Stunning-but regarding purse peace you are a lost cause!
Probably so am I lol!
Purse peace
- Thread starter Meesh202
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Probably so am I lol!
I got all the Polene and Celine bags I want, so I have stopped looking for bags or online shopping in general. I still follow bag updates and see other people's collections and unboxings, but nothing tempts me. There's nothing new I would be interested in, that I don't already have something that looks similar and does the same thing.
Last year I got the Polene cyme because I wanted one nice tote bag. I considered the Demellier New York tote since then, but I don't need that many tote bags. Plus, Polene is my favorite brand. I recently broke my 6 month no bag purchases streak to get the Polene Un Nano. It was the first design I liked from Polene bag then, and I really took my time thinking about the colors and whether this would suit me. No regrets.
Last year I got the Polene cyme because I wanted one nice tote bag. I considered the Demellier New York tote since then, but I don't need that many tote bags. Plus, Polene is my favorite brand. I recently broke my 6 month no bag purchases streak to get the Polene Un Nano. It was the first design I liked from Polene bag then, and I really took my time thinking about the colors and whether this would suit me. No regrets.
IMO, there is no purse peace. There's always the next great bag. But instead, you'll get satisfied for quite some time, achieving your "HG", then you're off to the next one.
This happened to me when I labelled the Chanel Jumbo and the Hermes Birkin to be my "HG." I told myself, once I achieve on getting those two, I'll also achieve purse peace. And boy I was wrong!
This happened to me when I labelled the Chanel Jumbo and the Hermes Birkin to be my "HG." I told myself, once I achieve on getting those two, I'll also achieve purse peace. And boy I was wrong!
I agree with all this. I think either option for me is ok. First option is what you say, where I drastically buy less bags and only buy something occasionally. I think that's ok as long as I can comfortably afford it. The second option is I stop paying attention to handbags and switch to other hobbies and interests. If I don't spend time thinking about bags, looking at new releases, and online shopping, the temptation won't be there.
So true on every point!! My holy grails were also Hermes Birkin and Chanel jumbo flap many many years ago!!!
Even over a decade later after getting those bags, the craving for more, more bags hasn’t stopped!
And those ‘holy grails’ are just collecting dust in my closet (ie changing tastes as I got older, having to consider safety issues out there with such conspicuous brand bags, etc)
Agreed 100%
I tried option 2, deleted my instagram app and also gave up youtube premium subscription and have been consuming bag content wayy less and am not tempted as much
I also recently did a youtube subscriptions purge to get rid of all fashion and handbag channels from my feed. Personally, I'm just tired of seeing shopping and hauls and even capsule wardrobes. I'm tired of hearing about clothes and bags. I want to see people use what they have, not get new things.
So true so over massive hauls and also bored of capsule wardrobes !
These videos were created with one thing in mind - view counts
Sadly we get sucked into them !
I am actually starting to get quite discouraged and I wonder if others feel the same. I am a late-starting collector - I purchased my first true designer handbag (non-contemporary brand) at the age of 30; I told myself, this is my 30th birthday gift to myself. I never thought I would end up sucked into the handbag-collecting universe, but only two years later, I feel almost overwhelmed. I have gone from zero designer handbags to almost twenty; after every bag I think, now the collection is complete, now I am satisfied. But the moment I think I have reached purse peace, something beautiful crosses my path and I'm off on the chase again. It's getting to the point where I'm finding it hard to work out whether I truly love something, or whether I want something purely because it's a "classic" and "everybody needs an a/b/c bag in their collection". Financially I have never put myself in a precarious position buying a handbag, but I'm starting to feel that the continuous barrage of new bags trotted out by all the designer houses is wearing me down.
Is purse peace ever achievable? It seems ridiculous that something that should be a fun and frivolous hobby has become so strangely anxiety-inducing for me. I think maybe because I keep chasing the ever elusive "peace", but it isn't achievable, and maybe I should just try and enjoy the journey instead.
Is purse peace ever achievable? It seems ridiculous that something that should be a fun and frivolous hobby has become so strangely anxiety-inducing for me. I think maybe because I keep chasing the ever elusive "peace", but it isn't achievable, and maybe I should just try and enjoy the journey instead.
I agree with you wholeheartedly!! It's that vicious cycle/ down the rabbit hole / FOMO thing and I get the anxiety thing too! I don't like an overstuffed closet. I will need to downsize again. The best way to downsize is ask yourself, 'would I buy this again if I didn't have it?'. If yes, keep, if no, sell it.
That's a great way to downsize! Maybe that's all I need to do, a closet purge, I might feel better after that. It's always tricky because when I first started my handbag journey I didn't do any research and had no real idea of what I was doing, so I have a lot of impulse purchases that I spend a lot of time staring at, thinking, "why on earth is this here". There are quite a lot of bags that I would never buy now, that I bought back then. I will definitely look at rehoming them.
I think also some of the anxiety/discomfort comes from a weird guilt over having such an expensive hobby, even though I can afford it. There's so much stigma attached to women having expensive tastes or liking expensive things. I wonder if perhaps I would be more at peace with my handbag collection if I didn't feel guilty about having a handbag collection in the first place.
I went through the same cycle as you, and around the same ages. I went from late 20s to turning 30, and I spent a lot of money on a grown up wardrobe as well as a bag collection. I tried on a lot of different style of bags and found what I liked and what worked for me. After decluttering twice, my collection has settled and I haven't gone off hunting for new designs.
Once you know what you like and what works for you, stick to that. Don't go looking for bags that are lesser versions than the ones you have. The majority of bags out there can be appreciated with your eyes, not with your wallet or with ownership. Make sure you check your shopping habits to see if it's becoming a dopamine/addiction cycle where you're chasing the feeling of getting a new bag and not appreciating what you have. My final recommendation is once it stops being fun, that's when you stop. Bags that aren't fun, scrolling when it's not fun, keeping up with latest trends and releases when its not fun - go do other things instead. Go enjoy other hobbies! If you love fashion, you can read up on fashion history. For a while I had to avoid looking at bags and hauls, but now I can look at other people's bags without feeling the temptation.
One thing that helped me was making a powerpoint presentation or otherwise have some way of showing everything in my collection so far. My bags are in my closet in dust bags, so I can easily forget what I have. Regularly looking at the powerpoint helps me appreciate what I already have and keep me from wanting other bags.
Are you me? Truly resonates with every point you made here, especially to stop when it's not serving you anymore (I realized at one time I had a pattern of constantly checking on bags/ scrolling on websites, even when I don't feel like I want to). Consciously asking myself and be intentional, even in these small scrolling/ browsing habits is really the way to go for me. Only then would I realize to start living life while enjoying things I already have, and stop looking around.
I don't have a powerpoint for mine since I only own six bags atm (went down from 15+ over the past five years), but I found that taking pictures in a somewhat 'editorial' manner helps me to feel good about my collection as a whole (pic below for reference), and to carefully consider whether I want to replace a bag to add another one in. Since all my bags look good in the picture it has successfully stopped me from thinking I need another new bag and trying to fix problems that don't exist
I still look at bags on the internet from time to time, but found myself not wanting to add anything because I got everything covered, from the tiniest to the roomiest that suit my lifestyle and taste (and therefore feel lazy to do research on new things) and also simply don't want to break the 'harmony' of my current collection. Thanks for letting me share!
