2023 Resolution: Shopping my Own Bags and SLG Collection

[Vintage Leather]

A long standing tradition in this thread is to remind ourselves of how wonderful our own collections are by showcasing them. We can see how far we have come, collection wise, and we reminded that we have all (or most of) what we need making it easier to shop our own closets.



• New theme weeks start each Sunday

• Don’t jump ahead but, if you miss a week, please do show your bags “late”.

• Show bags individually or in a group

• You do NOT have to wear the bags that week

• For added fun, show old pictures from previous years to demonstrate how you have curated it over time.

• This is completely voluntary. There is no pressure to post at any time.





So what are the showcases? In the Fall, we group our bags by makers! Feel free to show bags, small leather goods, or however it is easiest to organize!

August 13 - Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta

August 20 - Burberry, Celine

August 27 - Coach, Chanel

September 3 - Chloe, Dior

September 10 - Dooney & Bourke, Fendi

September 17 - Ferragamo, Givenchy

September 24 - Goyard, Gucci

October 1 - Hermes, Kate Spade

October 8 - Loewe, Longchamp

October 15 - Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs

October 22 - Michael Kors, Miu Miu

October 29 - Mulberry, Prada

November 5 - Proenza Schouler, Rebecca Minkoff

November 12 - Saint Laurent, Tods

November 19 - Tory Burch, Valentino

November 26 - Bags by Jewelers: Bulgari, Cartier, Tiffany Co, Van Cleef & Arpels. Alternatively, the pillboxes, compacts and other lovelies made by jewelers that fit in your bag.

December 3 - independent artisans and custom bags.

 

[lill_canele]

December 2023 stats

Bags = 1 bag in/ 1 bag out

• 5/13 bags used.
• YSL envelope bag most used, my errand bag of course! And many errands were done during the holidays haha.
• Bag in: a lovely Christmas gift from a friend. She made a bag for me!!!
• Bag out: (sort of) handed my Polene bag off to my mother. I still love the color and it’s a comfortable bag to carry. I just don’t carry it enough. But you know, I can always borrow it back from my mother haha.

SLGs = 0 in/ 0 out
Jewelry = 0 in/ 0 out
Shoes = 0 in/ 0 out
Accessories = 0 in/ 0 out
Clothes = 8 in/ 1 out
Too many good deals at the end of the year I could not pass up. Highlights: I was on a hunt for a classic black blazer this year and found one from Reiss for 50%. I also found a beautiful dress for 30% off that I plan to wear to a couple of events in 2024.

 

[lill_canele]

 

[Vintage Leather]

December

Bags In: 2
Bags out: 2
Accessories In: 2
Accessories Out: 0
Household Out: 37

2023 Totals

Bags In: 7
Bags Out: 11
Accessories In: 7
Jewelry and Accessories Out: 266
Household: 93
Donations Out: 629
Total out: 999

December was busy, with the Knight working insane hours, and VintageMama ill. Stress was crazy high, and it still is. Most of my “outs” this month were giving gifts.

So, goals:

1) I’m doing another purge. Eliminating 2023 items in 2023. Special focus on Books, Art, and tools, but I do have 5 handbags that I want to put on the chopping block.

2) fund purchases with sales. No new jewelry unless it’s on The List

3) Make 23 new recipes. Play more with cooking.

4) Finish knitting my shawl I started in 2018. Ditto for completing sketch books and photo albums.


I am thinking of moving. The Knight (mon petit model) is going to be graduating from high school in a year. My mother calls my home “the house of death” because my father passed away after we moved here, but she’s also scared of change. So I don’t have any solid plans. But it is something I’m considering this year or next

So goals. I didn’t make most, but the act of making them and tracking did make me be better, and I’m grateful for this thread and the community here.

1) Purge 999 of 2023 items. I did sort jewelry, art, tools and books. I found new treasures while looking, gave tools and art to my cousins, and jewelry to mon petit.

2) Success! I did fund all of my purchases with sales

3) I made 8 of 23 new recipes. Some failed, but others have been added to the rotation

4) I finished a blanket I had started 6 years ago, but the shawl is still close to the end. Of the three partial sketchbooks, one is completed, one has been inked but not painted, and the third is still rough sketches. So, better than I was last year.


The biggest category of items I purchased was “making medical supplies palatable” for VintageMama.

 

[lill_canele]

2023 year stats

• In terms of bag purchases I bought 3 bags in 2023 but also 3 bags left the collection. (Therefore still abiding by my combo of: bag in vs bag out policy + 2 bags a year)
• As for other purchases, a personal goal was to really hold back on buying clothes until the end of the year unless it was something I had to have. The plan was that hopefully many items would go on sale during the holidays. I’m happy to say that I did pretty well on holding back clothing purchases and found many a wonderful sale in November and December this year.

