I rolled my eyes the first time I heard about purse hooks. Not only did I think the idea was stupid, I immediately deemed anyone who would buy one an idiot.

Well, I guess I am now an idiot. But wait, let me explain!

When I first read about the purse hook (or purse hanger), it was a $40 piece of metal designed to keep your designer purse off the “dirty, disgusting floor.”  The marketing pitch was all about how your fabulous investment deserved equally fabulous treatment. Puh-leaze. Now do you see why I thought it was stupid?

However, for the past few months I’ve been hanging out at a new drinking hole where I spend more time standing than sitting.  It’s also the type of place where I don’t want to simply toss my purse on the bar or the floor.  Keeping it on my shoulder for more than an hour just gets cumbersome and I find myself wishing there was a hook at the edge of the bar so I can hang my purse in front of me, off the floor and within sight.

That’s where the purse hook comes in. I knew it would do exactly what I wanted, but I definitely did not want to pay $40 for it!  I checked on eBay and to my surprise and delight found thousands for sale for around $3 shipped.  They were different than the first purse hook I ever heard about in that instead of a solid hook, wrap-around links form the hook (see pics below).  Though most of the purse hooks on eBay were very flashy with rhinestones or a giant “gem,” I wanted something less conspicuous and bought this simple hook with a lotus design:

My purse hook in the closed position. Magnets on the inside of the links keep it closed - how clever!

And this is in the opened position:

My purse hook in the opened position. Where the first link meets the disc twists 90 degrees.

And here it is hanging:

The chain has been rotated to hang down and form a hook.

My purse hook doing its job. Oh, and Penny.

I’ve already used it a few times to hang my purse at bars and restaurants and I absolutely love it!  I can’t believe I went so long without it.  Even when sitting, I never liked keeping my purse on my seat behind me because it was out of my line of sight, but now it’s always in view and of course, off the dirty, disgusting floor.

Here’s the same lotus purse hook I bought on eBay (note: shipping from Hong Kong took about 2 weeks).

Or you can click here to see all purse hooks currently on Ebay.

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