I Just Discovered the Strangest Way to Store Purses (It’s Actually Brilliant for Small Spaces!)

Hear me out: Purses, not shoes, are the most difficult accessory to store, due to their typically bulky shapes and varying sizes. I’ve learned from experience that storing your handbags incorrectly can ruin their shape or material — and the struggle is even worse when you’re living in a one-bedroom apartment with very limited storage options like me. If you don’t have the luxury of a massive closet with dedicated purse storage, Instagram creator Anna Barger came up with a surprising (but ingenious!) solution: store your big purses in your kitchen. 

While the idea might seem sacrilegious to avid home cooks, Barger uses her kitchen cabinets to organize her prized clutches, totes, and satchels. She (maybe not on purpose) turned her Instagram followers onto the creative storage solution while giving her Instagram followers a tour of her big ass bag collection (otherwise known as BABs).

Shooting the video from her New York kitchen, the creator revealed that she deals with the “minimal space” of city living by housing her handbags on the kitchen shelves that would normally be covered with pots, pans, cooking appliances, and non-perishable food. Panning the camera down, she showed how she arranges the different bags based on size to ensure none are crushed or squished together, keeping their shapes intact while also protecting them from any dirt in her kitchen.

While storing your purses in your kitchen cabinets might seem like a more hygienic option than footwear à la Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, keep in mind that purses can be extremely dirty (especially if you’re setting them down on the ground, in shopping carts, or on unclean surfaces), and they can also harbor bacteria from coming into constant contact with your hands. In short, this purse storage solution is probably best for people who don’t use these cabinets for food purposes, dishes, or cooking appliances.

Depending on how many handbags you have, you might be able to compromise by designating one cabinet solely for your purses, and then laying down protective shelf liners to add an extra degree of protection. 

You’ll also want to ensure your structured bags stay upright and don’t get squished by stuffing them with newspaper or packaging material. For some of the bigger cabinets, you might want to consider getting rental-friendly hooks that you can install on the inside of the doors to hang slouchier tote styles or other accessories that don’t fit in your closet.