Tips on How to Take Care of Your Handbag

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Are you a woman who adores her handbags?

Do you have a huge leather bag collection in your closet?

And do you spend a lot of time and energy shopping for the perfect handbag, only to toss it on the floor when you get home from a long day out?

If you have ever spilled ink or hand lotion on one of your favorite handbags, especially if it was an investment piece, you know how much it can sting.

If you invest a lot of time into choosing the perfect handbag, you should also invest the same amount of time into caring for your bag after you've brought it home.

Luckily for you, we're here with the most important tips to make sure your handbag stays in perfect condition for years to come.

MAINTENANCE IS A MUST

It may not have occurred to you that your trusty accessory requires TLC. But it's true - spending a few minutes thinking about the best way to preserve your handbag can go a long way to improving its longevity and wear.

Here are some of our best tips for bag care .

When you go out to eat at a sidewalk cafe with those tiny tables, do you put your handbag down on the floor? Think about it. The floor is covered with germs and residue from people's shoes that can take their toll on your leather bag.

Make a habit of hanging your handbag on your chair, or placing it on your lap or an empty chair.

You can also buy a large S hook that you can keep in your purse just for occasions like this.

Hook one end of the S hook to the table, and hang the handbag off the other end.

When your outing is over, just stow that hook in your purse for next time.

If your bag has feet on the bottom, like satchel styles often do, you can probably set it on the floor, as the leather won't touch the dirty ground.

You can also buy a purpose-engineered handbag hook.

USE PRODUCTS

Did you know there are products you can use to take care of your bag?

If you collect genuine leather bags, you can use a leather conditioner to keep them in tip-top shape.

Leather conditioner is meant to extend the life of your leather piece by keeping it soft and supple.

It also cleans and polishes your leather items. You can also preemptively protect your handbag by using a rain and stain repellant that will keep water and oil stains at bay.

You should use the repellant again every time you condition your leather bags.

If you like fabric bags, running a lint roller over the material every so often will help keep the fabric looking new.

STUFF YOUR PURSE

More tips: If your bag has a unique shape that you would like to preserve without creases, especially if it is a larger bag, you should stuff the bag when not in use to maintain its shape.

You can use tissue paper, which also absorbs moisture in the air, to stuff a smaller purse.

Newsprint also works.

For a larger purse, if you don't have the quantity of tissue paper necessary, you can try stuffing it with clothing - like a sweater that you won't be wearing in cool weather, or some of your summer clothes in the winter time.

This is a cheap and easy way to care for your leather bag.

DON'T TOSS THAT DUST BAG

Higher-end bags usually come with a dust bag.

Don't throw it away!

Use dust bags to protect your purses when you’re not using them. They will help your leather bags maintain their natural luster and shine and will keep them from getting covered in dust particles.

If your bag did not come with a dust bag, you can take care of it by storing it inside an old pillowcase instead.

USE A COSMETICS CASE

If you've ever spilled anything in your purse - lotion, liquid make-up, hand sanitizer, a bottle of water - you know the frustration.

And if you like to change your purse to match your outfit, it is also tedious to have to move everything from one bag to another (and inevitably, you forget something!).

A small zippered cosmetic case or clutch (bonus if it is waterproof) is the answer here. Put all your liquid products into it.

This has several benefits.

1) You can find your stuff when you need it.

2) It cuts down on the number of things you need to move when you switch bags.

3) If one of those seals fails, the spill is contained in the clutch, keeping your bag safe and dry.

STORAGE MATTERS

Where do you keep your bags?

On the floor?

Tossed into the bottom of the closet willy-nilly?

On the floorboard of your car? Tsk tsk. Do you hang your purses on a hook or off a hanger in the closet?

That's not great way to take care of them, either.

The weight of a bag can put wear and tear on the purse's handles - this is especially true if you didn't bother to empty the purse before storing it.

The best place to store your leather handbag collection is on a shelf (preferably with each in its own dust bag).

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION

As the adage goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Benjamin Franklin probably didn't own a patent leather handbag collection, but his saying applies here. ( Fun fact: Ben Franklin was actually talking about fire safety when he coined this enduring phrase!).

ROTATE YOUR BAGS

If you don't already swap our your bags from time to time, this is a good idea to keep a favorite patent leather purse from wearing out too quickly.

Especially if, like me, your bag tends to get heavier the longer you use it.

Swapping out a bag will help keep the number of things inside it to a minimum, which in turn prolongs the life of the bag's handles.

LEAVE THE STAINS TO THE PROFESSIONALS

More care tips: A baby wipe applied quickly to a spill can help keep stains of your bag (it's a good idea to have a small baby wipe supply in the bag for this exact reason).

But if the stain has been there awhile, you might just want to take it to a professional (this is especially true in the case of ink stains).