Ready to refresh your look for the upcoming season?
It’s a project I’d been avoiding for years. A deep dive into organizing my jewelry box seemed like diving into a hornet’s nest. Clearly, I needed a method that was respectful of my jewelry as well as my feelings, past and present, about my pieces. Once you know the way, it is much more manageable and even, yes, empowering.
Here are three lessons I learned that might help you organize your jewelry box.
You’re not just organizing, you’re going deeper: sorting out which of your pieces resonates with you now. You’ll be aligning your collection with your current life. You’ll fine this clarification is helpful to you in many ways.
For example, my own style has been shifting toward artisan jewelry like the pieces I make: handmade pieces with solid gold and silver and natural stones. Now I prefer to buy fewer but better quality pieces (buy less/ buy better). And those are the pieces I prefer to wear now.
This means I have many still serviceable pieces are not quite right for me any longer. For them, I am stepping into a Steward role. When the time comes that you no longer wear a piece, your role as steward is to make sure that it moves on to its next stage of life. Someone out there needs that piece, and that piece wants to serve.
Uncertainty and guilt are your obstacles, along with discomfort about leave-taking. There is a way to work through those emotions that will leave you feeling good about your decisions, and that is blessing of its own. So helpful: my “Meditation for Seeking Clarity.” Find it in my article Lost in Your Jewelry Box?
Lesson 1: Organize Your Jewelry and Curate Your Style
Not every piece needs to stay or go immediately—having a system for those in-process items can be a game changer.
“Keepsakes” box: Handy for storing items that you know you want to keep forever. They are now mementos so they no longer live in your jewelry box.
“Release” box: For collecting items that are ready to move to their next destination, a certain person or a charity, for example (keep reading for suggestions).
“Review in 6 Months” box: Good for those items awaiting more clarity.
Supplemental boxes offer a practical way to manage indecision and allow time for reconsideration, while getting other pieces on their way to brightening someone else’s life.
Lesson 2: Jewelry Box Makeover with Backup Boxes
It is inevitable that some pieces will no longer fit your style or needs, but they can be treasures for someone else. You can make a big impact by donating those items to organizations that specifically need costume jewelry. (Stewardship of fine jewelry is a topic for another day.)
Here are two of my favorite organizations for jewelry donation. Both are 501(c) (3) organizations and so your donations are tax deductible:
- Dress for Success, where your jewelry can help support women and men in the job market to build professional wardrobes. I have personally donated to Dress for Success for over 25 years and have seen the incredible impact contributions can make.
- Chemocessories prepares accessory kits for women enduring treatment for breast cancer to ease the effects of hair loss and lift spirits. I know firsthand how meaningful this type of care can be from my own breast cancer treatment. A true kindness.
Image credit: Dress for Success. We can help: She needs a necklace!
Lesson 3: Your Jewelry’s Next Life Is In Your Hands. Where to Donate Jewelry?
When you ensure the continued enjoyment of your pieces through an act of kindness to others, you will unlock another fulfilling dimension of your jewelry collecting available to you, one beyond your own wearing of it. This is the dignity of generosity that is a treasure of its own and one that you can enjoy forever.
Ultimately I learned that engaging fully with my jewelry collection brings empowerment. A jewelry collection is naturally dynamic. The collection will change through our lifetime; we need not fear those changes but rather can embrace them. Our personally selected small objects of beauty can bring continuous joy, first in our own jewelry boxes and then in the wider world.
Breast Cancer Support through Accessory Kits by Chemocessories. Image Credit: Chemocessories
Jewelry For A Cause
In conclusion: jewelry is not “clutter!” Keepsakes and unworn jewelry simply need to be moved along to their appropriate destinations. What remains will be your curated collection, a source of joy and inspiration every day.
If you found this guide helpful, please share it with your friends and family!
For a detailed walk through the process, with guides at every turning point, read my full guide ‘Lost In Your Jewelry Box?’ here.
