Your thoughts on this question re. storage/organization?

Many of you here have thought long and hard about storage and organization, so I'm putting this question out there.

My handbags are currently stored on open shelving in my dressing room. There is plenty of space for them and I love how it looks.

But my dressing room is upstairs, where I almost never carry a handbag. This makes changing bags more cumbersome than it should be, and reduces the likelihood I will bother changing bags.

There is a large coat closet on the first floor with tons of shelving. Right now the shelves are where I keep table linens, but that's not where they belong, it's just because there's no storage in the dining room.

I thought I might swap things out and put the handbags in the coat closet.

I think I would make more use of my bags this way, but I would also give up the pretty sight of them lined up in my clothes closet. You can see them here: https://youlookfab.com/welookf.....set-photos#

What would you do? Enjoy the sight of them, or enjoy getting more use out of them?

4 years ago

RobinF

Veteran

I would definitely move them down to the coat closet! I am all about handiness and having things where I naturally tend to use them. Maybe you could put something else pretty on the shelf? Scarves? Shawls?

notsaf

Yes by all means! Move any you would carry for the current season to where they will be most useful to you.

nemosmom

I would move them to the location that encourages you to use them more often.

celia

This is a tough me. I understand the handiness of having them in the coat closet , however I like to see handbags in the same place as the clothes because that helps with potential pairings.

Runcarla

Can you do half and half? Sort of like a seasonal rotation?

My bags live on a shelf in my closet, but I have a convenient spot with 2 hooks where I keep my in use bags. Each weekend I decide which 2 bags I want to use during the upcoming week, and switch up (or not)!

Christina F.

Echoing Carla, I like to rotate my bags in and out of "active" use so that I have a handful of various weights and colors readily available at all times. Every few months, I will exchange them with ones in the deeper storage area. Sounds as if you might have the space for a similar system.

Preppy Pear

I love your dressing room, you lucky woman! I like Runcarla’s idea. I have four bags to my name (I do want to add), but I generally keep 2 in the bedroom wardrobe put away, one in the front closet, and one is in use - on the bench or chair by our entryway.

I always struggle with wanting to keep things put away, protected, but still having them handy. Your bags on the shelves as the are now seem like the perfect solution to me! Would your lovely bags be equally safe in your front closet, and equally viewable?

April

Another personal quirk affecting this decision: I dislike doing switchouts and much prefer to have everything all together and visible at all times.

The only things I do put away after winter are the huge down parkas and snowboots.

With this in mind, I think for me it makes the most sense to move the bags to the coat closet.

Thinking about my bag shelves being bare was daunting, but I love RobinF's idea of using them for scarves. Mine are not gathered in any organized way and this would be a way to do that, while keeping them visible.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Bags are there to be used AND enjoyed

Try the storage switchreroo and assess whether it makes you swap out your bags more frequently. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, April!

Joy

Try it. You can always switch back or try something else.

rachylou

I vote switch. See how it works. I personally would be defeated by the inconvenience of going up stairs...

shiny

In my last home I had the handbags in the hall coat closet on one of those back-of-the-door hangers. It got weighty and made opening the door difficult. Also realistically it was only a few steps away from the bedroom, but I had no space in my master closet for them.

In my current home I have vastly pared down the number of handbags I own, and most are clutches and small cross bodies, with exception of a few fashion backpacks and my laptop bag. I have them all on shelves in my master closet, which means I now need to walk upstairs and all the way to the master closet to put my handbag away.

It's been about two years now since I adopted the Konmari method for this. I now empty my bags once a day into a "purse station." This station is my night stand table, which has two drawers, one shallow and one deeper. The handbag items get emptied into the top drawer which is organized with different shaped boxes. The laptop bag items get emptied into the deeper drawer. There's a trash can near by for disposing of any trash.

Having this Konmari habit makes it easier for me to remember to carry my bags upstairs every night at bedtime, empty them into the station, and put them away in the closet.

Bonus point: my wallet, keys, etc are right by my bed in the event of some sort of emergency. We had a fire alarm go off (false alarm) and that came in very handy, except in my grogginess and panic I totally forgot to grab my cell phone!

Hi Shiny!

I love this idea of emptying the bag every night. I deliberately don't carry my phone upstairs at night (anyone needing to reach me knows to call the landline) but if I left my house in an emergency, I would pass my desk where I keep my bag. I think one of my "emptying containers" would just be an "emergency" container: wallet, phone, keys.

Or maybe I'll go back to one of those kangaroo purse pouches we were loving maybe ten years ago.

Gigi

Hmm, good question. If it were me, I would probably think about which purses I would be most likely to use in the near future--say, maybe three or four of them--and move them downstairs. Then you can change out the assortment every week or so.

Jaime

Yes I like the combination approach as Gigi and others suggested. Maximize bag usage and still enjoy the site of them in your dressing area.

Gigi and Shevia -- your generosity in assuming I am hardworking enough to do that sort of thing is extremely kind.

Sadly, if I were that sort of person, I would probably be the sort of person who went upstairs when she knew a different bag would look better.

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