In the last month I have moved to a new house. I have had to clean out my closet and part with things that I no longer wanted or needed. It was easy to let go of old clothes and shoes, but then I got to the bags. I kept pulling them out till I was surrounded by a sea of bags in all shape, sizes, and designers. Then a thought popped in my head, “which ones am I going to let go of?” I pulled out this small COACH bag that my grandmother gave me when I was turning fourteen. At the time the factory outlet store was located above and she let me go and pick out a matching wallet, my first grown up wallet. The bag’s handle is a little tattered but overall in great condition. I rarely use this bag anymore because the amount of stuff that I have to carry simply wont fit, but the thought of letting it go was absurd. I couldn’t do it. I remember going to the store with her days before my birthday and picking it out the rush of excitement I felt. I begged her to let me use it immediately instead of waiting till my birthday. Since then my grandmother has purchased other bags for me as presents on different occasions. So those went in the keep pile.

I suddenly spotted an old Gucci satchel. It was in my grandmother’s closet begging to be used. The lining desperately needed to be replaced so I took it to Gucci and asked if it could be fixed. For a small fee it was fixed and was like brand new. I have to say that I felt very chic walking down the street with my vintage Gucci. I love that bag because they don’t make that style satchel anymore with the blue and red stripe down the front anymore unfortunately. I can remember being a little girl and her using it, I even found a picture of her holding me and she is carrying the bag. The bag was a souvenir on a trip she and my grandfather had taken to Europe. So that and a few others that I rescued from her closet went to the keep pile.

I then spotted tucked in the corner of the box I keep my small handbags in was a small Fendi evening bag made out of velvet and suede with the silver trademark of Fendi on a leather strap the closed the bag. The bag is really small and is meant to be used only for evening fun. I bought this bag actually on a high school trip through Italy in Venice. Fendi was having a sale and my friends and I went in to take a look. There it was sitting on the sale shelf looking sad and lonely. In that instant I felt it was reaching out to me to take it back home with me and that’s exactly what I did. I asked them to gift wrap and to this day I still have the packaging it came in. I haven’t used it in some time and to be honest I kind of forgot about it. You start to have so much that you forget what you have and that may be a sign to stop buying. So this bag and many others went in the keep pile.