The time has come for the ceremonial monthly bag clearout, so I thought I would share with you all exactly what i have been carrying around with me for the last month.

The bag itself is a blue cotton long strap bag, with flowers embroidered on the side. The flowers are long since faded and the pink dye has spread, due to it regularly being chucked in the washing machine. Last serious spillage accident was a whole jar of branston pickle into the inside, but more recently it has just been the generic marks that bags accumulate in the presence of the under 2s.

It has a single zip at the top and a single internal zipped pocket. When first opened it jsut looks like a mass of paper so lets investigate.

In the single zip pocket I have pulled out:

A single passport photo of myself.
My single key and lone keyring
3 battered hairclips
2 boarding card slips
An emailed ticket printout and a baggage reclaim slip
(I last flew in January so maybe its been more than a month since I cleaned this out)

In the main body of the bag I have discovered:

A travel map of Fribourg in Switzerland (where I live 75% of the time).
A 10% off voucher from Denners, which expired at the end of January
24 receipts
A 20 centime postage stamp
3 shopping lists
2 plastic water bottles
A refreshing wipe from Darwin Airlines
A one month bus pass for Fribourg transport (expired)
56 cleaning wipes swiped from a UK service station
A dried up packet of baby wipes
A swotch of paper napkins
My purse
One pair of orange socks which are too small for my daughter
3 Calpol sachets
A tub of Vicks Vapourub
A very sad looking cereal bar
Paracetamol tablets
32p and 45 centimes in mixed coins.
A small pad of paper and a couple of marker pens
My daughter's little red shopping bag.
UK mobile for emergencies (havent got a permit for a swiss one)

Most of it has gone back in. Better get accumulating receipts again, it just doesnt look right without them in -there is a reason for keeping them in the bag-you can have your bag searched at any time by checkout staff to ensure you havent shoplifted and that you have valid receipts for any other shopping i.e not in their store, however I dont need 3 months worth!!!