Fifty Two Shades of Shay: Organizing &amp; Storing your Jewelry

And today's Shade of Shay...organizing and storing that wonderful jewelry of yours!

You know how I love my jewelry, right? I love my bangles and my big earrings...I love to wear all of it at once. But what do I do with it when I take it all off? I store it carefully. The thing about jewelry is that it's fabulous, fun and the best way to make any old tee shirt and jeans shine...but if it's a big tangled mess in some jewelry box, you might as well throw it out.

About two years ago, I decided enough already. I was so tired of reaching for an earring only to find one of the two. I was tired of grabbing a necklace only to see that it was caught and twisted around 4 other necklaces. And I was tired of wearing the same 3 bangles every day because I couldn't really see or get to all of mine, and so I just wore the same ones over and over again.

One day, I dumped all of my jewelry out on my bedroom floor. All of it. I sorted it, threw away what was broken, divided it into piles (gold bracelets, silver bracelets, necklaces, earrings, watches, rings and very special pieces from my family). I looked at what I had left there on my bedroom floor, wrote down a few notes and then went to The Container Store for some solutions to my jewelry madness. And this is what I came up with...

1. First and foremost, I took all of my very special family jewelry that I don't wear but need to keep forever and placed it somewhere safe (not pictured). I didn't want that being confused with my fun costume jewelry any longer, and I especially didn't want it damaged.

2. Next, I tacked my earrings....

These are all of my earrings, each in their own little sandwich bag inside a plastic box with lid.

See :)

Each pair is inside the bag and placed in the box. This way in the morning, I can just look through the box, find a pair for the day and go. I always have two of each pair, they're not damaged and they're really easy to look through since they're all laying on top of each other in the box. Plus, since they're in the plastic box with a lid, I can stick that box in any convenient spot I have in my bathroom (and not just in a jewelry box). My plastic box is inside a drawer that houses my hairdryer, flat iron, hair brush, etc. My earrings are safe and protected and valuable jewelry box space isn't used up.

3. I took the exact same approach with my necklaces. I found a bigger box with a lid and placed each of my necklaces in a sandwich bag inside. Every necklace is safe and protected and most importantly, not getting tangled up with other necklaces. I can just look through the box each morning to find one that suits me for the day. I know some people hang their necklaces, but I don't have wall space for that. I like to just close this up and stick it under my bathroom counter. Easy.

My necklaces. Because the baggies are clear, they're a cinch to look through and find the perfect necklace for the day.

My gorgeous Bauble Bar necklace is safe and sound.

4. And then of course, there are my bracelets. I love my bracelets. I have so many bracelets that I divide mine up into two categories, gold and silver. If you don't have as many bracelets, then you only need one box...but for me, I need two.

I found a great compartment box at the Container Store and use that for my bracelets. Every morning, I just open up a box, pick a few bracelets (or maybe 9), load up my wrist and go. By using the compartment boxes, I'm able to see the bracelets at one time and then really decide how I want to mix and match them for the day.

These are my gold bracelets :)

And my silver bracelets (I wear much more gold than silver).

5. And for watches and rings, I decided to get one good jewelry box from Pottery Barn and go from there...

This is just your basic old jewelry box but I only keep watches and rings inside (and a few bracelets that I tend to wear every single day with my other bracelets from the bracelet box).

Inside on the first level.

And down below on the second level.

I'm not going to lie...piling on my jewelry has been so much simpler (and faster!) now that I have a good storage system in place. Plus, I really feel like I'm wearing more of the jewelry and getting my money's worth now that I can easily access everything.

And don't forget, this week, I'm doing a Stella & Dot giveaway! Talk about fabulous jewelry! Click here for more details and to enter to win my big prize!

Thanks for stopping by to see how I store all of my jewelry! I bet some of you just assumed I slept in it and never took it off :).

And today over on Sheaffer's blog is her

Shopping with Sheaffer and Shay: Back To School Edition!

I showed you my post about shopping for girls clothes and today, Sheaffer is showing you boy clothes. You must go check it out!!