Project Completion-Jewelry Declutter

I finally completed a small to medium project that has been on my to do list for the last couple of months. For awhile now, I have been frustrated with not only the amount of jewelry I have but I was clearly not wearing most of it. I decided that I would get rid of items that I no longer cared for or was interested in wearing.

BEFORE

I had a ton of stuff and was not wearing most of it. I like accessories but I tend to wear certain pieces daily and other pieces on the weekends or for special events. I am perfectly happy to hold on to pieces that I like and will only wear for special events or even pieces with sentimental meaning that I may not wear at all. However, if jewelry pieces are sentimental, then they should be on display so that they can be enjoyed and not just out of the way.

PROCESS

This will be no surprise to anyone who reads my blog but my process is to remove all pieces first! I did this a little differently this time. I removed jewelry items but type like all necklaces, then all bracelets, then all earrings and so on. I already had pieces mostly separated by type so this was easy. I knew this task would take a few hours and I started at night so I brought items into the living room to declutter while I watched the NBA playoffs. Two birds, one stone!

I spread everything out on the coffee table and went through each piece. I created an areas for things I planned to keep and immediately bagged or wrapped pieces I wasn’t keeping. I went through everything including my jewelry boxes. When all was removed and gone through, I was left with an empty space!

Once again, I was stunned at how much I can pack into a space. And as usual, I found items that I loved but hadn’t worn in a long time because I couldn’t see it.

PACKING IT ALL UP

One of the things that I was determined not to do was donate these jewelry pieces, especially necklaces, in a big tangled mess. A few weeks ago, in preparation for this task I had goggled something about the best way to package jewelry for donation. The idea that resonated with me was to use saran wrap to individually wrap necklaces or bracelets that tangle.

This was a pretty simple way to wrap the necklaces so that they didn’t get caught on anything or tangle. Most of my bracelets and earrings did not require individual packing so I put them in a large ziplock bag.

AFTER

And when all was said and done, I re-arranged the items that I’m keeping and now I have lots and space and can see everything. I am happy to report that since completing this jewelry declutter, I have worn necklaces, bracelets and and rings that I haven’t worn for awhile.

Here’s a side by side comparison of the before and after:

I am very happy with how this decluttering task turned out. I’m excited to wear the pieces that I kept and am happy to be able to see the top of the cabinet.

Any thoughts, suggestions or questions? Share in the comments.