I’m Getting Organized: Starting with Jewelry!

I love jewelry, especially necklaces and bracelets. Over the past few years, I’ve collected quite a few pieces and even inherited a few pretty things from my mom. We’re not talking expensive stuff here, just fun costume jewelry!

As much as I love my jewelry, I’ve struggled with jewelry organization. There is nothing worse than pulling out my favorite necklace, only to find it tangled with two others.

I decided it was time to get organized!

Check out this mess:

Yikes! Just looking at that stresses me out.

The first step with this jewelry organization project was to clear everything out and do a little dusting. I love a blank slate!

Our apartment is tiny, and the bedroom is long and very narrow. That black rectangle is the back of our headboard. This is the only furniture set-up that works, so in addition to organizing my jewelry, I also wanted to minimize the headboard as much as possible.

Have you ever wondered about the best way to clean a lampshade? Just grab a lint roller! The sticky paper on the roller picks up any dust and makes cleaning the shade a snap.

The next step was to add my jewelry organizers back onto the dresser. I own a number of organizers, so I didn’t need to buy anything new, and I had a large bulletin board that I planned to use for my necklaces.

1. Always add the largest piece first, which in this case is the bulletin board. The board is the perfect piece to hold – and most importantly, show off – all my necklaces.
2. Next, I added my jewelry box, which holds all of my earrings and pins, as well as bracelets and necklaces that either do not get worn often or are too delicate for display. The jewelry box was my moms and needs a little TLC, but that is another project!
3. Since space is at a premium here, I went vertical. The top of the jewelry box was the perfect spot for my bracelet holders. It’s a lot easy to find what I need with all of my bracelets at eye level.
4. Finally, I added a hammered silver tray to hold perfume and sunglasses, as well as an acrylic necklace “tree.”

This set-up was OK, but the placement of the tray and necklace tree was awkward. In the end, I simply swapped them around:

Much more balanced! The tray is no longer hanging off the dresser, and the tree isn’t blocking the bulletin board (more room for necklaces!). I added a little silver bowl to hold lip gloss and watches, too.

Next came the best part: adding the jewelry! I started with the bracelets, and then hung my chain necklaces on the necklace tree.

I had a fun with this and chose two of my favorite pieces – my mom’s charm bracelet and a bold necklace – to put on display. The charm bracelet went on top of the jewelry box where I can see it every day, and I draped the necklace over a lampshade.

My perfume and sunglasses were then organized in the silver tray.

An important part of any organizational project is getting rid of stuff! There really isn’t any point of storing things you no longer use, so be brutally honest with yourself about what you will and will not use. I ended up tossing perfume and jewelry that I don’t wear anymore.

And not everything needs to be on display. My sunglasses with cases all went into a dresser drawer.

I untangled the rest of my necklaces next, separating the long ones from the short ones.

Using clear push pins, I hung the long necklaces on the bulletin board first:

After those were in place, I hung the shorter necklaces.

The end result makes me very happy:

What I love the most about this jewelry organization set-up, is that all of my pretty pieces are visible and easy to find. My husband even has somewhere to store his things – see that ceramic shell on the right?!

Here is one more look at the before and after:

Now I just need to keep it this way!

How do you keep your jewelry organized?

P.S. Check out my favorite organizers for jewelry and accessories!