Carrie Bickmore shares: 'The handbag switch that changed my life'.

Fact: a woman’s handbag can all-too-quickly become a bottomless pit.

Anyone who’s found themselves rifling through the debris in their bag in pursuit of their bus pass – while crouched in the middle of a busy footpath, naturally – will tell you this.

The weird thing is, handbags fill up without you even being conscious of it.

One day you’re carrying nothing but your wallet, phone, keys and lipstick; the next, you’re lugging around two months’ worth of receipts, Tupperware from yesterday’s lunch, a pair of ballet flats and a rogue apple.

It’s no wonder almost 20 per cent of us spend 10 minutes per day rifling through our bags – that’s the depressing findings of a recent survey. Over our lifetimes, those 10 minutes per day add up to 162 days. Yep, DAYS.

Listen: Aside from a study handbag, these are the staples a stylist recommends you own. (Post continues.)

If you’d rather spend those 10 minutes doing, oh, literally anything else, Carrie Bickmore has a simple solution for you.

While discussing the survey on Wednesday night’s episode of The Project, the mum of two said she decided last year to downsize to a smaller handbag and now only carries exactly what she needs.

“I realised my handbag weighed more than my child!” Carrie admitted.

“I had, like, tiny Teddies, knickers, power cords, one shoe – so much stuff I didn’t need. Now I only have a little thing. It changed my life.”

Sure, the idea of culling all those 'essentials' is a daunting one (but what if I need that extra set of shoelaces...?), but your shoulders will surely appreciate a reduced load.

Co-host Pete Helliar seemed astounded by the amount of... well, stuff Carrie was lugging around over her shoulder, but she offered a very simple, relatable explanation: "When you have a kid, we carry it all in our bags."

Does that sound familiar, mums? Yep, thought so.

How big is your handbag? Would you ever go smaller?