What's In Your Wallet?

Recently when my bulging wallet popped open yet again, I decided it was time to do a little purging. After all, there just couldn't be any way that I needed everything I was carrying around in there. Or could there? I wasn't naive enough to believe I was carrying large amounts of cash, so exactly what was filling the many pockets? As I soon discovered, just about everything but the kitchen sink!

First, let's start with the "American" component of my wallet. Not only do I have my Virginia license but I also must carry a small laminated extension because my actual license expired last year. Add in my US military and NATO identification cards, bank, credit, emergency checks, and frequent flyer cards and my wallet is already pretty full. But then there is the money. Because we are in close proximity to an American military base where the dollar rules I have those bills and the ubiquitous amount of change that goes along with it. (Although interesting enough American bases overseas do not use pennies since they weigh too much). But on a daily basis we deal in Euro so I have those bills and coins in a separate portion of my wallet. As anyone who has mistakenly handed over the wrong currency to a dour store clerk knows, it is important to keep your money separate.

That's it, right? Wrong. Digging into the deeper recesses of my red leather abyss I found a random assortment of other currencies- Hungarian Fornit, Swedish and Norwegian Krone, a single Turkish Lira, Albanian Leke, and an unidentifiable bill with Cyrillic writing on it (Bulgarian perhaps?). Really? If I can't identify it or don't have plans to visit the country soon why am I toting all of this "worthless" money around? Needless to say all of that was quickly removed making my wallet simultaneously significantly lighter and thinner. Discarding my DC Metro Smart card, a few expired gift cards to stores that no longer exist, and two unidentified keys lightened the loader even further. But I also found items that were keepers; Sidney's first picture with Santa and my missing health insurance card are now in locations where they are easily accessible.

The amount of "stuff"-both necessary and not- I had accumulated truly amazes me. I may have downsized but I still feel as though I am carrying too much. And I'll soon be adding a new Belgian identity card and Belgian driver's license to this mix as well as Belgian bank and credit cards so its a good thing I cleaned out my wallet when I did. What I really need, however, is the ideal wallet that can neatly organize all of the above. If you find it, please let me know.