Handbag Organizers -The ultimate solution.

Today, I nearly hit my husband. I mean a fully-fledged, teeth-rattling left hook to his jaw. And why? Because he said "Are you going to get that?".

"Get what?" I hear you ask. Shamefully, the answer to that question is "my cell phone" -- and the answer to my husband's question was, or should have been "I'm trying".

You see, it'd been one of those days. I'd gotten up late, the kids were messing around and I had a 10pm meeting. I slammed everything into my handbag, rushed out the door and hoped for the best.

If only I'd had the foresite to throw my car keys into the bag amongst all the other junk I'd put in there. So back to the house it was. And the screaming kids. Then pick up the keys, back to the car and finally I could get on my way.

I arrive at my meeting with a whole 10 minutes to spare. Before I get out of the car, I reach into my handbag to get a hairbrush to tidy myself up. Of course, it's in my yoga tote at home, so my fingers have to be made to improvise. After making a passable attempt at straightening out my locks, I leave the car and head off for the meeting.

It's one of THOSE meetings -- you know, the one that's supposed to last for an hour but ends up going on for five or six and proves to be totally unproductive. So I left a little after 5 o'clock and head home frustrated and irritable.

As soon as I get through my front door my blackberry starts ringing from within the depths of my handbag.

Ring-ring.

I drop my car keys on the hallway table and open up the chaotic pit that my handbag had become during the day.

Ring-ring.

The kids run up to me. "Hi mom!!! How was your day?", "Are we going to the movies tonight", "Can we have Chinese for dinner", "Where's my soccer uniform", "The cat's been sick". Now, where's my cell phone?

Ring-ring.

Oh look, there's my hairbrush! And a half-empty pack of mints. And a notebook. Half a dozen pens that don't work. My lippy. Another pack of mints. My 20% off coupon for Macy's that expired two months ago. A new pair of stockings. Moisturizer...

Ring-ring.

How can it be so difficult to find a phone in a handbag that's so small?

Ring-ring.

"Are you going to get that?" my dear, dear husband offers.

And that, as they say, was the straw that broke the camel's proverbial back. I turned to him and he literally cowered away from my gaze. In retrospect I'm impressed that one stern look can make a man cower. At the time though I was far from being amused.

Well, I missed the call, but I did realize that if I could organize my handbag a little better then I would have saved a fair bit of time, energy and frustration during the day. So I turned to my ever faithful helper (Google) and looked up handbag organizers and discovered a world of joy.

I never knew there were so many ways of organizing your handbag! I ordered a Purseket online (www.purseket.com). This handy handbag organizer purtains to be the 'original organizer' which is nice -- I like originality. It's a handbag insert -- a panel of pockets designed to wrap around the inside of your handbag. It looks like such a great and simple idea. My handbag will soon have a half-dozen pockets for all my stuff and hopefully I'll be able to answer my calls without wanting to bruise my hubby.

They're available in all sorts of sizes and patterns to suit any handbag, but I'm hoping the Purseket will be versatile enough to just slip from bag to bag. I can only imagine how much time that alone will save me.

I'll let you know if it works out for me :)