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Ten Worst Things to Carry in Your Wallet
Though wallets are often overlooked as storage options, it’s important to find one that works well with your daily routine, and can hold all the things you need to bring with you on a daily basis. But even though most people carry a wallet every day, few think about what they actually carry in their wallets on an average day—and even fewer realize the effect these things have on their lives! Here are 10 of the worst things to carry in your wallet and what you can do to avoid carrying them around.
Your wallet isn’t meant to be stuffed with everything you own, and the more you load it down, the less comfortable it becomes to carry around in your pocket or purse. Before you fill it with any more items, check out this list of the 10 worst things to carry in your wallet. This will help you determine How to keep your wallet safe and know what stays and what goes so you can make room for things that are truly important.
Useless Plastic Cards
Over time, wallets become overstuffed with membership cards, gift cards, and other plastic cards. No one wants a wallet overflowing with things they don’t need or use—it just makes it harder to find your debit card when you need it most. If you rarely use a card that’s taking up space in your wallet, consider cutting it up or shredding it.
- Extra Change
Carrying around too much change is a mistake that anyone can make, but it’s one of those little things that easily get out of hand. Are you lugging around $1.50 in loose change, just because you don’t want to carry a $20? That’s all about $20 .save yourself some grief and leave your change at home.
- Unnecessary Receipts
There’s no need to be carrying around receipts for everything since most businesses can now process these electronically. If you must have them on you at all times, shred them when they are no longer necessary. Also, separate all paper receipts into one section of your wallet rather than having several different ones jumbled together — it makes it easier to find what you’re looking for when you need it and reduces the risk of losing anything valuable.
- Old Notes
After using them once, old notes, coins, and receipts are just collecting dust in your wallet. Instead of carrying around a history of everything you’ve bought over the past five years, try designating one billfold as your junk drawer. Every time you add a receipt or note, transfer it into a junk folder that you file away at home. This way you don’t have to hold on to all those credit card slips when they have already served their purpose.
- Actual Cash
Not only is actual cash an obvious no-no, but it’s often a waste of money. Avoid using real cash at all costs! Use credit or debit cards wherever possible. If you’re carrying money on you, try to limit your withdrawal amount so that you don’t have a whole wad of cash on hand. A general rule: carry only as much as you think you’ll need for that day and/or night which may be less than you expect.
- Eraser Dust
The #1 thing you should never carry in your wallet is something that has been exposed to eraser dust. The tiny, abrasive particles found on most erasers can work their way through a wallet and cause permanent damage. If you have something that you need to carry with you that is important and made of paper, always put it inside a plastic sleeve before carrying it in your wallet.
- Keys
It’s been said that keys are a menace to society; they are responsible for more than 11,000 injuries per year. Most of these injuries are because we’re moving around with excess weight in our pockets, specifically from heavy keys. Remove them from your wallet and take them out whenever you leave home or get into your car.
- Photos Section
Avoid carrying pictures of your family. The temptation may be there, but it could also make you less inclined to negotiate with them when you get home. If you’re worried about losing your wallet, carry a photo on your smartphone or just memorize their faces.
- Sharp objects
Keeping sharp objects—like nail clippers, safety pins, and knives—in your wallet can be quite dangerous. If you accidentally poke yourself with a sharp tool, you could easily cause a cut that doesn’t just hurt…it bleeds. And while blood is technically sterile (meaning it doesn’t contain any living organisms), bloodborne infections are very serious and can even be fatal.
- Rotten foods
You know you should wash your hands before you eat, but what about when it comes to money? Here’s a little advice from Personal Banker Magazine on some of the worst things to carry around in your wallet. Rotten foods: You know you should wash your hands before you eat, but what about when it comes to money?
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