The Best Ways to Store All Your Bags and Wallets
For some reason, my spring cleaning efforts this year have been a lot more intense than usual: I’ve been reorganizing all my stuff, getting rid of old stuff, and trying to find better ways to store what I keep instead of just decluttering . up as is. My clothes, kitchen gadgets, makeup and jewelry have all worked great, but I’m getting frustrated trying to figure out the best way to store my bags. By their very nature, wallets and bags are bulky, and the idea of folding or wrinkling them is unappealing as it will make them look much worse when it comes time to use them. I’ve been mulling over storage for my bags for about a week now and I think I’ve finally come up with some good solutions.
Useful lifehack for storing small bags
I write for a living and am also in grad school, so wherever I go, my laptop is always with me, which means I have a ton of tote bags and large-capacity bags. However, when I’m not looking at a screen, I like to get dressed and go out, which means I also have a ton of small bags. I saw an idea on Instagram from a vintage retailer named Aarika Nicole that allows you to store small bags using materials you can buy at your local hardware store, so I gave it a try.
What you will need:
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One drywall hanger or hook.
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Large networks
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Some S hooks like these
You simply hang the chain on a hook or hanger, thread the S-hooks through it, and hang your bags on the hooks. Nicole actually attached hers to the ceiling, but I decided to try hanging mine in the closet. What you do depends on how much you embrace the concept of storage as decoration and how much space you have. Here’s what mine looked like before I added a few bags:
I immediately noticed that this wasn’t a solution for large bags, but I could potentially fit several bags underneath, so I added one and didn’t see any indication that it was too heavy. Figuring out how to arrange the bags so that they lay as flat as possible was challenging because some of them had structured bottoms that caused them to take up space. Because of this, it didn’t fit into my closet at all; the bag storage area took up too much space to stand next to my clothes. Nicole was right to leave it hanging in the room. Here’s what I came up with after a trial run of five bags of different sizes:
This trick works great if you have a lot of small or light bags and have a good place to hang them. So while I’m not a fan of my closet version, when I get the rest of my apartment organized, I plan on hanging a few of these chains. But for clutches, tote bags, backpacks and cross-bodies with bulky long straps, there are other options.
Other bag storage solutions
Not every bag can be hung on a chain, but consider these solutions for storing everything else:
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This handbag organizer ($19.96 for two) hangs in your closet and has eight separate pockets designed to hold medium-sized bags and keep them safe behind a plastic screen.
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Try flooring solutions like this unit with two shelves and 11 hooks ($24.99). It attaches to your front door or closet door, making it easy to keep out of the way without sacrificing more closet space.
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Use the space under your bed or sofa with these flat storage bins on wheels ($31.49 for two).
Otherwise, consider going all out on your storage needs and choosing storage furniture that can hide your bags while serving other purposes in your home.
Finally, I have a negative recommendation: learn from your past mistakes and don’t try to store bags in bags. Not only does this cause them to become wrinkled and misshapen, but it also makes it difficult to remember what bags you even have, let alone what other bags they’re stuffed into. If you store them separately, you will get irritated because of the amount of space. Even using hacks requires trying to store other items, such as shoes, cords, or rarely used items, inside the bags themselves. I do this with my bags: one for swimsuits, one for important papers, and one for a general purpose drawer, like a junk drawer. When I want to use this bag, I simply empty its contents onto the shelf where it was and move on.