If your handbag weighs a ton and is full of crap, you’re not alone.

In fact you’re in the majority, as nine out of ten British women have admitted to carrying more then 10 items of junk in their bags at any given time.

So it’s hardly surprising that on average our handbags weigh 5.4Ibs – around the same as a small dog.

The survey of 3,000 women, conducted by Vapestick, also reflected on the changes to the contents of women’s bags over the past 20 years.

While back in the 90s a filofax (remember them?), A-Z (kids: this was a book version of Google maps. Imagine!) and cheque book would have been handbag staples, they’ve now been replaced by the likes of smart phones, tablets and credit cards.

All of which means that most of us have over £1,000 of kit hanging off our elbows. Scary.

But how true are these stats? Well, we decided to delve into the handbags of the women of the Metro.co.uk office to find out…

A pretty streamlined affair… but this picture doesn’t tell the full story. It’s missing my iPad and phone, and I also lug around a canvas bag full of various other ‘just in case’ items too.

As you can see, Ellen is one of the 36 per cent of women who carries spare underwear in her bag. In fact, she has a whole other outfit in there. Amazing.

Sunglasses (in the winter?), a spare necklace, nail varnish and an iPhone charger are just some of Emily’s ‘essentials’.

Sarah doesn’t usually carry soup in her bag (it’s her lunch, so we’ll let her off), but the takeaway menu is typical of the kind of junk women accidentally leave languishing at the bottom of their bags for weeks.

Amy’s handbag not only contains her entire makeup bag, but also four hair clips, tweezers (in the office?) and a weeks worth of contact lenses. Surely she doesn’t need it all?

No wonder Vaishali’s bag weighs so much – she has three full-sized beauty products and a hairbrush in there. Maybe it’s time she treated herself to some handy minis.

Source: metro.co.uk