How to: Store jewelry

I’ve been trying to come up with some good ideas on jewelry storage for a long time. Since I moved to college (ahem: too many years ago), I’ve been using one of those tiny little Rubbermaid drawer thingies. It worked out OK for a few years. That was before I had as much jewelry as I do now, before I had nice jewelry (I still don’t have much really nice jewelry) and before I had a lot of space that was actually mine.

I’ve been thinking recently about coming up with a new way to organize my jewelry, and I’m playing around with a few ideas.

Jewelry Furniture

Jewelry furniture can be a really great way to store jewelry for anyone with a creative hand.  Often people source from their local Goodwill and then spend an afternoon redoing it to make it great.

You can make this

into this

Pros:

• Make something your own
• Lots of space for jewelry
• Hidden out of sight

Cons:

• Even when reusing things, this can get expensive once you pay for the furniture, paint and hardware
• Takes up a lot of space in your room
• Time/creativity required to redo the furniture

Bulletin Board Style Wall Storage

You may have seen different variations of this across the Internet. Some people use a basic bulletin board, often covered in fabric, and hang their jewelry from there. Something like this:

Other people have gotten more creative. This is actually the top of a table repurposed as a jewelry holder:

Pros:

• Ability to easily create something to match your surrounding (as simple as adding fabric)
• Fairly affordable
• Easy access to your jewelry

Cons:

• Difficult to hang a variety of items beyond just necklaces
• Limited storage for girls with a lot of jewelry

Mannequins

For a girl with less jewelry than I have, the mannequin storage might work out. There are plenty of variations on this from heads to hands. Sort of related to this is the tree idea. Either way, the point here is that you hang your jewelry in a sort of artfully.

Pros:

• Unique, artistic look

Cons:

• Very little storage
• Difficult to find mannequins to use

Drawer Organizers

Finally, there are the classic drawer organizers. This allows you to organize each piece nicely in felt-lined trays and then tuck them out of sight into the drawer.

These trays are a great option, but there are also some other stylish ideas I came across for drawer organizers. Check out these little teacups and saucers:

Pros:

• Lots of size options and space for lots of jewelry
• Stylish, unique idea
• Affordable (find mismatched cups at your local Goodwill)

Cons:

• Lack of large necklace storage

Any other great options?

After looking at all of these, I’m sure I’m missing some great ideas. How do you organize your jewelry? I’m thinking of using a combination of wall storage and the teacup idea, but I’m definitely up for any other suggestions!