Budget Jewelry Organization

$10 Jewelry Organizing Hack

As part of getting the house clean and organized, I turned my focus to my jewelry. I don’t have anything fancy, but I have A LOT! I love a big ol’ necklace with a t-shirt or funky dangly earrings with a jean shirt. I get most of my jewelry from places like H & M or Zara (i.e. cheap!), or sales at Anthro and J. Crew. If I’m super lucky… I’ll find some cool pieces at the flea market. I had my favorites displayed on a coat rack in the bathroom.

But the top drawer of the built in dresser was OVERFLOWING with jewelry and it was getting annoying to dig through and untangle something every time I wanted to wear it. Here’s the thing with jewelry organizing, in my opinion. It can be super expensive (for a separate piece of storage furniture or jewelry box) OR it can take up a ton of room  if you want  a wall rack big enough to fit everything. I wanted neither, but I came up with a budget solution for $10.

Step 1. Clear it all out

It gets worse before it gets better. Organizing 101 is to empty the space and assess the damage.

Step 2. Purge, toss, sort

Once I had a pile of tangled beads in front of me, I sorted them into piles of trash, donate and keep. The keep pile got further sorted into necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.

Step 3. Corral

Here’s where my secret weapon comes in. For $10, I was able to get 100 of these sheer draw string bags. They’re large enough to fit 99% of my jewelry and sheer enough that I can see what’s in each bag. I places every necklace and pair of earrings into separate bags. I didn’t bother to put the bracelets in the bags because they don’t tangle and lots of them didn’t fit either.

Step 4. Reload

With jewelry organized and contained, I loaded it back into the drawer. Necklaces on the right. Earrings on the left. 6 or 7 of my favorite necklaces on the coat rack (as opposed to the dozens and dozens that were hanging there before.)

Who doesn’t love a good organization video? Here’s the quick version of how this all came together. Promise it’s just as easy as it sounds!

Is this the most glamorous, most attractive way to organize jewelry? Nope. But it cost $10, took 20 minutes and TOTALLY works. I still have to dig a little bit to find what I want to wear, but I don’t have to untangle, and I can essentially see everything way easier than I could when they were just mangled together in the drawer.