Sunday, January 3, 2010

Storage: If Purses Are Your Weakness

handbag hanger

I am a purseaholic. I admit that my addiction to purses has made my closet unmanageable. I believe a purse closet would help. Walk In. -- Laurel Ennis

Those of us without a walk-in purse closet (or a purse room) still have a wide range of storage options. Let's start with the Spencer and Rutherford handbag holder, from Australia, which seems very similar to the Handy Hold All from Simply Sarah Shaw. Update on April 5, 2012: I'm no longer finding this product on the Spencer and Rutherford web site.


over-door purse rack

Another product - not as lovely - is the Jokari Purse Rack. (This looks very similar to the Davison purse rack I mentioned back in 2007.)


back-of-door purse holder

For a basic back-of-the-door option, there's the Hang 'N Hold from Evriholder, available from a number of vendors.


wall-mounted handbag holder

The Heavenly Handbag Holder is another door-mounted or wall-mounted option. [via Sharon Lowenheim] Update on August 6, 2016: This product doesn't seem to be available any more.


purse organizer hanging from closet rod

Richards Homewares has a purse organizer that hangs from a closet rod.


handbag organizer that hangs from closet rod

This handbag closet organizer is made in Japan, sold by a Korean company - and I found it on eBay Singapore. Update on April 5, 2012: I'm no longer finding this product.


hook for hanging purse from closet rod

Another simple hanging option is the Closet Purse Hanger. The site warns you to "only hang empty purses. You don’t want the weight of an occupied purse to compromise the integrity of your bag." [via Monica Ricci] Update on April 5, 2012: The site where I found these is no longer working.


clear storage bag for a purse

If you're going to keep your purses on a shelf, the PurseKeeper might be useful. [via Monica Ricci] Update on August 4, 2016: I'm no longer finding this product available for purchase.


handbag covers

And if you have valuable purses - unlike my $20 favorite - the Mia Cotone handbag dust covers might be useful. (OK, there's also the lovely piece of furniture the purses are stored in. Mia Cotone doesn't sell that.)


purse display

Another option is to look at store fixtures for handbag displays. Here's one purse display.


handbag display - store fixture

And here's just one of the handbag displays from Subastral Inc. - a wall-mounted fixture with an angled rail. The company also has a revolving display rack and a shelf display stand.

And finally, just for giggles, take a look at the purse storage shown on GlamNest. (Scroll down a bit.)
Update on August 6, 2016: The item I was looking at isn't on the site any more.

For more ideas, see my 2007 post: 6 Options for Storing Your Purses.

13 comments:

Monica Ricci said...

Jeri, you are the queen of product! At my advanced age, I've turned into a girl, so purses are a part of that! I love a lot of these suggestions, and I use the Pursekeeper myself.
~Monica

Louise said...

My husband says I have a purse "problem," but he just doesn't understand! Given our very tiny amount of storage space, I have limited myself to about 7 purses.

The photos in this post were so appealing! Handbags organized by color...sigh.

Jeri Dansky said...

Monica, since you introduced me to a couple of these products, I'm glad I could return the favor and suggest a few more.

Louise, considering your current situation (and the one you've planned for next, where storage will also be tight), storage like this just doesn't seem to be in your near-term future!

Jeri Dansky said...

I'd like to add a comment I got by e-mail from another reader:

One more idea for organizing purses: I use a plain wood hall tree. It rotates and holds plenty of purses.

Meredith from Penelope Loves Lists said...

Great resources here. I was just drafting a post about purses and am going to use your as a reference/resource in it.

Thanks!

Jeri Dansky said...

Meredith, you're very welcome. My next post, for tomorrow, will be on organizing the interior of your purse - an update to this post.

And I've just added your blog to my RSS reader!

kbfenner said...

I bought two of those black straps with hooks jobbies at a big box store and found that the cheap plastic hooks were not up to the job of holding my larger bags. I also found it hard to reconcile the strap length issues--some of my bags are shoulder only and some and hand-carry only. Made quite a mess, even when the hooks held.

So do choose one of the more well-constructed strap-with-hooks hanging things if you are buying and consider what styles of bags you have. I have simply placed the bags on a shelf side by side like books. The dustbags, which I suppose I ought to use, make it hard to see the bags so I don't use them. Maybe those clear jobbies would be a better choice!

Jeri Dansky said...

Thanks so much, kbfenner! I obviously have not seen, in person, each item I include here - so first-hand experiences are much appreciated.

SueBK said...

I would think that an average sewer could probably make one of the options at the top of the page, specifically measured to suit their existing bags. It's essentially a long strap of packing tape (or interfaced fabric) with large press studs on loops. With a bit of thought, the studs/loops could be placed to allow for tidy placement of bags with different length handles.

Jeri Dansky said...

I'll defer to you on that one, SueBK; you're a sewer, and I'm not! If you ever decide to make one of these, I want to see some photos!

kbfenner said...

an average sewer could actually make a whole lot of lovely matching closet things...sounds like an etsy opportunity for someone!

Marcia, Organising Queen said...

Jeri, came over from Meredith's blog because this is soooo my thing. Yes, I'm BIG into decluttering but this is my addiction as you'll see if you put "handbag" into the search thing on my blog :)

At least they're neatly organised.

Jeri Dansky said...

Hi Marcia! I think I'm in the minority, having no special fondness for either shoes or purses.

If the handbags are organized and used, I can't see any reason not to have a collection, if it brings the owner pleasure. We all have our weaknesses!