What Does Your Purse Say About You?

ByABC News via GMA logo
January 25, 2006, 9:38 AM

— -- The contents of a woman's purse can certainly reveal a lot about her personality -- is she organized and always prepared for the unexpected, or is she a disorganized free spirit?

According to Allyson Waterman, Lucky magazine special projects editor, a purse can say a great deal about a person. She put "Good Morning America's" studio audience to the test to see whether they could determine which of the four purses belonged to anchor Diane Sawyer.

Below is a description of the bags that were presented to the audience:

This bag is very structured with lots of compartments. It is easy to peer inside. The purse contains:

Wallet
Stamps
Treo
Compartmentalized makeup case
Purell
Photo album
Peppermint gum
Photo iPod
Toilet-seat covers
Wet Ones
Face blotter
Pat & go lipstick OR Gloss on a key ring
Brush-ups
Pill case

Waterman: This bag owner is organized and detail-oriented, with a place and purpose for everything. This over-organized person has probably updated to the technology age, which helps cut down on the clutter and allows your bag to be more streamlined. Consider it a timesaver -- you never need to spend a night digging through a month's worth of bills and candy wrappers to make sure that your bag has only what you need.

This bag has no structure; it falls flat when placed on the ground or a table. It is a bottomless pit because it has no pockets, and everything is swimming inside. The purse contains:

Overstuffed Filofax
Papers and bills (more than a month's worth of receipts)
Overstuffed wallet
Gum wrappers
Fruit gum
Makeup scattered all over -- lipsticks, compacts
Pens
Post-it notes
Nail file
Palm Pilot
Cell phone
iPod with loose earphones
Loose photos
Sunglasses
Rabbit's foot
Lottery tickets
Kleenex
Train schedule
Toothpaste and toothbrush
Catalogs

Waterman: An oversize, pocketless bag can easily turn into a bottomless pit with an unsuspecting owner not even knowing what lurks in its depths. To an outsider, this bag is a disaster area. To the owner, it is probably organized chaos. The person who carries this bag perhaps has a hippie-vagabond self-image. She may think she's rebelling against conformity. But is carrying the "in" bag of the moment perhaps trying too hard?