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5 Simple Steps: for Organizing your Fashion Jewelry
By Joan Lefkowitz, of ACCESSORY BRAINSTORMS, NYC
Fashion jewelry, for most women, is like coffee and chocolate: it perks up our wardrobe and stimulates our senses. Jewelry shows off our personal standard of fashion savvy, and just like chocolate, the more we have of it, the happier we are.
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The problem with accumulating an abundant collection of fashion jewelry is in assorting and organizing it to be ready to wear at a moment’s notice. How, then, do we manage all of these pieces without them constantly knotting into tangled piles? Here are 5 simple steps to get your fashion jewelry from mess to managed.
1. PICK n’ Pile
Begin by spreading a cloth onto a large table and piling your jewelry on the surface. Relax and have a good time with it, make it a game. The fun challenge will see you through the task.
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2. DIVIDE and CONQUER
Separate all necklaces, necklace sets, earrings, brooches, bracelets and rings from one another into individual categories. Place the items in piles in separate rows, making sure that they don’t tangle or catch onto one another. Seeing everything in neat division is the first accomplishment, you have just done the difficult part.
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3. SORT' em
This is the “ready to wear” step of the process. Categorize your jewelry as you might categorize your looks – day; sport; evening; dinner or party. Assort each category by color, material and metal, and use baggies and labels to keep them organized. Mark special pieces for particular outfits, such as, ‘for black one shoulder evening gown’ or ‘goes with pastels.’
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4. FIXITS
Create a separate category for “Jewelry Problem Solvers” – extra earring backs, fashion tapes, earlobe patches, and bracelet closure aids. Polishing cloths, jewelry cleaners, adhesives and tools should also be included in this category. These are good adjuncts to have in your collection to keep your jewelry clean, attractive and usable. If you don’t have these items you can easily get them online or at an arts and crafts store.
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5. DIVEST the REST
Dispose of loose beads and broken parts that you will never fix. Now go through your newly assorted jewelry and remove any items that you no longer like or will never use again. Rather than throwing them away, you might want to offer them to friends and family. The best pieces can be donated to charity or given to a consignment shop. Or give them to a school to repurpose for arts and crafts projects.
Now that you have done the hard part of preparing and pruning your fashion jewelry, you get to have the fun of choosing your jewelry storage organizers. There is a large selection of storage options out there but how do you decide which one is the best for you?
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Copyright © Joan Lefkowitz. All Rights Reserved
Joan Lefkowitz is president of ACCESSORY BRAINSTORMS, NYC, a licensing agency and consultancy for Fashion/Beauty Accessory and Lifestyle Inventions. ACCESSORIES Magazine awarded Joan for “Most Inventive Products” and cited her as one of the 100 most important accessories industry “Movers and Shakers”. She was an original marketer of TopsyTail™, the first hair accessory ever to appear on DRTV, which sold over $100 million.
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