Creative Jewelry Organizing - Earrings in Dish

Is your jewelry collection a tangled mess? Are you always searching for the missing piece you want? You can buy a jewelry organizer of course, but you might already have storage options for these accessories around your home! Here are some creative jewelry organizing ideas to bring order to your jewelry ….

To begin making sense of disordered jewelry, gather all your jewelry from around the home if it’s spread out in different locations. After 20 years as a professional organizer, I’ve noticed that many people keep their jewelry in several locations throughout the home:

  • The bathroom counter
  • Tops of dressers
  • In some kind of storage box
  • In the closet
  • Near where they use the computer
  • Strewn about the home

The sprawl of jewelry throughout the home is a clue telling us that multiple systems may be warranted to make sense of the tangled chains and orphaned earrings….

First, lay out all your pieces. I recommend you make your bed, lay down a white sheet or blanket, and use that vast area as your work surface.

Separate by Type

Then, sort your jewelry into various sections on your work surface. In my collection, I have the following types of personal ornaments:

  • Earrings
  • Bracelets
  • Necklaces
  • Brooches & pins
  • Rings
  • Watches

For clients who have a lot of fine jewelry, I recommend separating it from the costume jewelry. (I just have costume; so that makes things easier!) Depending on the value of the fine jewelry, you may want to seek an appraisal and ensure that you have enough homeowner’s insurance to cover it if lost. Storing it in a locked safe – or even a safety deposit box – may make the most sense. However, when you keep your jewelry locked up or offsite, you are FAR less likely to use it.

Creative Jewelry Organizing - Brooches

Thin down to your faves

Once you can SEE all of your jewelry, you will naturally be in a better position to cull out the pieces you don’t like or wear. It’s much easier to let go of an outdated necklace once you see that you have 30 others!

Here are some offloading options for jewelry:

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  • Give to a friend or family member
  • Take to consignment
  • Sell online – local swaps can be good sources
  • Donate to charity
  • Give to a crafty friend

Cull your pieces down to what you love and wear, and then you can figure out a system to store each kind.

“Wardrobe” your jewelry

Creative Jewelry Organizing - Cases

Lots of people have jewelry boxes, but often they experience the “creep” of chains and rings and bracelets outside those containers. This overflow usually indicates that it’s time to add more storage! This photo is of my friend’s lovely collection of jewelry boxes. She has so much jewelry, she needs a village of boxes!

Instead of just storing in boxes, you can “wardrobe” your jewelry by organizing them in mini-chests – just like you would clothes!

Jewelry chests and armoires can be small in size, or full-sized furniture! They come in a variety of styles:

  • Freestanding chest – whether diminutive or super-sized, a modular style offers you the most flexibility
  • Within a floor mirror – I used to have an angled free-standing mirror that opened to a jewelry armoire
  • Door/wall hanging armoire – I recently bought two of these for a client and we hung them on the back of her closet double doors

Create a jewelry vanity

Creative Jewelry Organizing - Vanity

Pictured here is one of my favorite features in my home – my vintage vanity that I use for jewelry organizing. When I was a little girl, I played with this classic 40’s vanity at our family cabin. I couldn’t bear the thought of it being discarded when my parents vacated the cabin a few years ago, so they kindly brought this delicate treasure thousands of miles home to me!

I originally thought I might use the vanity for makeup, but applying makeup near the sink won out over this idea. As I set it up in my bedroom, I realized I could use it for my jewelry, which was formerly in another room. I went about creating unique vertical solutions for each type of jewelry.

On this lovely vanity, I store everything (except my necklaces) in various ways. Read on to find out the wild solution I came up with for all my necklaces!

You could also use a table or counter as your jewelry vanity. Please tag us on Facebook if you take on this fun project – you will be surprised how fun it is and how lovely the outcome!

Store Visually

Creative Jewelry Organizing - Display Gate

None of the armoires I found in were long enough to store my lengthier necklaces, so I decided to repurpose an old garden gate! I simply lean the gate along a wall in my closet. As you can see, I store my belts and hair flowers on this gate, too.

I enjoy architectural pieces and vintage salvage, so this was a great (and free!) solution for me.

You might love or hate this idea, but the key is the find a solution that works for YOUR pieces. And this is evidence that you can think WAY outside the jewelry box!

The fact is: 85% of us are visual and if we don’t see something, we simply don’t use it. So, I store my jewelry  – and all my accessories, actually – visually. Meaning, I do NOT put away any of my jewelry. I don’t store them in boxes with lids or hidden behind doors.

By storing my jewelry visually, I can easily identify what I want to wear and it’s easy to put items back within their type.

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(For those of you who are intrigued by my “closet ROOM,” you can tour the space here on our RO YouTube channel.)

“Merchandise” your jewelry

Creative Jewelry Organizing - Bracelets

Pictured here is my bracelet rack, made by my husband Trevor. I found these took up too much room stored in a tray, and I wanted to see and enjoy them.

The aesthetic and kinesthetic part of organizing – making things beautiful and touchable – is often overlooked in favor of utility. By storing my jewelry visually and beautifully, I have essentially treated them like art.

In stores, items are displayed attractively to incent shoppers to acquire the goods. Artfully displaying your jewelry is like “merchandising” that retailers do to show their goods off to their best advantage.

Taking the time to merchandise your jewelry pays off each day as you use and enjoy your collection. I’ve also found that storing them beautifully encourages maintenance.

I store each type of jewelry in various vessels:

Creative Jewelry Organizing - Vickis Jewelry
  • My vintage watches are on a lovely Paris-themed tray
  • My brooches & pins and post earrings are layed out as sparkly eye-candy on fine china saucers.
  • My rings nest inside a china ring holder.
  • My dangly earrings live on a bird-themed earring tree.
  • Longer earrings are stored on a chicken wire frame that leans against the vanity mirror.
  • Nestled at the back is the hand-made bracelet rack.

Layering these vintage and salvage elements gives texture and interest to this artful collection.

I hope these jewelry organizing ideas have inspired you to be intentional with your jewelry. Organizing your assortment creatively will further enhance your enjoyment.

Tag us on Facebook @Vicki Norris Restoring Order with YOUR creative jewelry organizing ideas!

Related:

4 Creative Ways to Organize Jewelry

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