Things You Should Never, Ever Carry In Your Purse

Although there is plenty of merit to being prepared for a spontaneous all-out midday catastrophe to erupt during your day, and you really should make sure to keep certain items on you in your purse, there are a surprising number of other items that should never be in there in the first place. 

In fact, there are certain items that can end up being truly costly losses to you if you decide to put them in your purse. Thus, we’ll take a look at eight things you should never keep in your purse.

Related: 10 Things You Should Never, Ever Carry in Your Wallet

With a steadily increasing number of websites and apps requiring passwords from their users for security reasons, it’s become more difficult to keep track of all the information that’s floating around. You should avoid keeping any of your sensitive password information written down on any sheets of paper that you’d put in your purse, for this explicit reason. 

"Some people feel passwords are safer in their bag than at home because it’s always on them, but nothing could be further from the truth,” Eva Velasquez, CEO and president of Identity Theft Resource Center, told Reader’s Digest. 

Instead, you should consider storing your passwords in a password manager app, which provides an exceptional level of convenience for you on top of a fortified security framework.

Related: 10 Ways to Protect Your Identity and Data Online

If you ever use your debit card as a method to withdraw cash, then you should already assume that someone else could do the same with ease if they got their hands on your card. 

Even though there may be times when this simply isn’t possible, in general try to only keep your debit card on your person when you know you plan to withdraw cash, and then a checkbook on you for only when you need to write a check. 

Related: 14 Situations Where Cash Beats Credit

This one’s certainly one of the more unanticipated items of the bunch, as many of us are prone toward storing our receipts in our bags, only to discover them with nostalgic wonder many months later. 

Although losing receipts isn’t necessarily going to set you back financially, it can provide a picture of what kinds of items you regularly spend money on, which could be used by an identity thief who doesn’t want to trigger any suspicions if they get their hands on your account info.

Storing gift cards in your wallet might feel like an intuitive enough move for many of us if we’re possessed by an urge to make a holiday purchase. 

However, Intuit’s Mint reports that it’s all but impossible to get the balance back on a gift card if you lose it or have it stolen. So, vastly reduce the risk by simply only bringing your gift cards out with you when you actually plan to make those purchases.

For more smart tips, sign up for our free newsletters.

Look, there is a certain peace of mind that can come of being over prepared for whatever kind of curveball life might throw at you, which could very well be a situation that calls for the full power of your makeup collection. 

However, warmer temperatures or even broken caps can end up creating full-fledged disasters, leaving your purse as nothing more than a lake of leaked makeup fluids. If you need to keep makeup on for the midday touch-ups, try to opt for the travel sizes, and only those that you absolutely must have.