Is it time for some jewellery organising? There’s a lot of different ways that we can store our jewellery. Some like to have little bowls or boxes, some like to have jewellery storage coat hanger style, and others have mirrored cupboards with jewellery storage inside. There’s no, one-size-fits-all solution in my opinion as it depends on what type of jewellery you have and wear. If you wear lots of necklaces but are not really an earring girl, then the storage you need and that works best will be different to someone who loves bracelets.
My Own Jewellery Organising
I made the video below when I installed my jewellery storage. It isn’t great quality (apologies for that!) but it does contain useful tips and walks through how I like to tackle a jewellery declutter and organisation. The video was made quite a while ago (pre-baby!) but the principles still apply. I personally have the mirrored storage which I love. I have noticed that my jewellery tarnishes more in here than it used to. I’m told that’s because oxygen will make it tarnish.
Storage suggestions based on type of jewellery
If you’re a necklace wearer you can use coat hangers designed for belts or, of course, jewellery organising. Some coat racks that you screw to a wall can be great for necklaces. I’ve had one made for me before with hooks very close together to fit lots of necklaces. There are jewellery ‘trees’ too that can work well for some. You could just hang up Command hooks in an area that suits you.
If you have a lot of earrings than there are specialised earring hangers that can sit on a chest of drawers, or coat hanger style jewellery racks that have plastic sleeves you can slide your earrings (and other jewellery) into. I have seen a few DIY options with styrofoam as a board, a cork board, or a board with ribbon or wire to hang or push your earrings into.
If you love bracelets and bangles, these often work best in bowls. A paper towel or toilet roll or paper towel holder (you know, the stick ones) can store chunky ones well. If you have one of those coffee mug trees, that could work too. Finer bracelets work well on the jewellery trees or the coat hanger versions, like the necklaces.
Declutter, purge and sort first
When you’re deciding what you’re going to do with your jewellery, I recommend that you get all of your jewellery out and sort them into categories. It will depend on the type of jewellery you wear, and what you wear it for. For a ‘basic’ sort, just into types is fine. Earrings together, bracelets together. Necklaces together and so on. If you are an accessories queen, then you might need to break it down a bit more. Or, if you have personalities or purposes for jewellery, then you might need to break these into categories. What do I mean? Well, I have a lot of clients who bellydance, do burlesque, dress up in styles like ‘Rock-a-billy’ or perform. This jewellery is very different to what they wear day-to-day. So making distinctions between these is important to make life easier when they get dressed up for that bellydance gig or whatever. I do bellydance, so the video shows this.
Or, you might like to colour sort. Gold, silvers, reds, greens… Essentially, consider how you choose your accessories each day, and this will give you a clue on how to group items. Once you’ve grouped the categories you then have the option to go through and cull out what you don’t love and wear. It will make choosing what to wear a lot easier if you have fewer pieces. It also gives you an idea of how much of everything you have and what type of storage solution you’ll need.
I’m an advocate of knowing what you have first, before purchasing any storage solutions. When you know, you can then research the best storage solution for your jewellery. In the meantime, just use what you have around the house first. Shoe boxes or similar will do for now. You could use little containers without lids in a drawer to show the categories you’ve split them into for an easy find.
Bonus Tip – no more piles of jewellery around the place
If you wear jewellery, then you probably have this issue! You get home, take off your jewellery and dump it somewhere to ‘put it away later’. That’s cool. Just pop a little bowl there to collect that jewellery. Once it’s full, then you have a reminder to bring it to your jewellery storage spot and put them back. I personally only ever take it off in my bedroom and have a little bowl by the bed. I put things away about once a week.
Have fun with your jewellery organising and decluttering. If you need a complete wardrobe overhaul, see my earlier post Organising Your Wardrobe to Serve You!
