Jewelry Organization...

A local message board that I am on had asked a question about jewelry and what pieces I consider to be staples.  This is a HUGE topic, which will likely need to be broken down into several posts.  This first one is on jewelry organization.


I have a LOT of jewelry. Seriously, I have drawers of it. It is like a schizophrenic jewelry collection from a Bollywood starlet, a preppy suburbanite and a wannabe bohemian. For all those would-be jewel thieves out there, let me preface this post with the fact that I have very little actually valuable stuff (except for my engagement/wedding rings which I don't take off - so ha!), just a lot of sentimental pieces, like my first set of earrings from my husband from when we were dating and costume jewelry from my mom and TONS of everyday stuff I bought at Target, H&M and Charlotte Russe (I may be too old to wear the clothes from CR, but their accessories are great).

I was inspired by GingerSnap's post about getting her jewelry organized and decided to take the mess of jewelry in my bedroom and properly sort things out.

First item on the agenda: Find something to put the jewelry in. Our dresser has spaces in the top drawers that are velvet lined and useful for storing jewelry, but not practical for earrings and bracelets. GingerSnap used the Emmett Jewelry Dresser from Pottery Barn, which was an option, but I was wanting to have something that was easy to just look at everything at once so that my usual getting ready for work in 5 minutes doesn't get effected.

I saw another option at Anthropologie - this ceramic egg carton, as featured on Young House Love and these cute jewelry necklace trees from Urban Outfitters.

I had thought about using ice cube trays, a la Real Simple Magazine.

I finally decided to stop by local Bed, Bath and Beyond and see what my stash of 20% coupons could get me. I also couldn't help stopping by Urban Outfitters for a necklace tree.
A jewelry tour...

About half of my earrings. I have a thing for earrings.



All of my bracelets: My favorite pieces are the sliver and gold bangles from H&M (useful for dressing up for going out and Indian and Nigerian weddings). On the far right are bangles from H&M, Banana Republic and J. Crew.


This is a close-up of the bracelet I won from Chloe (thanks, darling!).



Other favorite pieces (from L to R): hammered gold necklace from White House Black Market, gold link necklace from Target, large fuchsia beaded necklace from Banana Republic, crystal globe necklace and pearl cluster necklaces from Charlotte Russe, capiz shell necklace from Target... I think I tend to wear more necklaces because they don't tend to get in the way of handwashing at work like bracelets and cocktail rings do.


More necklaces (L to R): blue turquoise beaded necklace from Banana Republic, my Bollywood-esque wedding necklace and bracelet from my wedding, silver beaded necklace from Rave, I think, green jade flower necklace from a street fair in NYC, long gold and green chain necklace from Banana, blue bead cluster necklace that I got in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since college, I have collected jewelry when traveling, since it is small and portable and infinitely reusable.

My pearls and pendants and rings and watches and other stuff that I rarely wear.

My next jewelry post will be on the actual organization.  Keep reading...