Peace of Mind Organizing

Organizing my jewelry box in 15 minutes

9 February 2021

Back in 2014, I wrote a blog post about how I revamped the way I organize my small collection of jewelry. You can read all about it in my post Improving my jewelry storage but essentially for the last seven years I’ve been using jewelry stacker cases from The Container Store to store my jewelry in three layers. The jewelry box is on my bureau. My necklaces hang on a tie rack on an adjacent wall.

The top layer, which has a lid, is supposed to contain my more often used jewelry (earrings, rings and brooches). The second layer is to contain my less-used earrings. And the bottom, deeper, layer is for bracelets, along with one or two seldom-worn necklaces that I’m not ready to let go of.

Since the pandemic started, I’ve seldom worn jewelry at all. But the jewelry box, whose lid is typically open, was starting to attract non-jewelry clutter. And the earrings had become a bit scattered, so even if I did want to wear earrings it took a little time to find a pair. To be honest, it was unsightly and annoying.

Here’s a before photo:

I saw that messy box every day and most days I vowed to do something about it. But it felt like it would take at least an hour, and I never set aside the time. But about ten days ago, my Declutter Happy Hour partner, Shannon Wilkinson, asked me to do a 15-minute project and take before and after pictures to promote the class. I thought I’d see how far I could get with my jewelry box in 15 minutes. To my astonishment and delight, I actually finished it!

Here’s the after picture:

I went through the jewelry, separating out earrings without mates and some jewelry that either was broken or I no longer like. I paired up my earrings and stored them in the top layer in little categories that make sense to me. I moved the special-occasion earrings to the middle layer, since I’m not going out to special-occasion events these days. The bottom layer was under control, since I never wear bracelets. I wasn’t ready to let bracelets go, though, because I could see myself wearing them again after life gets back to normal.

I kept the brooches on the top layer, despite the fact I haven’t worn one in ages, because I like looking at my little collection. Most were inherited from my grandmother and they make me happy. I also have some little lapel pins and buttons that I enjoy. So I stored them together in plain sight.

The reason I’m bothering to write this long post is really this message: It’s amazing what you can declutter and organize in 15 minutes! These tiny projects really can make a big difference and are so easy to accomplish. As I’ve done before, I urge you to take a look around and see what tiny organizing project you might tackle. I bet it will make you feel great!

Tagged with: 15 minutes, clean bureau, jewelry, organizing products, tiny projects

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