Creative Ideas for Storing Handbags

Nate: Why do women need so many bags? You have one. You put all your junk in it, and that's it. You're done.
Doug: Fashion is not about utility. An accessory is merely a piece of iconography used to express individual identity.
Lily: Oh! And it's pretty.
Doug: That too.

The Devil Wears Prada was meant to be and largely succeeded in being a satire of the shallow, glamor obsessed industry that is the world of fashion, and in the process it drove a couple of points straight home. Women, once introduced to the high deities of fashionable clothes, shoes, and bags, find it hard to stay away.

In this life-changing process, they generally discover their one compulsion. Conduct a survey and you will find that the top three objects of desire are inevitably clothes, shoes, and handbags. Regardless of your fixation, finding space to confine your treasures so that they do not take over your house can be a task worthy of a Nobel Prize.

You can build wardrobes for your clothes and shoes, and they will still spill over. And what do you do with handbags? How to store handbags is a conundrum that haunts most women. There are some truly ingenious ideas that you can use, to not only store your handbags, but also create a talking point for when you have friends over.

If you want a way that is slightly more pleasing to the eye to hang your bags, then you need to look no further.

You read that right. A ladder could be a great way of creating storage space for your bags, provided you possess a ladder that has broad rungs. Once you have the ladder, give it a makeover using paint. If you have bags in all hues of the rainbow, then opt to paint the ladder in a basic shade like black or white.

If you own more neutrally colored bags, then go funky with the colors for the ladder. Place it in one corner of your room and stack the bags on it. You have the perfect storage space.

From bookcases made of wood, to those made of wrought iron or even plastic, the type of case that you want to buy would depend on your aesthetic sensibilities, and very obviously, your budget. You could also choose to just fix glass racks on the wall using brackets, to create a cleaner and more elegant storage space.

Creating a hang-down rack for handbags will need you to first select a central, core structure, to which you can attach 'S' shaped hooks to hang handbags from. This core structure could be an inverted pot, a rod, or even a steampunk accessory that can take the load.

While it may not be possible to make this structure on your own at home, you could get your neighborhood handyman to create the structure for you. Hang the chandelier from a low beam in your room and hang your bags from it. Ensure that you pick and choose bags in such a way that the clutter does not increase.

This is an idea that is a modification on a coat hanger. Again, to create a storage space like this, you will need to provide a carpenter with a design for the stand. Design a rack that resembles a tree with branches created to function as the hangers for the bags.

You can hang multiple bags on the same branch too. You could either choose to keep the authentic wooden look for the rack or go crazy by painting it a myriad colors. This would completely depend on your aesthetic sensibilities.

While creative and gorgeous display and storage spaces for your handbags is all good, it may be a great idea to spend some time decluttering, dividing, and organizing, so that all your bags are more accessible, and also so that it becomes easier to locate the one bag that you are looking for in your collection.

Most bags come with specific instructions regarding care and storage, depending on the material that they are made of. It is important that you take these instructions into consideration while storing the bag.

With bags, as with shoes, regular cleaning and care is important. So take your bags out of storage once every two weeks and clean them properly with micro fiber cloth pieces. This will ensure that the sheen of the bag is not lost, and the beauty of the same remains intact for some time to come.

A brilliant way of organizing handbags is to separate them according to the seasons. Those bags that you are not going to use for a particular season are better stored away in luggage or travel bags. This way, you do not miss out on any bags, and also the bags in storage are kept clean and in good shape.

Another way of organizing bags is to create groups according to color and size. If you have a huge collection of white, beige, or even black bags, first separate them out according to color, and then according to size. You could also organize them depending on which bags you use every day, and which ones are meant for special occasions.

You should now be able to create a space for your bags that is not only a pleasure to look at, but also an enviable space that is worthy of being featured in a design magazine. Let your creative cells take over and make a nook for your bags, that is not only functional, but also aesthetic and one that you are truly proud of.