Organizing Your Jewelry

Organizing Your Jewelry – February 2022

“A stitch in time saves nine.”– Ben Franklin
What wisdom behind this simple philosophy. Is there something you can you do today that can ultimately make life easier for you tomorrow?

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Jewelry – Yours, Mine and Ours!

In addition to doing one on one organizing with clients, we also empty estates so that families can list the home quickly. We sort the donate, sell and trash items and one of the things we love best is PILES OF JEWELRY – the more tangled the better! One never knows what’s hiding in these kinds of collections, so we first sort by category and as we sort, we identify the REAL jewelry from the costume. When working with tangled messes, we typically find about 95% of the jewelry to be “junk jewelry” but the remaining 5% can represent thousands of dollars. We wonder how often well meaning people just take all the boxes and bags and donate them to Goodwill? To avoid losing potentially thousands of dollars, consider organizing your jewelry now, rather than waiting until it’s too late.
Here are some tips for organizing your jewelry:

1. Start by separating the good stuff from the costume stuff and sort like things together (ie: all the bracelets in one piles, etc). When in doubt about something being ‘real’ put it with the real for now.
2. Find an organizing product to display the costume jewelry. I like the organizers that can hang on the wall in your closet or bathroom and you can see all of your earrings, bracelets, necklaces and rings displayed. I would not suggest displaying your good jewelry on a wall.
3. As you go through your costume jewelry, remove anything that you don’t see yourself wearing again. Costume jewelry can be sold online and/or taken to a women’s consignment store or donated to many non profits.
4. When you discover ‘real’ silver or gold, separate and identify what you would never use and what you definitely want to keep.
5. Good jewelry can be kept in special bags or drawer inserts but certainly you want to keep them hidden from plain view. Keep like categories together.
6. Good jewelry that you no longer want can be sold to local jewelers, auction houses or sold on eBay or other places but do your research before accepting the first offer. Remember to include broken chains, watches, sole earrings and bracelets. Broken things are valuable, too. You will be amazed how much money you can get for gold and silver.

Many people inherit tangled messes of jewelry from departed family members – take a few minutes here and there to untangle and discover what’s hiding in the mess. You won’t be disappointed!
We are happy to help you organize your jewelry and if you would like to talk to Howard about selling your jewelry, click here.

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Declutter Challenge Club – Join the Fun in 2022!

The Declutter Club is now in its second year and some of our members have signed up again as they are not quite finished with getting through the whole house. We are a small and cozy community where you can get a healthy dose of support, understanding, guidance and laughter, too.
The Declutter Club is a cost effective way to deal with your ‘stuff’ in a fun and welcoming setting. The daily emails are short and sweet and the twice monthly Zoom calls are on Monday evenings at 7:30 pm for an hour.
Membership is open to all, you can start today or whenever you want. Would love to see you there!
If you’re ready to join the Club, sign up HERE. 
Please email me if you have any questions or need additional information.

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“Helping Baby Boomers and their Parents Lighten their Loads”

If you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in your home, contact me. Together, we can transform your home into a happy, tidy place where you can feel at peace. We can also get you ready for your next move… more enjoyably, faster and easier. We specialize in senior moves and helping families find new homes for the things they no longer have room to keep. We can also take care of clearing out homes that need to be listed quickly for resale. Contact me to schedule an appointment.