2024 goal's

• really wanting a shoulder bag. I have been really enjoying shoulder bags in 2023 as I find them to be hands free but also secure. But nothing satisfies my qualifications currently. May have to wait till 2025?
• I have also been eyeing a couple of crossbody Boston bags. My YSL bag is my go-to errand bag (since 2017) but I would like another crossbody bag to switch off with it and give it a bit of a break. It is really starting to show its wear now. Also the Boston bags look so roomy and cute!
• Will be allocating more funds to fine jewelry and RTW, so bags will have to take a back seat. I plan to purchase at most 1 bag in 2024.

Other thoughts:
As price increases continue, I have become even more picky with my purchases and wishlist items for higher priced items. All I can say is that I am glad I got most of my bags and fine jewelry earlier on and that I’m pretty happy with what I have so far.

 

[whateve]

Wishing everyone the very best in 2024!

No bags in during December, 1 bag out (a contemporary bag, new with tags, that I gave to a friend).
This year, I definitely slowed down on bag acquisitions, unlike the last few years. In fact, I would like to prune my collection a bit more, and then possibly add one more satchel to round it off, but still undecided about which one I want to get, and if it's really necessary. I have officially run out of space in the closet! In the upcoming year, we are discussing some house upgrades including possibly a closet extension. The bathroom needs to be re-tiled because the shower floor is leaking, so we might possibly end up re-doing the entire bathroom. Also looking at some furniture upgrades. Decluttering, home decor and suchlike will be more of a focus for me in the months ahead. As far as bags go, I will continue to focus on using my existing bags rather than garnering new acquisitions. Well, at least that's the plan.

We are in the process of redoing our shower. There was also a problem with the shower floor and there was no way to see if it was an easy fix without removing the tile. By then, it just made sense to redo the entire thing. We are worried our water pressure won't be as good though. The shower is done but we are waiting for a new door so we haven't tried it out yet. In installing the shower, they damaged bathroom walls and ceiling and destroyed a towel bar. We planned on replacing the bathroom flooring but nothing else. The cabinets were refinished and the walls were painted a couple years ago. We have drywall and painting people here for remodeling in other rooms so they should be able to take care of the damage.

 

[whateve]

December stats

bags in 0
bags out 0
SLGs in 2
SLGs out 0

ytd
bags in 3
bags out 6
SLGs in 3
SLGs out 9

I bought 2 keychains this month. They were keychains I have coveted for a long time so I'm thrilled to have them in my collection.


Our small remodeling job that was supposed to take 3 weeks has now taken 2 months and still has a couple weeks to go. Most of my bags have been packed up during this time so it has impacted my ability to carry the bags I would normally carry around the holidays. I carried 7 bags in December.

I haven't made any plans for 2024, other than to wind down selling.

 

[Purses & Perfumes]

We are in the process of redoing our shower. There was also a problem with the shower floor and there was no way to see if it was an easy fix without removing the tile. By then, it just made sense to redo the entire thing. We are worried our water pressure won't be as good though. The shower is done but we are waiting for a new door so we haven't tried it out yet. In installing the shower, they damaged bathroom walls and ceiling and destroyed a towel bar. We planned on replacing the bathroom flooring but nothing else. The cabinets were refinished and the walls were painted a couple years ago. We have drywall and painting people here for remodeling in other rooms so they should be able to take care of the damage.

The shower floor is the issue in our bathroom too. The tile will have to be replaced in the entire bathroom. Yikes, what a shame that they damaged the walls and ceiling in your bathroom during installation! Surely they should have been more careful? I am glad to hear you have someone who can fix the damage.

ETA: The key chains are so cute!
I am sorry to hear that the remodeling is dragging on way past the expected time frame for completion. That is one of the reasons I am not looking forward to doing any home remodeling.

I haven't thought through my 2024 goals yet, but I do believe the 2024 thread is up, so will post my goals there in a day or two.

 

[dcooney4]

December

Bags In: 2
Bags out: 2
Accessories In: 2
Accessories Out: 0
Household Out: 37

2023 Totals

Bags In: 7
Bags Out: 11
Accessories In: 7
Jewelry and Accessories Out: 266
Household: 93
Donations Out: 629
Total out: 999

December was busy, with the Knight working insane hours, and VintageMama ill. Stress was crazy high, and it still is. Most of my “outs” this month were giving gifts.



