Week #30 Organized Home Challenge
Organize Jewelry & Accessories

In this week's challenge we're going to organize jewelry and other accessories so we can find what items we want or need each day, and properly care for the items we own.

This challenge continues the task we have been on for several weeks now, of dealing with our clothing items to get everything organized, so we pare down and use what we already own, and can put our fingers on any item we want to wear quickly when we get the urge.

This week we'll organize the following types of items:

• Jewelry
• Hair accessories
• Scarves, ties and belts
• Glasses and sunglasses
• Hats and caps

The only accessories not on this list include purses, which was such a big topic it got its own Challenge here.

The other not on the list is shoes, which are also a big topic, one we'll conquer next week!

Step 1: Gather All Your Accessories & Jewelry In One Place

Often your accessories and jewelry can be found all throughout your house, especially things for your hair. The first step in the Organize Jewelry & Accessories Challenge is to gather all these items into one location.

This will help you not only see what you've really got, but also keep these items from becoming clutter throughout your home.

There are always exceptions to the rule, but typically it is best to have all of these like items together in one location for the best organizational scheme.

Step 2: Declutter Jewelry & Accessories

Once you've got everything together the next step in the Organize Jewelry & Accessories Challenge is to declutter and pair down your collections.

All the types of accessories and similar items that we're dealing with this week are the exact types of things that we can easily accumulate too many of in our homes.

While some jewelry is quite expensive, costume jewelry, hair accessories, etc. can be readily bought for not too much money and individually the items don't take up too much room. That somehow makes it seem OK to slowly accumulate a large amount of such things, which when put all together can amount to quite a bit of stuff.

Look with a critical eye to what you own, and save the best of the best and get rid of the rest if you've got too much stuff.

Here's my article on how to get rid of your jewelry clutter, which includes 9 questions to ask yourself when decluttering, and also additional tips for dealing with sentimental jewelry. Check out the article for more tips.

In addition, here's tips for decluttering accessories, including 7 questions to ask yourself about them.

Remember that both styles and personal taste can change. You should only keep items that reflect who you currently are, and not items that no longer do.

If an item you decide to get rid of is valuable you may want to take additional steps when removing it from your home to make sure it goes to a good home, or that you get compensated for its value.

Step 3: Categorize Your Remaining Accessories

Once you've gotten rid of the excess and are left with items you truly love the real organizing begins. In this next step of the Organize Jewelry & Accessories Challenge you should categorize the items you've got.

I already mentioned the broad categories of accessories that we're focusing on during this week's Challenge above. However, you can also break down and categorize items further, such as putting all the necklaces, earrings, barrettes, pony tail holders, bows, etc. into their own subcategories.

Further, you may want to separate out your really nice and valuable jewelry from your costume jewelry, because you may store these items separately, taking more care with your more valuable pieces.

One important rule in organizing is to keep like with like, and this categorizing and subcategorizing does this for you. It also helps you realize how much of a certain type of item you've got, which can help you choose the right size and variety of storage solutions to use in the step below.

Step 4: Organize Jewelry & Other Items Using These Suggested Storage Solutions

The final step in the Organize Jewelry & Accessories Challenge is to actually organize the items you've paired down and categorized. To do this use storage solutions to keep everything together, in one place, but still divided to keep it from getting jumbled back up.

The wonderful thing about this is that you don't have to go out and buy items to get organized, unless you want to, but instead can most likely find items around your home, or that you can make, to keep everything where it needs to be.

Below are some organizing tips for each type of accessory and jewelry you may be dealing with in this challenge:

Tips For Organizing Jewelry Generally

Little Black Dress Hanging
Jewelry Organizer
[Click here to purchase]

Traditionally, jewelry is often stored in a jewelry box, and many of these can be quite lovely and beautiful in their own right.

The best ones have divided areas where you can hold various types of jewelry, such as your rings or necklaces, and a separate place for earrings or pins, for example.

The problem with some of these jewelry boxes occurs if they aren't well designed, or you've got too many items to fit properly. Then, it is possible that such a box will not allow for enough categorization, and everything just gets dumped into a single large space. When that happens everything overflows, you can't find both of the pair of earrings easily, and all the necklaces get tangled together.

It is best to organize jewelry by category, to keep everything easily accessible. That is why lined jewelry trays (shown below), which can be stacked, are a great resource. These shallow drawers can easily hold your items while keeping everything separate and from becoming tangled together.

If you don't have a lot of flat space to hold these trays though, another helpful jewelry storage solution is a hanging jewelry organizer (shown to the left, above) which comes with lots of small divided compartments to keep things separated from one another.

These little compartments are not only good for jewelry, but many other types of accessories, and even other types of small items that you want to categorize and keep divided from one another.

Further, some jewelry, such as silver, can begin to tarnish with time. To prevent this it may be worth storing such items in a velvet or felt pouch which can delay tarnishing.

