Surely I'm not the first person with this problem
September 5, 2011 3:29 PM   Subscribe

Help me come up with a storage mechanism for my jewelry.

I wear a lot of earrings, a lot of bracelets, a few rings, and occasionally a necklace or two. I've yet to come up with a way to store all of my jewelry in such a way that:

a. They don't become hopelessly tangled together after a day or two
b. Allows me to see everything I own with relative ease so I can pick something out that goes with my outfit without spending a lot of time pawing through a drawer
c. Can preferably be closed up and tucked away.

My earrings and necklaces especially have a tendency of automagically turning into a giant Gordian knot. I like the idea of necklace trees that allow you to hang your necklaces from a succession of hooks, but my bathroom is tiny and my dresser is non-existent, so I don't know where I would really put that stuff. My kitchen counter?

I've thought about putting individual pieces inside of small jewelers ziploc bags, but I don't have a whole lot of faith in my resilience in putting stuff back into said bags at the end of the day. But if that is what it'll take, I will absolutely do it. (That has the benefit of me being able to toss all of it into a big decorative box and sticking it somewhere unobtrusive.)

Most jewelry boxes I've seen in stores seem really impractical. They have maybe 2-3 compartments that seem like they'd only be good for storing 5-6 rings and a couple of bracelets at most.

I'm pretty good with DIY and I'm a little bit on the over-organized side, and I would welcome any and all suggestions you might have.
posted by Phire to Home & Garden (26 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
If you don't have good counter space, then how about a hanging jewelry organizer? The container store has a several: 1 2 3 4, and amazon has a bunch.
posted by brainmouse at 3:36 PM on September 5, 2011


A friend got a wall mount necklace tree off etsy that she loves. How's your bathroom fixed for wall space?
posted by mollymayhem at 3:37 PM on September 5, 2011


Best answer: I have a jewelry armoire. In the past, I've also used a corkboard with pushpins that worked pretty well.
posted by raisingsand at 3:37 PM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


Doesn't help your requirement of putting stuff away but I put up a cork board and hang all my dangly earrings and necklaces on push pins. Post earrings live in a jewelry box. This has worked reasonably well but doesn't put stuff out of sight and doesn't help prevent tarnish on silver so will be interested to see what others come up with.
posted by leslies at 3:38 PM on September 5, 2011


Best answer: I'm partial to those boxes they have in hardware stores that are divided into multiple little sections. They're used for nails and such, and for fishing gear. Quite inexpensive.
posted by mareli at 3:41 PM on September 5, 2011


Best answer: I also wear a lot of earrings, and have this in white for most of my earrings, and something similar to this for my really long dangly earrings. The first one will hold a LOT of earrings (at least 50 or 60 pairs, as I recall) and doesn't take up a lot of space.

If hidden away is the most important consideration, my old solution was stacked ice cube trays in a dresser drawer. You could probably find ice cube trays at a dollar store for cheap.

For DIY, if you have wall space, you could nail window screening to a picture frame and hang your earrings on the screen. It'd be a bigger pain to put post earrings away, though; it's a better solution if you have a lot of french hook style earrings.
posted by booksherpa at 3:44 PM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


This post made me actually sad that I don't have a lot of jewelry. I love the idea with the frames.
posted by pishposh at 3:45 PM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: The cork board idea has promise, as does the hardware box idea.

Re: Wall mounts and such - it's hard to articulate just how tiny my place is. It's a bathroom the size of a closet (where the wallspace is taken up by a towel rack, a mirror, and my bathtub), a kitchen the size of a small bathroom, and a main that's probably around 150 sq ft. So I'm a big fan of boxes.

On preview: icecube trays! Amazing!
posted by Phire at 3:46 PM on September 5, 2011


Like booksherpa mentions, I made an earring holder out of window screen and a frame. Here's a link that details how to do it.

