Organizing your Baubles!

Jewelry and organizing are two of my favorite things, so I was in heaven working with a client (and very dear friend) in the Santa Barbara area last week. She is combining items from a few households, trying to figure out what to keep and what to purge in every category, including her clothes, bathroom items, and linens, just to name a few. It’s a major project, to say the least! On one particular day, we decided to tackle her fashion jewelry collection.

She had most of her costume jewelry stored in baggies, with some in boxes or little drawers. But due to the move, they were stored all over the house (including under the bed in the guest room), so she wasn’t able to use her jewelry effectively. The first thing I did, after locating all of it, was sort it out by category — bracelets, rings, necklaces, etc. I set them all out on the bed and a folding table, so we could go over each piece, one by one.

sorting jewelry

Phase one...sorting
phase one…sorting

Next, we took each item out to see if it was a keeper or not. Some of the dated gold and silver pieces we set aside to sell for the metal. She’s going to make some major cash selling all this!

gold & silver to sell
gold & silver to sell

We also filled up a whole shopping bag of jewelry to be donated to a local women’s shelter.

for donation
for donation

We were very excited to find some surprises as well, such as a couple diamond necklaces that had been misplaced and a few family heirloom pieces. All of these were tucked away neatly into her safe. With what was left, we then split it all up into what she wanted available to her now (spring/summer jewelry and year-round jewelry) and what would be stored away for the fall/winter season. All the pieces for the next season were stored in individual plastic baggies, so she could easily see what she has. I advised her that when it comes time to switch out her wardrobe for fall, that she should just switch out her jewelry as well.

items to be out for use now
items to be out for use now

fall/winter items to be stored for now
fall/winter items to be stored for now

Now came a hard decision…where were we going to store and display everything? There certainly didn’t seem like there was much room available! We took a close look at this bank of drawers in her closet, which housed mainly lingerie, socks, and some swim wear. With a little weeding and reorganization, we cleared out all the drawers and now had a great space for her jewelry! Plus, the drawers were nice and shallow, which was perfect. As an added bonus, her scarves were folded above this bank of drawers, which would make it very easy to coordinate when accessorizing her outfits.

the future home for her jewelry
the future home for her jewelry

With a couple trips to Bed, Bath and Beyond for acrylic storage containers, we were all set to go!

5 drawers of fabulous-ness!
5 drawers of fabulous-ness!

necklaces were separated by color
necklaces were separated by color

IMG_4954

bracelet heaven!
bracelet heaven!

We were both so thrilled with the finished project! Now she knows what she has and where it is, so she can really start wearing her jewels on a regular basis. I think this is a key to all organization — you need to be able to see your things, from clothes to kitchen items. If it’s out of sight, it’s not likely to be used. Keep only what you love and what you use, and find new homes for the rest. I hope this project inspires you to do some purging and reorganizing in your space as well. Have fun!

4 thoughts on “Organizing your Baubles!”

  1. Hello and I have been doing this for years and years now! If you were to take all of her jewelry you have shown here and 10 times it, then you would have mine! LOL Took me 5 years to sort it all out, go through it, and organize, but since I am an antique dealer, most of mine were a lot more tedious. I replaced stones, cleaned, polished, and fixed anything that was repairable and the rest I sold as “broken bulk lots” … Therefore, I stated all of that to get to this valid point, and that is, I KNOW what kind of long, tiresome and lengthy work goes into what you have done here. However, the end results makes it all the more worthwhile! Job Well Done Ladies!!! :o)

    1. Wow, Julie, you must have an AWESOME collection!! I love how you carefully have taken care of your collection as well. Thanks for the comment! 🙂

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