Renting Handbags = Germs?

I recently decided that this blog could use some more exposure and so I joined Blogcatalog.com. For those of you who have had no experience with Blog Catalog, I highly recommend it. It is an amazing community and I've always had awesome experiences with them. Of course, part of the point of joining a community is to spark some discussion, so... here it is.

Someone posted a review of this blog and gave us a 5 on 10. The reason being that handbag rental is hazardous to one's health because of the rampant germs one carries in their designer handbags. You can see the full review here should you wish and her source on germs and handbags is located here. I thought, let's discuss this issue a bit. After all, she makes a decent point. When you share designer handbags, are you risking sharing and handling germs? Perhaps.

What's in my handbag?

Before delving into the entire germs discussion, I thought it might be pertinent to mention what the typical woman keeps in her designer handbags that might be the root cause of germs. Here is a list of what I currently have in my handbag.

1) My wallet. It's leather and a little on the chunky side.
2) Two lip glosses. I'm of the belief that two are better than one.
3) Cell phone. Enough said.
4) Day planner. I can't go anywhere without knowing what's going on.
5) A book. One never knows when one might need to read.
6) iPod video. A life saver on the train ride into work.
7) Gum. This is more of a "sometimes" item.
8) Lunch.

It is a fair enough assumption that one of these items could leak or spill into the bag making it gross and potentially unusable. This could breed germs. I have to admit though, it's never happened to me. I have, on occassion, had a juice box or jar of something explode into my school bag back in the day, but my purses (especially my designer purses) tend to remain on the clear side. Maybe it is because I'm a neat freak, but I personally don't think my handbag carries anymore germs than anything else I come into contact with during the day. I also don't think it would make a difference if my handbag was bought, borrowed or rented. In fact, I take better care of my designer handbags then I ever would with the bag I bought at the Gap for $10.00.

Germs and Handbag Rental

People do not take care of things. This I know. I can see how this would make one hesitate about renting designer handbags from an online company. The thing with handbag rental is that you are responsible for the designer handbags you rent. If STILLCHIC receives designer handbags back that have been mistreated or look like they're covered in germs... we are not going to rent those again to someone else. We also are constantly updating our handbag rental selection. We hold private sales and sell off all designer handbags that have been in circulation for a bit.

This leads me into the question of... how many people buy designer handbags used online? I know I have some friends who frequent eBay checking for hot deals. Couldn't these designer handbags have germs? They've been touched by other people. I don't see a grand difference between these handbags that people purchase and ones that can be rented.

Germs are something that we live with on a day to day basis. This is probably why those little bottles of hand sanitizer are so rampant in stores. Germs exist on everything one touches and definitely in one's handbags. While designer handbag rental may not ease this problem, I don't believe it is the cause of it. Remember all of those things you borrowed throughout the years? Well, who's to say you're too old for that now?

I welcome any thoughts or debate that you may have. Please leave me a comment on this issue.