Closet Organization series - Jewelry

First things first, it was so awesome to host a giveaway of a beautiful necklace. The giveaway ended on May 1 and the winner was chosen via random.org. The winner is *drumroll please* Seepz from That Sassy Girl! Seepz, I hope you love the necklace as much as I did. Do send us a pic when you wear it :) Thank you so much everyone of you who entered the giveaway!

Now on to this post, it's been long that I wanted to do posts on closet organization. So this post is related to things I used to accessorize everyday, which is jewelry, watches, perfumes!
I am type A personality when it comes to organizing. I guess, organizing is my next favorite thing after shopping. Usually I have had the same plan/structure for jewelry organization through all these years in the US. I say that 'cause when we moved to a new place after last year, my dressing table setup almost looks the same as it was in my apartment in Boston. All the necklaces, perfumes, watches, earrings are in the same place as they were; the only difference being that it's in a more bigger space that is.

So moving on, today I am going to give you a glimpse inside my closet and dressing table to show you how I have learnt to organize the jewelry (daily as well as occasional wear) and my thought-process behind it. Organization no doubts has benefits like we all know i.e. everything is in place, looks neat and clean but the most important one is that my daily-getting-ready time has drastically reduced. Once I am sure about the color I am going to wear, I can pick the jewelry within seconds (if not minutes ;)). Now who doesn't want this suvidha (value) when you are in a mad rush to dash out of the house every morning?

All these ideas are either picked from pinterest, lifestyle bloggers and some of them (like color-coding storage) are my very own that were born from the need to make my morning routine easier. The tools/organizers/containers I have used are pretty simple and easily available in stores like Target, Walmart, Home Depot or the Container Store (this one was not in Boston, but it's in Virginia).
So now, enough of prose and now to the graphic details. Today, I want to show you how to organize necklaces and earrings in my closet.

The most practical and obvious storage for necklaces is to hang them up against the wall. It's right there in front of you to choose and they don't get entangled as opposed to storing them in a box. I bought these drill-in 8-hook organizer from Home Depot and got them fixed (thanks to hubs). While unpacking, I weeded out the ones that I did not wear for a year (no way I was going to try them on now, especially since I wasn't working any more. Also new place means new stuff, right? *wink wink*). Thanks to my super-organizing part of the brain, I color-coded and style-coded the necklaces.

All small ones (one locket/pendant) necklaces went on the top rack and the long ones on the rack below. I tried to keep 3-4 necklaces per rack; that allowed for enough space to not get entangled and also to make them easily viewable and accessible (which was the whole purpose of this exercise). The special-occasion necklaces were moved to the right-most hook of the rack. In between I filled out the ones I use daily, color-coding them - black, blue, brown, red.

The multi-color or beaded ones went in the racks below, also the long-dangly ones. All statement necklaces occupy two hooks on the right-most side of the bottom hangar. All in all, this looks neat organized and I know exactly where to look for the right necklace. When I am putting back the necklace in the evening, I make a point to put them at the right hook from where I took it from - this one minute of effort goes in a long way to keep things sane in the busy routine.
Tip: Use push-pins (the ones you get in your office) to hang necklaces, if you are cramped for space or don't want to drill permanent holes in your apartment. I did just that when I lived in a smaller apartment in Boston. 

Moving on to earrings, I got this 3-drawer plastic organizer from Target (you can get it in Walmart too). Initially I just dumped all my earrings in the top two drawers. The third one I use to store occasional items like bindis, nose rings, hair clips, etc. Over the time I realized, earrings are the worst things to choose and pick in the morning - first of all they are so tiny and then they come in pairs. So if you don't find the second one, then you are in ride to waste 10 mins finding the second one or ditch the plan of wearing them altogether. So, there lesson learnt - always color-code and type code them! I used these small plastic containers we usually get in Indian stores.

Additionally, I had a lot of small jewelry/watch gift boxes from stores like Banana Republic, Fossil in very good condition. All the black colored earrings went in the lid of one box, all pink and red in next and all blue in the next and so on. Again, all these were the dangly/hoop ones. The tiny tots like studs, went in another small box. The metal ones (steel /silver and gold colored) went in one box. Since I don't have a lot of earrings in one particular color, I paired a couple of colors together, but you can always keep them separate if you space and quantity. Life is easier now, especially choosing the tiny earrings. I seem to find the ones I want to wear in a jiff.

The key in organization is to know your needs and your jewelry. If you have jewelry in a particular color you don't need to color code. If you have a lot of necklaces for different occasions. it's always better to type-code them. All this will take 3-4 hours of your weekend time, but it will save you those precious minutes in the morning rush, and you will thank yourself for taking this step towards organization!

So, this was all about getting the necklaces and earrings in place. I am planning to do separate posts for accessories like bracelets/cuffs, watches, etc. Hope you liked this post, it was great sharing some tips or tricks with you all!

P.S.: Sharing this post on Friday Fancies at Long distance loving.