How To Organise And Store Your Jewellery Collection

Looking for some easy ways to keep your jewellery safe, shiny and tangle-free? Here are our tops tips for managing your collection.

We’re all short on space in this city, and with trying to find room for our ever-growing collection of clothes and shoes, little things like jewellery often get overlooked. How many of us are guilty of stuffing our collection into bags and forgetting about it, only to find a tangled mess next time you’re looking for a particular necklace, or can’t find a set of earrings to match your outfit? Hong Kong’s notorious humidity can also wreak havoc with our jewellery, making pieces tarnish if not stored correctly. Luckily we’re here to help, and have rounded up some simple and chic storage solutions to keep it in the best possible condition.

Read more: How To Style Your Wardrobe When You Don’t Have Much Space

Tips for looking after your jewellery

• Start with a clear out – it’s easier to organise if there’s less of it!
• Keep it dry – if you’re prone to forgetting to take your jewellery off while showering, or for a day at the beach, make sure you dry it thoroughly when you get home to help prevent tarnishing.
• Over time, no matter how it’s stored, jewellery does tarnish, so it’s important to clean it regularly. An easy hack to clean sterling silver or silver plated jewellery at home is to combine half a cup of baking soda with two tablespoons of water to make a paste, and then apply this with a damp sponge to silver jewellery. Gently rub to remove any tarnishing, rinse, and dry with a soft cloth. This method isn’t suitable for any jewellery that contains pearls or gemstones.
• As mentioned, jewellery can tarnish when it’s constantly exposed to the air, so it’s best to keep it in sealed containers, or in jewellery pouches (and clean it regularly!). If you like to keep your jewellery on display for aesthetic reasons (or just to make sure you actually wear it!), we recommend rotating your collection regularly. It may seem time consuming, but by keeping certain pieces on display and then swapping them to be safely tucked away will keep them from tarnishing, and will also ensure you wear more of your collection. We’ve lined up a few simple ways to display and store your jewellery below.

Storage Solutions

If your style is more on the minimalist side, or you’re just short on surface space, you can keep your collection neatly organised and out of the way with these simple solutions, that still allow you to find what you need when you need it:

Opt for a jewellery unit
If you want to keep jewellery inside pouches or zip lock bags to keep from tarnishing, tidy everything away into this storage box from Muji, or acrylic jewellery stand from iDecorate.

Organise your drawers
If you have a spare top drawer in a dresser, or can move clothing and other items to make room, this is the perfect spot to store your jewellery. Keeping it in a drawer will keep it from getting over exposed to air, but you can still organise your collection and keep it on display by using storage compartments or tray organisers.

Amazon sell inexpensive stackable trays that can be kept neatly in drawers for a jewellery shop feel, or a good hack is to use a kitchen drawer organiser (usually used for cutlery), that can be purchased from stores like IKEA and JHC.

Within your trays, try to keep certain pieces together or colour code to help you easily find pieces that match your look. Also remember to keep dainty or fine chain necklaces in their own compartments to avoid tangles!

Secure hooks on the inside of a wardrobe door
This option keeps larger jewellery pieces out of the way, but also makes your collection easy to see when you need it; ticking all the boxes for a space saving but chic jewellery storage solution.

Unique Displays

Prefer to keep your jewellery right where you can see it? Use your collection as a unique display and design piece in your room by trying out one of these methods: 

Use a cork board or peg board
A great way to display long necklaces or a large earring collection is by pinning them to a board. You’ll avoid unwanted tangles and also be able to easily select what you want to wear each day, along with adding a fun and colourful design element to your room! Cork boards can be purchased readily and cheaply (Amazon again has plenty of options), or try out IKEA’s SKÅDIS peg board and the entire SKÅDIS range.

Make use of an embroidery hoop
Another cheap and unique way to display an ever-growing earring collection is to use an embroidery hoop. Pick one up at any haberdashery store and customise it by covering the mesh with any spare scrap fabric, then all you have to do is pin your earrings to the board and find a place to display it!

Display necklaces on a stand or display bust
A more traditional approach to necklace storage, but one that still works well for collections that are on the smaller side, is a jewellery stand or a display bust. This neutral linen bust from Amazon works well, but Etsy also stocks a wide range of jewellery stand styles. We also love this simple design from H&M and this multi-layered option from Urban Outfitters. Stands like this not only work well for necklaces, but can be used to display larger, dangly earrings too.

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Keep small or frequently used pieces together
Whether you’ve used one of the above options to display your jewellery, or prefer to keep everything neatly tidied away, we still love keeping a select few pieces out on a small dish. Favourite rings and earrings are ideal for this, for easy access to every day pieces. Pick up any ceramic or porcelain piece that catches your eye (local ceramics stores and markets can be great for this!), or we’ve also found this simple dish from H&M and this cherry plate from iDecorate.