Tag Archives: repurposing

Repurposed: Jewelry Organizer

After the success of displaying all of my wearable necklaces and dangly earrings with a pretty little jewelry tree, I felt pretty confident about finding all the jewelry I had when I wanted to wear it.

Well, I felt confident, that is, until I realized I didn’t have a good place for the tiny earrings and my rings, not to mention the long hair chopsticks that wouldn’t fit in my hair notions organizer. Then my enthusiasm dulled a bit.

I was at a loss for a little while, mostly because I didn’t have room on my dresser for a large jewelry box (thus the reason for the tall and narrow jewelry tree). Nor did I want a fully-enclosed jewelry box, which would keep me from seeing everything at once and make me have to dig through a box to find things. In my experience, if I can’t see it, I won’t wear it, sad to say.

So I searched around for an easily-organizable, highly-visible solution to my jewelry problem–and found it in an unlikely place!

Small-Item Desktop Organizer, Given New Purpose!

jewelry_stored Meet my solution to my “small-jewelry” problem–a desktop organizer originally meant for paper clips, thumbtacks, pens, and the like! (You might not be able to tell from the picture, but it is about half a foot tall and a little narrower than that width-wise.)

My earrings are stored in the four clear compartments (one of which my thumb is on in the picture); my rings are in the little tray up top, and my large hair notions are in the back, stored like pens in the upright holders. This puts everything out in easy reach and easy view, and it looks sleek and classy to boot!

jewelry_empty What really sold me on this little organizer is that the clear plastic compartments all swing out for easy access, enabling me to use all the storage space without having to worry about “losing” any items back where I can’t reach it. Having four compartments like this has helped me sort my jewelry to my OCD heart’s content, too!

Also, I like the fact that I can store my rings out in the open, as well as my large hair notions. I don’t have to open any drawers nor fool with any fancy ring holders–they’re just there, ready to be picked up and worn!

jewelry_spreadout
This picture shows just how much jewelry I can fit in this little organizer, and yet still have it sectioned out. Now my earrings aren’t getting tangled up with rings and brooches–yay! And my large hair notions aren’t lying forgotten at the bottom of a box anymore–double yay! 😀

To Buy This Organizer

The organizer pictured can be purchased at Walmart.com for $3.47. Additionally, if you’d like one in all black, this one, also at Walmart.com, is $6.73. And, if you want a larger organizer in this style, I found one with eight swing-out compartments and two top trays at Walmart.com for $13.81.

Repurposed: Jewelry Organizer as Hair Notions Organizer

Earlier this week, I spoke of my long, straight hair. As you might imagine, to style such long hair, I have a collection of scrunchies, elastics, clips, etc. But the sheer amount I have is kind of ridiculous.

How ridiculous are we talking? Well, I knocked over my big basket of scrunchies the other day, and they literally covered about 2 square feet of carpet in front of my dresser, with no carpet visible between them. (I should be in “Scrunchie Hoarders Anonymous” or something…XD)

Not to mention that I usually have to dig for several minutes in that basket to find the ONE scrunchie I’m looking for. My organizational skills seemed to have stalled out when it came to sorting out my hair notions–I had no idea what would work best to store all these scrunchies and clips and such, yet keep them all accessible and visible.

…Well, that is, until I found a neat little jewelry organizer which worked great for the purpose.

dressorg_front
This is Walmart’s knockoff of the popular “Little Black Dress” jewelry organizer–this version was about 10 bucks, and as you can see in the picture, all the little pockets are stuffed with elastics and scrunchies. (I told you it was a lot! LOL!)

dressorg_back
On the back of the “dress,” you can see I’ve hung all my hair clips and other hard-plastic notions. (Getting those big clips to behave properly on those Velcro strips wasn’t easy, but I did it!)

The reason I chose this kind of visual organizer is because I needed something that would display all the hair notions, yet be easy to sort and organize (and easy to put stuff away). I honestly thought I was going to have to build what I wanted, until I saw the Little Black Dress organizer, and then found a good-enough knockoff at Walmart.

This solution works really well so far (I’ve been using it about a week); not only has it shortened my time spent looking for the right hair accessory, but I also found several hair notions that I thought had gone missing permanently! (Which just goes to show that if you organize properly, you’ll end up saving yourself time and frustration in the long run :D)