So goals. I didn’t make most, but the act of making them and tracking did make me be better, and I’m grateful for this thread and the community here.

1) Purge 999 of 2023 items. I did sort jewelry, art, tools and books. I found new treasures while looking, gave tools and art to my cousins, and jewelry to mon petit.

2) Success! I did fund all of my purchases with sales

3) I made 8 of 23 new recipes. Some failed, but others have been added to the rotation

4) I finished a blanket I had started 6 years ago, but the shawl is still close to the end. Of the three partial sketchbooks, one is completed, one has been inked but not painted, and the third is still rough sketches. So, better than I was last year.


The biggest category of items I purchased was “making medical supplies palatable” for VintageMama.

You accomplished a huge amount of stuff. You should be very proud of yourelf.

 

[DME]

Happy New Year to all of you, and a special thanks to @Vintage Leather for starting the new thread!

I’m not really a formal resolutions person because I never tend to stick to them (so why make them?), but I do have some goals for this year.

(1) Rotate my totes more often. I carry a tote to work and will often use the same one for months, usually switching it out when the season changes. I may try to rotate monthly.

(2) Use my non-totes more often. I spend so much time at work that my other bags don’t get a lot of love. I bought a tray for my closet where I plan to keep a grab-and-go bag that’s mostly packed to encourage me not to be lazy and just take a wallet, phone and keys on days off.

(3) Downsize my collection. I have a number of go-to bags that make me really happy, so I feel like I should sell or rehome the ones that don’t to alleviate the guilt over not using the rest. I need to figure out how best to go about this, though, as my local consignment shop (which I really do like) keeps 60% and that’s too steep for my costlier items.

(4) Downsize my “bags that don’t count”. How many reusable bags, travel totes, beach totes, etc., does a girl need?

(5) Reign in the lululemon habit. And the shopping habit more generally; I own enough stuff. I would like to get back to wearing real clothes more often and, like the “bags that don’t count”, how many leggings and sports bras does a girl need? Like @jblended, I want to get better about adding an item to my donate/sell pile as soon as I discover it no longer works for me instead of doing a more seasonal closet purge. I feel like I will streamline better this way and have/wear items I truly love.

(6) Continue to purge the house. I’ve long been good at doing this (outside of my luxury bags, that is) and I want to keep up the extra steam I had during the earlier days of COVID. We hope to retire in less than 10 years and doing this gradually would be better than panic purging (or, worse yet, moving it all to a smaller place and being overwhelmed) if/when we downsize our home.

(7) Upgrade some of my jewelry. I want to look into trading in some older pieces I no longer wear to fill “holes” in my jewelry wardrobe. I would also like to add a few wish list items. We just disembarked from a New Year’s cruise and I was able to scratch one item off my list already, as well as purchase a second item I never knew I wanted, but had to have when I saw it. Those purchases were at the end of December, so they don’t count for 2023, but they have given me momentum for the New Year!

ETA: Downsizing my bag collection also means downsizing my SLG and bag charm collection with it. I have too many of all these things!

I decided to revisit my post from a year ago and respond (to myself, but for all to read!) about how I’ve done regarding my 2023 goals. Overall I would assess myself as having done pretty well on most of what I set out to accomplish. More specifically:

(1) While not monthly, I am rotating my totes more often (less than monthly, but more than seasonally). I am also rotating my bag charms more often, so all of those items are getting more use.

(2) I have used several of my non-totes more often, in part because of the aforementioned tray. I keep two bags ready to go at all times; just have to add items I don’t have duplicates of, such as ID, credit card, etc. I swap out those two bags every couple of months, too, in an effort to use my bags more often. My smaller bags are still getting more love than my bigger bags, but I figure the tides will eventually turn on that one.

(3) I sold a number of luxury items that weren’t getting much love to Yoogi’s and FASHIONPHILE: 6 bags, 2 SLGs, 1 bag charm, 1 pair of sunglasses and 11 pieces of jewelry (mostly Tiffany silver). I took in an additional three luxury items (1 bag, 1 SLG and 1 scarf) to my local consignment shop and sold a pair of Jimmy Choo heels via our site at work. I took in another 154 items to my consignment shop, mostly Lilly Pulitzer and lululemon, most of which have sold. And I sold off a number of non-designer fine jewelry pieces I wasn’t using. I put those profits toward upgrading my jewelry; more on that below. I added two new designer bags and one designer SLG to my collection (good!), plus four Coach SLGs (not so good!).

