Jewelry Organization

If I had to name just one thing that makes living in a small home workable, that would be ORGANIZATION!

You absolutely must be organized if you are going to live WELL in a small space. If two things get out of place the house can feel like a disaster.

Sometimes you have to get creative with your storage and organization. For instance, my coat closet was turned into a pantry and my foil/plastic wrap/baggie storage is just inside my utility closet. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.

So, for a year I struggled with my jewelry!

I LOVE jewelry!!

Mostly costume jewelry…lots of bold and beautiful costume jewelry. My best friend says I’m quickly morphing into Maxine! :)

But whatever! I like Maxine. LOL

I use to have small drawers in my old dresser where I kept my jewelry for years. But that furniture was too big to bring to my new, small, house. So, I had to sell it…and away went my nifty little drawers.

When I got new furniture, the dresser didn’t have those little drawers.

And a jewelry armoire was definitely out of the question due to the space limits.

Found on Home Decorators

I bought jewelry bags to hang in the closet. They work great for earrings and even ok for bracelets. But my necklaces got all tangled and were hard to see.

Found at Bed, Bath and Beyond

I considered hooks on the backside of my closet. But I would have had to move my clothes out of the way all the time, plus I could see my clothes pushing pieces off of their hooks or hooks snagging my clothes…so, that was no good.

Then one day, I finally came up with a way to see all my jewelry and to still be able to get to it easily and not have it tangle!

My system isn’t necessarily pretty.

Well, actually that’s not completely true. I think it’s quite beautiful with all these gorgeous necklaces just hanging there as their own art. But I guess I should say, it’s not been gussied up…nothing to dress up this area…just the jewelry itself.

I guess I could have added molding, like a picture frame. Or I could have painted a big square some pretty color where the jewelry lays. But I’m ok with this. It’s not seen by anyone by me anyway.

I used plain old white cup hooks that I measured out every couple inches and leveled them and then occasionally filled in blank spaces for bracelets. I still have room to add to if I need to. But most importantly…it’s out of the way and easily accessible!

Wanna know where this is?

I put my jewelry on the back of my bedroom door!

It’s not glamorous…but it’s totally and completely FUNCTIONAL…with a tinge of simplistic beauty.

This has been one of the best things I’ve done. I’ve been using this ‘system’ for a couple months now and it’s worked out fabulously!

The only downside is, the jewelry clinks when you open and close the door. Some thin padding covered in pretty fabric would quiet that I’m sure. Or heck, even just some fabric framed out with molding would quiet the clink effect. But for me, this is fine. The only time my door gets shut is when I’m looking at my jewelry. We never close doors in my house. :)

But if glamour is more your style, then you should visit Courtney over at Scraps and Scribbles.

She whipped up some fantastic jewelry holders during the “Great Jewelry Organization of 2010” as she calls it.

And in case that doesn’t give you enough inspiration and motivation to get your jewelry organized, here are a few more examples from Better Homes and Gardens (or at least I THINK that’s where I got these! Don’t you hate when you forget to copy the link and just save the picture. SHOOT!)

And this one which I think is quite stunning!

And this vintage looking display.

If you have any jewelry organizers you’ve made or even purchased, post a comment with a link to this post…I’d love to see them and maybe you'll give someone else some great ideas too! :)

Until next time….