RamonaCreel.com

A disordered jewelry drawer is not only annoying, it can actually cost you money — as your valuable fashion accessories become scratched and damaged, all jumbled together in a pile. Protect your investment and make your morning getting-ready easier with these organizing tips.

Easy-Access Jewelry

No matter how much you try to mix it up, you still probably have certain accessories that you wear pretty much every day of your life. It might be the watch you can’t live without, a simple pair of earrings that go with anything, a favorite necklace you’ve had for years, or your wedding ring. These treasures need a home when you take them off, but not mixed in with your other jewelry — set up a dedicated organizer either on your vanity/dresser, your bathroom counter, or in a top drawer where you can easily access it.

Grouping By Color Or Style

Most folks like to separate earrings from bracelets, rings from pins. Some keep all jewelry of a certain style (like pearls vs. rhinestones or vintage vs. modern) together — still others segregate their collection by color. There’s also the school of thought that says costume pieces should live in one organizer, fancy stuff in another. Believe me when I say it’s truly dealer’s choice, here. (Go nuts and create a system incorporating ALL these ideas, if you want!) There’s no right or wrong – only what works for you.

Keeping Sets Together

I’ve met folks who consider it a cardinal sin to break up a set of matching jewelry — but not structuring your organizational system to reflect how you use those pieces is a bigger crime in my mind! If you only ever wear certain pieces together, store ‘em all in the same section of your tray — if you treat each component as its own entity (mixing and matching with other jewelry), you might want to let them flock with other birds of a feather (earrings from that set with the earrings, necklace with the necklaces).

Separating Special-Occasion Items

Some jewelry only sees the light of day on very special occasions — holidays, big-time dress-up events, cosplay, that sort of thing. Rather than cluttering up your everyday storage with a lot of stuff you wear once or twice a year, set up a separate organizer tray for each category — then find appropriate homes for them elsewhere. (For example, you might consider keeping holiday jewelry with your decorations for that time of year — or tucking spendy valuables away in a household safe or a safety deposit box.)

Earrings On Dispaly

While separating out pairs of post earrings in a sectional organizer is certainly better than tossing them loose in your dresser, I’ll go you one better. Buy some 1/2” to 1” sheets of foam at your local craft supply store, and cut them to fit each segment of your drawer tray. Voila! You can now organize your earrings sunny side up — just poke the stems into the foam, and you’ll be able to see every pair you own with one quick glance! It’s a little more up-front work, but well worth the effort in the long run.

Avoiding Tangles

How is it that chains (especially the fine-link kind) get so tangled and knotted when stored away?? (I think they play “Twister” in your drawer when you’re sleeping.) Fortunately, I’ve got a quick hack for you. Instead wasting space with a million tiny square drawer tray segments, create a long section in your organizer for these troublemakers. Thread each side of your chain through a plastic straw (the kind you get at a fast food restaurant), and secure the clasp. No there’s no way for knots or tangles to occur!

Rings And Things

When rings are jumbled in together, your jewelry stands a pretty good chance of getting scratched. (It’s also nigh-on-to-impossible to find the one you want when you want it!) But finger embellishment order is easily achieved, with the right tools. Just cut a few 1/2″ to 1” foam sheets (either the styro kind or dense squishy foam) to fit your organizer sections — then use a razor to slice a thin slit in the top for each ring. Slide your band into that slit, and your accessories are beautifully displayed as well as organized!

Extra Accessories

There’s nothing more frustrating than donning your favorite accessories — only to discover that you can’t wear them for some reason. That’s why it’s never a bad idea to set aside a few organizer tray sections for “extras.” I’m talking about those little necessaries that make your jewelry work, but that have a tendency to disappear — earring backs, necklace extenders, ring sizers, maybe even a small repair kit and bottle of jewelry cleaner. (This also rescues related paraphernalia from getting lost in a junk drawer!)

Making Use Of Deep Drawers

Unfortunately, most dresser/vanity/bathroom drawers where you would logically keep jewelry are too darned cavernous to do the job right. (And if you move into a dresser or nightstand, you’re asking for double trouble!) Rather than putting everything a deeper box (which forces you to dig through layers piled on top of more layers), try layering segmented drawer trays — one on top of the other. These little beauties instantly maximize the available space, while keeping your collection manageably subdivided.

If You Don’t Have Enough Drawers

What if you’re running short on drawer space to begin with? That’s when you want to look around for other accessory storage options — like on a shelf in your closet or in an armoire. “Store my jewelry on a shelf? What, just loose in a shoebox or something? Are you crazy???” Absolutely not — the goal is to mirror that same system you’d have had in a drawer. Simply place a smaller freestanding “cabinet” shelving unit on the larger shelf, and put one jewelry tray on each for easy access. Who needs drawers?!