(4) I failed miserably here. I probably got rid of a few based on how I count when it comes to this category, but I added more than a few. For example, I always wanted a New Yorker tote, but I didn’t want the subscription, so I bought one resale. I also saw a Louis Vuitton GWP tote (Asia exclusive) in another thread and had to have one, so resale to the rescue here, too. And there was this adorable and roomy Anya Hindmarch tote I spotted on a patron at my local Starbucks that is sold exclusively in supermarkets overseas, so (you guessed it!) I got one resale. Plus my new sheets came packaged in reusable totes and the cruise line we just sailed with gifted us branded totes. Hmmm… I also discovered the beauty of the lululemon belt bag, so now own five. I might have a problem!

(5) I failed miserably here, too, but I have an excuse (of course I have an excuse!). Instead of getting back to wearing more real clothes, I embraced the fact that I love athletic wear, so sought to elevate that look instead by purchasing more tailored pieces instead of just living in leggings and oversized sweaters, tops and cardigans. I am getting better at moving an item out of my closet when I decide it no longer works for me instead of waiting for the seasonal purge.

(6) I did fairly well here. We donated large quantities to a favorite charity two times this year and I also sold a number of household items, toys DD has long outgrown, etc., on our site at work. I brought in some items, too, but far, far less than went out. I keep reminding myself that we’re looking to downsize and that keeps me in check.

(7) This is a work in progress, but it’s coming along (might be nearly complete?). I added several new fine jewelry pieces to my collection this year, some designer, some not, some I was looking for, some that just spoke to me when I saw them. There are still a couple of pieces I want to purchase, but I am overall thrilled with my progress here.

Thanks for bearing with me, and I’ll add goals for 2024 to that thread. Happy New Year to all!

 

[Cookiefiend]

December stats:

Purses in or out - 2 in (both Howl & Hide gifts), 0 out.
Scarves in or out - 4 in (two gifts, 1 grail (zomg an Alliance de Monde moussie ), and a bargain that I couldn't resist.

Purses carried - 7. Most carried was the LV Pallas.
Books read - just one - Happiness for Beginners. I did truly enjoy this book.

Not much else got done in December!

I look forward to seeing you all on the 2024 thread!

 

[DME]

Not much else got done in December!

A wise colleague once noted during a career retrospective that “it’s impossible to stay sane in December”. Every time I’m about to lose my mind during those hectic weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, I think back to her talk, inhale and remind myself it’s not just me, it’s December.

 

[More bags]

December Update: Intentions, Challenges, and Stats

• Bag Rotation: carried 12
• Most frequently carried: Delvaux Tempete small, Gucci red Horsebit 1955 small, Chanel Red Reissue 226
• Exited 83 items - clothing and household items

December 2023 Stats
Bags - 0 in, 0 out
SLGs - 0 in, 0 out

YTD 2023 Stats
Bags - 0 in, 0 out
SLGs - 0 in, 0 out

Looking forward to hearing everyone’s updates and 2024 plans!

 

[More bags]

December

Bags In: 2
Bags out: 2
Accessories In: 2
Accessories Out: 0
Household Out: 37

2023 Totals

Bags In: 7
Bags Out: 11
Accessories In: 7
Jewelry and Accessories Out: 266
Household: 93
Donations Out: 629
Total out: 999

December was busy, with the Knight working insane hours, and VintageMama ill. Stress was crazy high, and it still is. Most of my “outs” this month were giving gifts.



So goals. I didn’t make most, but the act of making them and tracking did make me be better, and I’m grateful for this thread and the community here.

1) Purge 999 of 2023 items. I did sort jewelry, art, tools and books. I found new treasures while looking, gave tools and art to my cousins, and jewelry to mon petit.

2) Success! I did fund all of my purchases with sales

3) I made 8 of 23 new recipes. Some failed, but others have been added to the rotation

4) I finished a blanket I had started 6 years ago, but the shawl is still close to the end. Of the three partial sketchbooks, one is completed, one has been inked but not painted, and the third is still rough sketches. So, better than I was last year.


The biggest category of items I purchased was “making medical supplies palatable” for VintageMama.

Outstanding year @Vintage Leather!

 

[dcooney4]

December Update: Intentions, Challenges, and Stats

• Bag Rotation: carried 12
• Most frequently carried: Delvaux Tempete small, Gucci red Horsebit 1955 small, Chanel Red Reissue 226
• Exited 83 items - clothing and household items

December 2023 Stats
Bags - 0 in, 0 out
SLGs - 0 in, 0 out

YTD 2023 Stats
Bags - 0 in, 0 out
SLGs - 0 in, 0 out

Looking forward to hearing everyone’s updates and 2024 plans!

Well done!

 

[More bags]

Well done!

Thanks dc!