In addition, other fragile jewelry, such as pearls, should be kept from touching other items that could scratch them. Therefore, such items may also need to be placed in their own special pouches for protection.

Organizing Necklaces

Hanging necklaces and bracelets
keeps them from getting tangled
[Click here to purchase]

Necklaces can easily get knotted and tangled, and the best way to prevent this is to hang them.

What method you choose for this process somewhat depends on how many necklaces you've got, and whether they are thin ropes or thick and chunky items.

Some possible ways to store them include:

• A figurine or bust which allows you to hang the necklaces on it (often a beautiful little decoration in its own right, that can be used to hold your most often used necklaces that you wear almost every day)
• Mount hooks on the wall or on the inside of a door or cabinet that allows you to hang each necklace individually, or similarly, using a wall or over the door organizer to accomplish the same thing (see example to the right)
• If you've got to keep the necklaces in a drawer, and can't hang them, consider a chain keeper to keep the necklace taught and from movements which can cause tangling

How To Organize Earrings

An earring organizer is best for
earrings that hang [Click here to purchase]

The key to organizing earrings is to keep the pairs together. There is nothing more annoying than deciding to wear a pair of earrings, grab one and then have to hunt for the other one for several minutes.

There are many styles of earrings, and the way you organize them is somewhat dictated by the styles you've chosen. For example, you can hang some earrings, which is especially helpful for dangly ones that could get tangled otherwise (see example to the left).

Others are quite small and can be placed into small trays or individual bowls to keep them with their pair, and easily accessible.

Here are some ideas for earring storage solutions that may work for you:

• Earring trees
• Keep individual pairs of earrings in separate compartments of an old ice cube tray, or jewelry tray
• Pierced earring card holders

Ring Organization

Stackable jewelry trays can easily containerize
lots of jewelry [Click here to purchase]

It may be best to keep each ring in the box it came in, to keep them safe and secure between uses. This is best for those rings that aren't worn often.

Another similar possibility is placing each ring separately in a small divided space, much like you would with earrings, such as in a jewelry tray like one shown on the right.

However, many of us have rings we wear every single day, consistently, such as our wedding or engagement band, or another special ring. The best way to organize these items is to make a place for them to be held each evening as we take them off, so we can easily find them in the morning when we put them back on.

You can use a small dish, or a ring holder for this purpose.

Also, consider adding a ring holder or ring dish to any area where you often take your rings off within your home, such as in the bathroom when you wash your hands, or in the kitchen, next to the sink, while you wash dishes. This way your rings don't get lost or go down the drain while doing these tasks.

Organizing Hair Accessories

The way you organize your hair accessories is partially based on what type of accessories you favor. For example, if you love ribbons you'll need a different organizational plan than if you love barrettes or pony tail holders.

As always, make sure to first declutter excess and unwanted hair accessories (you can check the linked Declutter 365 mission article for more details).

Next, the key to organizing what you have left, is to keep like items together and choose a way where you can grab one accessory at a time without disturbing the others. Systems where you've got to move everything else around to get to one thing make keeping everything organized much more difficult.

Here are some ideas for organizing these items:

• Place all pony tail holders on a shower curtain ring, or a carabiner to keep them together
• Attach barrettes and clips to a long strip of ribbon
• Use a small basket, perferably with some dividers, to hold your most used items and to keep them categorized
• Keep fungible items, like bobby pins, in a small box with a lid (or an old Tic Tac container)

Tie & Belt Organization

Closetmaid Tie & Belt Rack for a wall or door
[Click here to purchase from Amazon.com]

If you've got a large collection of ties or belts, the most important thing to do to keep them organized is make sure they are all easily seen at a glance.

In addition, make sure that you can remove one specific tie or belt, and replace it when finished, without having to move around all the rest of them.

There are many types of storage solutions designed to let you do these two things, including tie and belt racks, and special hangers, which you can mount to your wall, door, or onto a closet rod.

If you've got a very large collection the types that rotate can be helpful, so you can easily get to the items in the back easily.

Scarf Organization

Scarf organizer hanger
[Click to purchase on Amazon.com]

The more fashion scarves you own (not to be confused with the scarves you wear to keep you warm outside in the winter) the more you need to make sure they stay organized. Without organization you won't be able to find the one you want to wear with a specific outfit, and you may even forget you have certain scarves.

One simple way to keep scarves organized is with a scarf organizer hanger for your closet, such as the one shown.

You can use this hanger organizer to keep the scarves visible, all hung up nicely so they don't get overly wrinkled, and keep them all together in a smaller area than you'd need with mutiple hangers.

Organizing Sunglasses & Eye Glasses

Sunglasses storage case
[Click to purchase on Amazon.com]

Often you don't need a large amount of these items, but it is important to find them when you need them. First, get ideas in this article for how to declutter and donate glasses and sunglasses.

Once you've decluttered, and assuming you don't have too large a collection, what you really need to focus on for them is not organizing them, but instead keeping them in a designated place at all time so you can find them when you need them.

