I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by stuff lately. Maybe it’s because I’ve been confined to my house for most of the year and I need to change it up. Or maybe it’s because I’ve let my guard down over the past few years and stuff has slowly crept in. Whatever the reason, I feel like it’s time to declutter. But I want to start with a smaller, easy project. My first task: declutter handbags.

I have always had a thing for handbags. At one point, I would buy a few a month. That was probably at the height of my shopping addiction when, as a new mom, I would escape to my favorite store at the end of most days, once my husband got home.

It was my preferred type of break at the end of the day and buying things was my way of coping with the stress that comes with being a new parent.

Over the years, I have decluttered a lot of those impulse buys. But some still linger and I’ve had a hard time getting rid of them.

But, as I’ve come to a place where I try to be very intentional with the things that I own, each item has to earn it’s place in my wardrobe.

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The Criteria I Use to Declutter Handbags

I have a few criteria that I use whenever I start to declutter things from my wardrobe. To declutter handbags, I asked myself the following questions:

• Does it go well with most everything in my wardrobe?

This is a pretty easy question to answer for bags that are neutral in color (black, grey, tan, white) but becomes a little more difficult for colorful items.

• Have I worn it in the past 6 months?

This is an easy question to answer for my absolute favorites but is a little more difficult for others. If I haven’t been wearing them because of disorganization (they weren’t easy to find) then they deserve another chance. If I haven’t worn them because I’m just not into it, it’s time to let it go.

• Does it fit all of my things?

I don’t carry very much in my handbag (wallet, phone, lip balm, lipstick, keys and face mask) so I don’t require a large bag but if I can’t get all of those items in there, it’s of no use to me. On the other hand, I also don’t need multiple large bags because I carry so little.

• Do I love it?

Self explanatory 😉

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3 Easy Steps to declutter handbags and organize them for good!

Step 1: Locate all handbags, put them in one place and separate them based on color.

In my case, I keep most of my handbags on a shelf in my office/studio. The ones that I have been using over the past few days are usually on a hook by the door.

The first thing that I do is to collect them all in one big pile.

Next, I make mini piles based on color.

• Black and grey handbags

• Brown, tan and white handbags

• All other colors

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Step 2: To declutter handbags without regret, analyze every handbag based on the following criteria.

Does it go well with most everything in my wardrobe?

Have I worn it in the past 6 months?

Does it fit all of my things?

Do I love it?

After asking these 4 questions of each of the 19 bags that I owned, I chose to keep (14) and discard (5) the following handbags:

Black and grey handbag keep pile

Top row (l-r): Coach crossbody/wrislet; Cuyana mini circle belt bag; vintage Coach Satchel

Middle row (l-r): Botkier satchel; secondhand Calvin Klein 2-tone crossbody bag; Margot backpack

Bottom row (l-r): secondhand Tory Burch tote; Halston Heritage crossbody bag

Neutral and colored handbag keep pile

Top row (l-r): vintage straw clutch; secondhand Marc by Marc Jacobs bucket bag

Middle row (l-r): tan vintage Coach crossbodybag; green Michael Kors crossbody bag

Bottom row: tan vintage Chaco mini bowler bag; purple secondhand Marc by Marc Jacobs crossbody bag

Discard pile

Left (top-bottom): brown secondhand Fossil tote; black vintage mini Coach bag; brown Joyn crossbody

Right (top-bottom): red Emma Fox crossbody tote; blue Tignanello crossbody tote

I don’t use tote bags much and I definitely have no need for 3 of them. After deciding to keep my black tote bag, I decided to get rid of the brown and red ones. My mom was quick to claim these 2 when I showed her what I was discarding via FaceTime.

The mini coach bag is too small to hold all of my items, particularly my phone, so it is not useful to me, even as a going out bag. But my daughter likes to play with this one and she doesn’t have a phone to worry about so she’s keeping that one.

I haven’t reached for the brown or blue bags in the past 6 months.

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Step 3: Group smaller handbags by color and store them in larger bags.

• Place the straps and handles inside each individual handbag for neater storage.
• For smaller handbags, store them in the larger handbags. These happen to be the ones with less structure in my case. This has a purpose that is two-fold…it corrals bags so that they are contained and it makes it easier to store less structured bags upright.

• For handbags that are structured, keep them separate. You can also use them to store smaller handbags inside if they fit. I don’t own any small clutches but if I did, I would use these types of handbags (the black and tan ones on the left end) to hold them.

• Place the handbags on a shelf that is easy to access. I use a few that have more structure as decorations, such as the tan mini bowler bag on the top shelf below.

Here are a few other handbag storage ideas if this one doesn’t work for your situation.

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And that’s it. My 3 easy steps to declutter handbags and how I organize them for easy storage and access.

Do you routinely declutter handbags? What is your process? How do you organize them?

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Until next time,

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