How to travel with, organize, and pack your accessories

As usual, any kind of beautiful jewellery board or box to hang on the wall is out of the question when you travel. It’s nice to look at, very organized and a great idea… but not for a mobile person like myself.

So, I have experimented with all types of mobile/traveling jewellery organizers from jewellery rolls to jewellery boxes and everything in between.

In the end, what has worked best for me is the hanging, clear-cased double-sided jewellery bag.

JEWELLERY ROLLS OR BAGS: These are great, but you can’t really see your pieces if you have a lot of them (like me). I think it’s best for girls who only have a few pieces they always wear, and don’t really want or have the variety to mull over each morning.

JEWELLERY BOXES: Very chic and elegant, but great for the girl with a home. As someone who lives out of a suitcase most of the time, they are too bulky to carry in your carry-on (I never  check anything in).

STUFFING THEM INTO PURSES: This too, is a great idea… but only if you have a few pieces, and not over 100 like me.

You may also forget WHERE you stuffed that necklace/ring/bracelet and be frantically opening all your purses and trying to dump out its contents on the floor to find it. Also, the lining in the purse may break and you will lose that necklace in the lining (see: Carrie Bradshaw & her ‘Carrie’ necklace in Sex & the City video featured below).

The FINAL solution, is this $10 bag called the jewellery bag that hangs in any closet, and folds neatly (flat!) when you travel.

For rings and bracelets, I have pill boxes and eyeglass cases.

HOW I STORE MOST OF MY NECKLACES & EARRINGS

I scored the purple jewellery bag for $6.99 at Homesense (WHEE!)

It has 2 sides with lots of fairly large pockets.

First side: My colourful and chunky, stone jewellery

Second side: 2 Rings that will not fit in my ring box and chain jewellery…

The other hanging jewellery bags were purchased at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $9.99 and have 37 pockets in total.

I couldn’t find the 72-Pocket Hanging Jewelery Organizer in stock which looks better, so I bought 2 37-Pockets. I do find the pockets a tad small (great for earrings and small necklaces), but I already had the purple one before to hold my bigger necklaces, so I was fine.

I bought 2 because I liked them so much! They’re super light and WHITE which means I can see my things a lot clearer than in the purple one above.

The first one’s side A:

I kind of tried to group it by colour/general feel/style so that it’s easier to find everything the way that I group my jewelry in my head:

Side B: Pearls and kind of delicate things…

The second bag’s side A:

The second bag’s Side B with my other smaller earrings:

My rings and small brooches (that can fit) go into this Japanese pillbox I found in J-Town in Toronto for $5.

You can also use actual pill boxes, but I find the soft kind of plastic ones kind of flimsy. I like a hard plastic case better:

Lastly, my cuffs go in an Aldo eyeglass case box I picked up for $10.

I can’t put bracelets in the pocket because they’re too bulky when they’re cuffs like this one, but I also don’t want them bent out of shape, so this is the perfect solution:

HOW IT ALL PACKS INTO MY BAGS:

Pretty easily. Check it out! I gently fold them into thirds, and lay them ontop of each other, in between clothes like sweaters:

I know this question is coming, so here it is!

My jewellery collection consists of:

• stuff I made (yes, I really made some necklaces)
• gifts from friends and family
• things I bought from Etsy (arg.. like crack cocaine)
• wearable memories from my travels around the world (I can name where I bought each item)
• things from both high and low end stores like Forever 21 or independent designers

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A HANGING JEWELRY ORGANIZER:

You do NOT need to shell out for fancy, sexy, moleskin or leather bags, but if that’s your thing, then go for it. My jewellery, is not that precious in the sense that they should be wrapped in more cashmere than I am.

Take for instance, this Real Simple jewellery hanging organizer for $19.99:

Looks great right?

I almost bought it, until I realized it has no zippers on the pockets.

HUGE design flaw. Tsk tsk.

See, when you go to put anything in there (I tested it right in the store with my earrings), and you go to flip it upside down, it all falls out.

Therefore, look for these main things:

• Weight before you add in jewellery — if you have chunky stones like me, it gets pretty heavy
• Number of Pockets — They come in 37 or 72, but the more the better for me 😉
• Size of pockets — Some of my VERY chunky jewellery does not fit in smaller pockets, so size matters
• Zippers on pockets — So that nothing falls out!!
• Double-sides — They all have double sides to maximize space, but check it anyway

How do you pack what you have when you travel?