Handbags are things that we technically only need a limited number of, but which nevertheless tend to accumulate. The average British woman owns fourteen of them. And that’s before we even consider purses.
If you feel as though you’re wading through bags whenever you move from one side of the bedroom to the next, then the chances are good that you might benefit from rethinking your storage. According to a survery by Furniture specialists Hammonds. Nearly a quarter (24%) of UK women deem storage ‘absolutely essential’ in a property compared to just under one in five (19%) men.
Dedicated storage for these items doesn’t have to be costly or complicated. Often, you can get great results with relatively simple measures. Let’s assess a few of the options.
Add a purse cabinet
A glass-fronted cabinet makes sense for a lot of us. It provides a place for the bags to be kept, but still allows them to be easily spotted and grabbed when you’re in a hurry. You can think of this as a shelving unit with a set of doors on the front. You can find them ready-made, or you can have one built to fit a given space. If you know how to work with wood, then you might even make something yourself – or you can upgrade an older cabinet.
Over-the-bed storage
If space is at a premium in your home, then you might seek to take advantage of the overhead space, which is often underexploited. Over-bed storage can be incredibly elegant, and it can often free up space elsewhere in the home.
Storage hooks
One of the great features of a handbag is the fact that they come with ready-made hooks, in the form of handles. Thus they can be hung in a storage rack in your wardrobe, for easy access.
There are a couple of advantages worth mentioning, here. First, this is a solution that’s easy to implement, since you won’t be introducing any additional furniture. Second, you’ll be able to see easily whether a given handbag matches with another item in your wardrobe, which will make it much easier to improvise an ensemble.
Hanging organisers
Here, we’re taking the principle of hanging bags and extending it a little. You’re storing multiple bags in a single long organiser, which will naturally be much more space-efficient than the alternatives.
Vacuum packs
If you know that you aren’t going to be using a given bag for a long time (perhaps until the following summer), then you might pack them away in vacuum-sealed plastic. This will keep them in optimal condition for as long as possible, and allow you to safely stash them into spaces that might not be so easily accessed.
Kirsty Oakes, Head of Product and Marketing at Hammonds Furniture, said:
“When looking for a new home, making sure you have enough storage space to keep your existing items is a big priority for many.