I have a ton of big dangly earrings, so it works well for me. You can't tuck it away, but it can hang flat against a wall and it is very easy to see all of your options in one place.
posted by rachaelfaith at 3:49 PM on September 5, 2011


Don't have a lot of room? Use one of these. I only recently started wearing earrings again, and realized I didn't have any sort of storage option for them. I also really don't have money to spend on jewelry organizers. But I do have one of those mail sorters from an old desk organizer kit! I stick my earrings on the back wall of it (works for dangly, hoops, and studs) and stick papers and stuff in the slots. It's a great multi-tasker. Not the prettiest thing, mind you, but it takes 0% more space to store my earrings, since I'd be using the little organizer doodad anyway.
posted by phunniemee at 3:57 PM on September 5, 2011


Another thing I've done is to hang my earrings around the top of a regular old fashioned lampshade that's on a lamp by my bed.
posted by mareli at 3:59 PM on September 5, 2011


Seconding Mareli's suggestion...I have two tackle boxes -- one large that can hold everything I own and a smaller one that I take traveling, and also tends to hold what I wear day-to-day. Not that I would care, but no one ever seems to recognize my travel box for what it really was sold as. Has worked great for me for 10 years....
posted by Tandem Affinity at 4:16 PM on September 5, 2011




Best answer: I have the same issue and I have been looking at buying one of these (or something similar - I've seen lots of versions). I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
posted by flex at 4:47 PM on September 5, 2011


Best answer: I have tons of earrings. This is the kind of thing I use to store them all. I have two and they save my sanity every morning. My fine necklaces are kept in there too. I use a pretty ceramic bowl from Goodwill for bracelets and another one for rings. My chunky necklaces are hung over the corners of my bedroom mirror. (Geez, I sound so organized! Hahaha!)
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:15 PM on September 5, 2011


Best answer: I bought this and put it on my bathroom wall, where it makes a nice decoration and keeps everything organized. It was way cheaper than most wall organizers I saw for sale, and I've been really happy with it so far--it holds a ton of stuff.
posted by Fuego at 6:35 PM on September 5, 2011


This won't help with the earrings, but there may be some useful help on the rest.
posted by dogmom at 6:37 PM on September 5, 2011


A cheap alternative to ice cub trays is egg carton lids. Very handy!
posted by olinerd at 6:38 PM on September 5, 2011


French hook earrings are easy: take a piece of chain with open links ~1/4" or larger (maybe an old chain belt or necklace), and hang it somewhere. Horizontally on the wall or back of a door is nice, but vertically would do, and it could even hang from the ceiling. Hook each pair of earrings into an open link. Simple, cheap, tiny, and pleasing to look at.
posted by Corvid at 7:11 PM on September 5, 2011


I had nails on my bathroom wall adjacent to my sink for necklaces. That, plus open link chain for earrings above should get you sorted. You could always cover them with a scarf or painting.
posted by Heart_on_Sleeve at 8:37 PM on September 5, 2011


I use a craft paper orgaizer that I bought at Costco. 15 slim drawers, it holds little plastic organizers inside the drawers.
posted by jennstra at 9:43 PM on September 5, 2011


I hang my necklaces and bracelets on a tie hanger. Very inexpensive, and it's hidden in my closet instead of sitting out on a dresser or table.
posted by neushoorn at 12:00 AM on September 6, 2011


Best answer: I use this Muji box. It's got little compartments that fit pretty much everything (and some are different sized for bigger objects). The top does flip but both the trays slide out so you can stack them as well.
posted by like_neon at 5:38 AM on September 6, 2011


Response by poster: You people are amazing. I will explore these options and find one that my budget can stand. Thank you so much!

Hurray!
posted by Phire at 12:19 PM on September 6, 2011


I use this one from Etsy. I adore it. You can roll it all up and put it in the bag that it comes with, if you're going somewhere.

So simple, but perfect and beautiful!
posted by pyjammy at 1:50 PM on September 6, 2011


Orange Swan made a beautiful jewellery storage box out of a silverware chest.
posted by deborah at 9:09 PM on September 7, 2011


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