but I've had a lot of good vibes lately so maybe it's working? Or maybe it's just pretty. The rest of it is kind of boring, that random paper on the end is a doctor's appointment receipt and there is a little ticket thing from when I went to The Met. Also I've been carrying around those broken headphones for weeks meaning to get them replaced. Then, while emptying my purse for this, I found out that I had working headphones in there, so this was an ideal situation.
I'm an organized person at home, messy garbage person everywhere else. My purse is heavy on its own so I try to keep it pretty empty. My wallet, on the other hand, is a total disaster. It's filled with random receipts and clearly the money isn't even in it.
I got my Paddington Bear in 2008 from the Paddington station in London, so good luck finding that again. I definitely recommend Glossier's coconut balm dotcom, the Larry David pin from Pintrill, crystals from Otherwild. Tiggy Ticehurst is an artist who hangs outside of the Whitney who makes stuff I really like.
It's certainly less gross than it usually is, because a couple days before I'd cleaned out all of the receipts that had piled up in there, not knowing that this shoot was happening. I'm pretty organized! But only in the sense of keeping just the few things I need with me at any given time.
The pile of clean and dirty tissues is a constant for me, wherever I am. Boyfriends have always complained that it's gross, but my nose always drips so I always have something to catch it!
I basically couldn't live my life in any sort of order without the help of the big ban.do planner ($28), which keeps me from being late to anything or forgetting things for work. And like I mentioned above, the Pick Up Drops ($6.29) help me get through a tough day. For some reason now that I'm 26 I can't work as hard for as long as I could at 24. Whenever I drink, usually two drinks surface my exhaustion enough that I genuinely contemplate laying my head down on the bar to doze. Boring, I know.
The lip balm is Whole Foods brand and you can't get it online, but it's literally the only lip balm that doesn't just make my lips more chapped later in the day, and it's basically the perfect blend of coconut oil, beeswax, EVOO, shea butter, cocoa butter, and hemp seed oil. Rachel Miller recommended the Pigma Micron pens ($24.99) to make my planner look pretty inside and I love how smoothly they write. Also, I'm engrossed in fantasy writer Naomi Novik's books right now -- I just finished Uprooted and now I've paused my binge-watch of the X-Files to read the Temeraire series (the first book, His Majesty's Dragon, $7.99).
And friends always compliment me on my Rifle Paper Co. iPhone case ($36).