Now that your necklaces are organized and visible, it’s time to tackle earrings. You’ll want to sort, match, and purge your earrings before we get started on storage and display options.

1. Get all of your earrings in one place 

Clear off your bed or another large surface and use it as a sorting area.

2. Divide and Conquer

 Divide your sorting area into 4 categories: Keep (pairs you love and wear), Fix (broken or tarnished pieces that you love enough to spend time and/or money on), Single (can’t find it’s match), and Toss/Donate.
Sort your earrings into one of these 4 categories; as you find pairs, most earrings will move out of the “Single” category and into one of the other 3.

3. Once more, with feeling 

Once everything’s sorted, go through your “Keep” and “Fix” areas one more time, asking yourself “Do I truly love this pair?” and “Do I wear them often enough to justify the time and money to get them repaired as well as the space to store them?”

4. All the single ladies

For the pieces that remain in the “Single” area, either toss them or designate a very small labeled box for earrings that you love enough to wait and see if their mate turns up.

Earring Storage and Display

Now that you’ve chosen the pairs that you really love and wear, here are some out-of-the-box options for storing and displaying your earrings.

1. Fabric

This is by far my preferred method for storing and displaying my earrings. It’s just a strip of non-fray prone fabric from IKEA, nailed to my wall with very small nails. I wear mostly posts, so this system works really well for me. I can see every pair and it’s super easy to take them off and put them back on the fabric. For hook earrings, you’ll want a different system, like…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Repurposed Picture Frame

There are tons of this type of repurposed frame jewelry organizer on Etsy, but I particularly like this one from geaugaroots. Besides being lovely, it has the added bonus of hooks at the bottom of the frame for necklaces. You know how I love a multi-tasker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Muffin Tins

If you’d rather keep your earrings out of sight and you have some available drawer space, try using muffin or cupcake tins as dividers. They’re stackable and easily spray painted for added color. For smaller pairs, ice cube trays work well, and are even more easily stacked than muffin tins. Hit up garage sales and flea markets (my NYC faves are Artists and Fleas, Brooklyn Flea, and Hell’s Kitchen) for customizable wares.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always, there are many other solutions to storing and displaying earrings, and as always, I’d love to hear your ideas!