Caring for Your Designer Handbag
Tips and Tricks for Storing Purses in Your Wardrobe
When a woman's bag can cost as much as a family car or an exotic tropical vacation, it is essential that once you have made your dream purchase, you look after it.
We live in an age where women fantasize over owning a Fendi Baguette or hanker after a Hermès Birkin bag, and are willing to join a waiting list of five years for the privilege. Such is our obsession with handbags that purses have replaced shoes are objects of lust. Whether it be a tote, shoulder bag or clutch purse, many women today are obsessed with arm candy.
However, if you are the kind of person who throws everything in the bottom of your closet, including your precious Prada purse, then think again. Storing your bags and purses carefully will prolong the lives of these necessary accessories, keeping them in pristine condition and making your money go further.
Storing your Handbag
- The handbags you use regularly need to be easily accessible, so store them on the top or side shelf in your closet, standing upright in a line. You can organize them by size, type or color. Place your bags on wardrobe shelves rather than on the floor, unless you are storing them in boxes.
- One of the best ways to store handbags, just as with storing shoes, is to put them in plastic boxes or wicker storage baskets which allow air to circulate in the same way as a shoe box. This protects them from the elements, stops them being damaged, lets them breathe, and makes them easy to store/stack. Make sure the boxes are big enough so that you are not folding over the bag handles.
- Any purses you don’t use so often can be wrapped in cotton pillow cases or cloth storage bags. Do not put them in enclosed plastic dry cleaning bags, or boxes without air flow – they must be able to breathe.
- If storing bags together make sure you cover any brass or mental chains, rings, studs and so on to stop them marking other bags. You can do this with a piece of tissue or cloth. Tuck chain handles inside the bag. This prevents the chain from scratching or marking the outside leather. Undo metal fastenings and buckles on straps so that they do not leave an impression.
- To keep bags in proper shape you can stuff them with tissue paper or any alternative acid-free filling, but do not use old newspapers. Bubble wrap is better than tissue paper for padding out or wrapping bags as it doesn’t attract moths in the same way as tissue paper.
- Make space by clearing out your closet and deciding which pieces you are never likely to use again.
Caring for your Purse
- If you are going to store purses for a long time then give them a thorough clean. “Empty every nook and cranny, vacuuming out the debris at the bottom,” advises Cerentha Harris in her article "How to Sort Out Your Wardrobe", in Marie Claire,'s August 2007 Australian edition. Wipe the outside of your bag all over with a barely damp cloth and make sure that the bag is completely dry before you store it.
- For leather bags, you can use commercial leather cleaner to give them a thorough cleanse. In her October 2006 eBay guide, "Storing and Caring for your handbag – plus tips and tricks", eBay member 403 Halsey says “I have found a product at Walmart in the automotive section for leather seats. It actually smells like leather and rubs on like lotion. As stated on the bottle – test an area first to make sure it is compatible with your bag. This product cleans, conditions, and protects it against UV and heat.”
- Halsey also suggests that suede bags can be cleaned with a suede and nubuck cleaner available from shoe retailers or shoe sections of large stores. However, the article "How to care for your handbag," on the online shopping site SheFinds, advises against using any kind of treatment and just using a suede brush to reduce dust and grime.
- If using an air freshener to freshen the inside of your bags, then make sure to choose one that has a natural smell such as vanilla rather then an artificial floral fragrance. Also you don’t want the fragrance to be too strong, so consider keeping it in its wrapping and make small slits for the fragrance to escape.
- A tip from Harris in her Marie Claire article is to place a saucer of baking powder on the floor at the back of your closet to absorb odors, should your storage space smell musty.
The copyright of the article Caring for Your Designer Handbag in Handbags/Luggage is owned by Gill Hart. Permission to republish Caring for Your Designer Handbag must be granted by the author in writing.