If you often misplace your glasses go ahead and make a special place for them that is close to where you often take them off, so you can find them easily.

Further, if you've got several pairs of reading glasses for example, try to put a cheap pair in all the locations you often use them, and just keep them there, so you can easily find a pair when you need them. Then, before you leave the area make sure to place them back where they need to be to find them next time.

If you've got a larger glasses or sunglasses collection, you may need to keep them all organized in a sunglasses storage container, such as the one shown on the left, above. Whatever type of organizer you choose for this purpose, just make sure the glasses are protected from jostling to avoid scratching the lenses.

Organizing Hats & Caps

The first step in any organization project is always to declutter, so first check out my tips for how to declutter hats and caps.

Next, choose the right storage container for your hats. Many hats need to be protected, such as in hat boxes, or hung on a hat tree, so they don't get crushed and lose their shape. Others, such as knit caps are collapsible and can just be carefully placed into a dresser drawer.

If you've got a large collection of baseball hats, for example, you can hang them on a hat organizer, such as on the back of a closet door.

Listen To Taylor's Video Tips For This Week's Organized Home Challenge & Declutter 365 Missions

Do you want more in-depth tips and instructions for how to do this week's missions and challenge all about decluttering and organizing jewelry and accessories? If so, I've got recorded video tips from me, Taylor, from the video archives in the Declutter 365 Premium group, all about this week's challenge and missions.

These video tips are available on demand in the archives, once you're a member of the group.

In Week #30's video I discussed the following topics, among others:

• What to do when you're reluctant to declutter something, because you paid a lot for it
• Tips for decluttering jewelry and accessories
• How to organize jewelry and accessories
• Declutter 365 missions for week

I suggest watching the video archive for the week, perhaps while you're doing some decluttering or cleaning around your home, before starting the week's missions and Challenge, and then you'll be able to breeze through this week's worth of decluttering missions, as well as organize what's necessary for the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, based on the advice and instructions within those videos.

It really is like having me, Taylor, available, 24-7, as your decluttering and organizing coach, for every area of your home!

Plus, once you're a member of Declutter 365 Premium you get access to not only this video, but all the videos for the 52 weeks of the year, for 6 years (that's over 270 videos available in the archives!)

Get This Shoes & Accessories Decluttering Checklist + 32 Other Decluttering Checklists For Your Home

Right now you're decluttering your shoes and accessories, and there's a lot of types of these items to get rid of.

Get your 1 page shoes and accessories decluttering checklist, plus 32 other decluttering checklists, to help you declutter your entire home here.

I've done the hard work of breaking down these tasks into smaller more manageable steps for you, so you don't get overwhelmed or worry you're forgetting a task, and you can go at the pace you want, whether that's fast or slow.

In addition, you can tackle these decluttering tasks in whatever order you want when you use these checklists!

Tell Me How The Organize Jewelry & Accessories Challenge Is Going For You

I would love to know how this week's Organize Jewelry & Accessories Challenge is going. You can tell me your progress or give me more ideas for how you've organized this items in your home in the comments below.

I also would love to see before and after pictures of your organized accessories and jewelry once you've completed the challenge. Submit your pictures (up to four per submission) and blog posts and get featured in the Creative Storage Solutions Hall of Fame. You've worked hard to get organized, so now here's your chance to show off!

Sneak Peek For Next Week's Challenge

We're working on our homes slowly, one area at a time, so don't get too distracted from this week's Organize Jewelry & Accessories Challenge. However, I know you like to know what is coming up, so I'll tell you.

We're continuing to work on getting our clothes and accessories organized and under control, and next week we'll focus on organizing shoes.

Make Sure You Make The Most Of These 52 Organizing Challenges

Get your copy of the printable one page 52 Week Organized Home Challenge schedule for the year here, so you can see all the challenges we're working on.

Further, if you'd like to join a community of others who are all commmitted to these organizing challenges and corresponding decluttering missions, and want more interaction with me, Taylor, video archives of Taylor providing more tips for each of these challenges and missions, as well as live monthly group coaching sessions focusing on the skills and habits necessary to maintain your home from now on, I'd urge you to join the private and exclusive Declutter 365 Premium Facebook group (you can learn more about it at the link).

In addition, have you gotten your Declutter 365 Products yet, to make sure you can get even more assistance with decluttering and organizing your home this year? There are both free products (like the Declutter 365 calendar, a $20 value), as well as add-ons, such as daily text messages, planner stickers, and a Premium Facebook group, as well as a pack of printabe decluttering checklists.

Some links on this page are affiliate links, meaning that if you purchase a product through them I receive a small commission which helps me provide this information to you for free, plus support my family. My integrity and your satisfaction are very important to me so I only recommend products I would purchase myself, and that I believe would benefit you. To learn more please see my disclosure statement.

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When you work through the Declutter 365 missions, and accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenges, you'll be able to declutter your home one mission at a time, organize what's left, and learn the skills, habits and routines to maintain your space from now on.

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