Optimal number of purses in a collection?

crissy11

crissy11

O.G.
Jun 23, 2009
6,412
142
#1
The thing I NEVER want to get into, is having purses sit unused in my closet - "museum pieces" I call them.

I want all my purses in regular rotation, a rotation for me is 2 weeks. I don't change purses by outfit or anything, I just carry one for 2 weeks then switch it out.

I would like to get three 2 week rotations in every year, so I need to know that every purse I have will get at least a 6 week exposure (which still doesn't seem like enough at all).

So based on that formula, that means at any given time I should have no more than 8 or 9 purses in my collection.

Right now I am at 8 and I love each of them dearly. I started collecting Coach last July and have painstakingly chosen each one of them.

Now I feel like I have one more to add and then I have to stop or else the rotation has to go down.

I'm not talking about wristlets and swingpacks which may get taken out for a weekend or evening, I'm talking more about the purses I carry every day.

So that kind of makes me sad. I know Coach always has a ton of gorgeous stuff, but until I'm ready to start letting go of what I have, I don't want to just add to the collection and start piling the purses up in my closet in their dust bags.

I guess I'm too practical.

Anyway, just wanted to share. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
 
#2
Can never have too many. Of nearly anything :lol That said, I have 4 bags. 3 RMs and this Coach. I buy and sell, mainly to fund purchases. If I had never sold a bag, well.. I'd have a lot of bags :blush:
 
#4
CoachedObsessio said:
Interesting thought! I've told my husband that 52 is the goal so that I can switch every week of the year! He disagrees.....:shocked:
Click to expand...

OK, don't throw anything at me, I agree with your husband. :P

All joking aside though, wouldn't you be sad if you could only use a purse one week out of the year? Or is there something wrong with me? I guess it's just that in BC (before Coach), I changed my purses out for the season - so 4 per year. It's hard to wrap my mind around going from 4 purses per year to 52. :nuts:
 
#5
Well I'm mostly kidding about the number....I have 21 bags now but I do love each and every one and remember the story or "quest", in some cases, of how I came to own it. That being said, it is sad that I don't get to use them more often simply because of the number of them. But...they are so beautiful that I just can't part with them.

So if they become museum pieces or once a year pieces, so be it. At least for now...maybe later on I will feel differently who knows. :smile:
 
#6
interesting thought!! and you are right! I dont get to use them all because I dont go out as much and when I am going to do grocery shopping I grab any of my MFF bags so if for some reason they get damage, I know its not a FP bag.
There must be like 5 bags in my closet that I havent been able to use. 4 of my inlaid peyton are brand new and my kristin tote are unused. Thing is I am waiting for a warmer weather to justify those bright colors.
That is another minor reason why I have stopped buying. The main one is I have no more funds lol but in reality I dont want to keep them in their dustbag as well....they are too pretty to just sit in there!
 
#7
Maes- you live in Miami- How much warmer does it need to be?! LOL! I live in Minnesota and have been using my bright colored purses for weeks! I have a ton still with tags on just waiting for the right occasion. I just took the tag off my Anthracite Large Garnet and I've had it since last Oct. Just used it for the 1st time today (It matches the car I drove today)! I have well over 100 handbags and still want/buy more. Of course I'm old as the hills and have been collecting for years. The perfect number is whatever works for YOU! Chillax! Enjoy! Don't over analyze- I speak from experience.
 
#8
I have been thinking about this lately I sold 5 and now im down to 36 and no they don't rotate enough and the perfect number to me would be 20 but I love all the ones I have now so for every bag bought someone will have to go lol
 
#9
I've been thinking about this lately too.
How many bags can one really use?
But I think that's going to be relative, everyone is going to be rotating though their bags differently. Also I think our thoughts will change as we go along, changing our minds on what works best for us.

For myself, I like to change bags every couple of days, maybe using 3 bags a week. Sometimes I will change bags to use for just one day, if I'm doing something different that day. I don't count special occasion bags or totes in with the everyday bags, since I only use them occasionally.

I've been using or rotating bags by the season (black/dark in winter, etc) and if I've used a bag 3 - 4 times a season I would consider that I used it enough.

This rotation works for me in a couple of ways, first, I feel excited about using my bags, like I'm using a new bag all the time. Also I feel like I'm using more of my bags, since I'm switching them out all the time.

Since I've started rotating them so often, I've noticed I'm not as tempted to buy new bags, so it's working for me for now.
 
#10
i would say that reasonably most of us cant use more then 10-12. that said it depends how often u change out of a bag. for me, anymore then 6 is too much personally.
 
#11
lkooyman1 said:
Maes- you live in Miami- How much warmer does it need to be?! LOL! I live in Minnesota and have been using my bright colored purses for weeks! I have a ton still with tags on just waiting for the right occasion. I just took the tag off my Anthracite Large Garnet and I've had it since last Oct. Just used it for the 1st time today (It matches the car I drove today)! I have well over 100 handbags and still want/buy more. Of course I'm old as the hills and have been collecting for years. The perfect number is whatever works for YOU! Chillax! Enjoy! Don't over analyze- I speak from experience.
Click to expand...

Heck yeah, although it sort of FEELS like FL here right now :yahoo: But I've been wearing the brights since the snow melted. Also when I ditched my boots.
 
#13
I have also been wondering about this, I counted my "collection" about two months ago and I had like 24 coach bags, and a few others. A few still had the tags on. I decided to start letting stuff go, because I don't really buy bags to collect them, but to use them. I am now down to 8 coaches ( I think) and even though I got rid of some I never thought I would part with I don't miss them at all.

I think I would like to try to get down to five, but that may be too radical.
 
#14
CoachedObsessio said:
Interesting thought! I've told my husband that 52 is the goal so that I can switch every week of the year! He disagrees.....:shocked:
Click to expand...


LOL!
When DH asked me why I was buying so many bags, I said that I was going to start matching the color of my bags to my clothes every day. :graucho:

Apparently, that was a good answer, because he's a "matchy" type person and I could see that he understood wanting to match my clothing & bags. :biggrin:
 
#15
I have the optimal number for myself, I think. As far as Coach goes at least.

I have 4 Coach bags: a black one, a pink one, a blue patent and a purple patent. I have something to match pretty much everything I wear, so it's fine for me. I also have 5 wristlets that I will use alone at times.

I do have quite a few of another brand (Vera Bradley) but I feel that I have too many.


I think the ideal collection should probably be between 3 and 10 bags, including things like clutches and swingpacks. That way, you have enough variety to switch things up, but you don't have so many that you are overwhelmed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Back