How to Store Earrings: 13 Helpful Tips
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Earrings require special care to remain intact, untangled, safe, and free from tarnish. It is not wise to simply pile them up in a single storage place, especially if they are made of metals that could contaminate each other. Your earring storage technique should be able to prevent your jewelry from tarnishing. Tarnish is a thin layer of rust that forms on metallic earrings due to exposure to moisture or air.
While you want to protect your earrings from tarnishing, you also want to ensure they are easily accessible when needed. In this article, we give tips on storing earrings for easier access and prevention of tarnish. Keep reading for a deeper insight.
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Preparing Your Earrings for Storage
If you are among those who pile their earrings together in a jewelry box and then waste so much time looking for matching pieces, these tips are for you. Before you opt for a more organized and safe storage strategy, ensure you do the following:
Inspect for Damaged Earring Pieces
Piling up earrings of all kinds in a single jewelry box will damage some pieces. Lay the pieces on a flat surface and inspect each as you pair. Place aside the ones still in good condition, those you still want to keep and separate the damaged ones.
After grouping your earrings, decide what you want to do with the ones you no longer need, yet they are still in good condition. Those can be donated or given out as gifts to friends and family members.
Those damaged due to a missing pearl or a broken clasp can be taken to a jewelry store for an easy fix. Others that are entirely damaged can be disposed of away from children or pets.
Clean the Earrings
Once you have identified the earrings that should remain in your storage collection, your next plan is to clean them. Cleaning will restore the shiny or glittery color of the earrings by removing already existing lotion, makeup, sweat, or any other residue.
How to Store Earrings (13 Tips)
Your earrings are set, paired, and clean. The next big plan is getting a perfect storage strategy to ensure you can easily access them and they are always protected from tarnishing. The tips below will give you an idea of how to go about it.
1. Store Your Earrings Separately, Depending on Their Metal
To store earrings separately, you must acquire several jewelry boxes. You should be able to separate silver earrings from fine jewelry, diamond earrings, pearls, and costume jewelry earrings.
Separating earrings made of the mentioned materials will reduce friction and therefore minimize the possibility of tampering with the earring brightness or tarnishing them. Diamonds, metals, and other stone earrings are prone to scratching when they touch.
2. Your Jewelry Storage Boxes Should Be Lined With Felt
Felt is known for absorbing moisture, preventing rusting or tarnishing of your silver earrings. If not, you may consider storing the earrings in a felt pouch or wrap them in a silver polishing cloth.
Pearl earrings are also safer when placed in a wooden box. Other types of earring boxes, like plastic, will interact with the pearl earrings affecting their texture and overall outlook.
3. Consider Security
Depending on your earring pieces’ value, find a safe place for storage where they are less vulnerable to burglary. If possible, get a safe for the precious pieces. Furthermore, you may consider protecting your fine collection before storage by purchasing jewelry insurance.
With a jewelry insurance organization, your precious earring collection will be protected from any damage, theft, or in case they get lost. Once insured, always communicate with the insurance organization whenever you relocate your earnings to an offsite storage unit.
4. Store Earrings Away From Sunlight
Prolonged exposure to sunlight will damage the stones of fine jewelry earrings. Therefore, consider storing the earrings far away from sunlight, or rather invest in high-quality jewelry boxes, especially for the type of earrings you don’t always get a chance to wear sooner.
5. Consider the Material of the Earing
As earlier stated, most types of earrings made of gold, silver, and fine jewels require a safe environment, like a jewelry box lined with felt to prevent moisture access. However, some earrings do not need to be placed in such jewelry boxes. For instance, costume earrings can easily survive on a jewelry display stand as long as they are not directly exposed to sunlight and are not constantly touching each other. That way, they are easily accessible, and you can always make a faster and clearer choice depending on what you see.
6. Put Some Silica Gel or Activated Chalk in Your Jewelry Box
Silica gel or activated chalk in a jewelry box is perfect for absorbing moisture and keeping the box dry. The two come in handy, especially when the jewelry box isn’t airtight in a humid area.
Also, ensure that the silica gel or activated chalk is changed at least once every month to keep the box fresh. This will keep the earrings in the jewelry box and the box itself from tarnishing or rusting.
7. Store Your Earrings in a Ziploc Bag
A Ziploc bag is perfect for storing earrings when you are traveling. The bag is light, tiny, and easily portable. The Ziploc bag is also a perfect way to store earrings when you live in a tropical place, where moisture can cause damage to your earrings. Remember to push the air out of the bag when closing it to keep your earrings in an airtight environment.
8. Wrap the Earrings in an Anti-Tarnish Cloth or Paper
Precious metal earrings need keen care when storing so they do not scratch each other. One of the ways to store such earrings is by wrapping them in an anti-tarnish cloth or paper. An example of anti-tarnish cloth or paper is muslin. Such papers help precious metal earrings retain their shininess and color.
Alternatively, you can use a soft tissue to wrap your earnings and preserve them.
However, do not assume that since anti-tarnish paper can be used to wrap precious metal earrings, other types of paper, like newspapers, can also be used. That is not the case; newspapers are rough. They will contribute to scratching off the shine of your earrings. Furthermore, the chemicals used to prepare the ink used in printing the newspapers may react with the earring metals.
9. Purchase Drawer Inserts Equipped With Compartments
You may set aside a drawer in your closet to store your jewelry. Since the drawer may not have compatible inserts, you must purchase them from the nearest jewelry store. Ensure the inserts have compartments that can store the earrings separately, depending on their metallic materials. You can also install one insert above another in the same drawer, depending on your jewelry collection and the drawer space.
10. Make Use of Ice-Cube Trays
Instead of getting drawer inserts with compatibles, you can utilize ice cube trays that you are not using. The ice cube trays already have compatibles that can easily be used to separate earrings according to the metal. You can place them inside the drawer or in an open view where you can easily access the earrings. Place labels on each section so that you can always return the earrings where they were each time you are done using them.
11. Purchase an Office Mini Plastic Drawer Unit
Plastic drawer units are often used to store office supplies in most workplaces. However, you wouldn’t believe how efficiently they can store earrings. They can be used independently, or you can align them in your closet’s drawer.
As you purchase one that you intend to place in the drawer, make sure it is not too tall or too wide to fit in the drawer. You may place some inserts into the plastic drawers to create compartments to separate different earrings. You can purchase a plastic drawer from an office supply store.
12. Store Earrings in Plastic Pill Organizers
Plastic pill organizers are perfect for storing smaller earrings like stud earrings. Each compartment of the pill organizer can store a single pair of earrings.
13. Get a Frame Earring Holder
A frame earring holder can be bought in any jewelry store or an art and craft store. Place it away from direct sunlight. However, it is only viable if you do not live in a very moist environment that may cause rusting to your earrings. Both hook and stud earrings can easily be stored on a frame earring holder.
Alternatively, you can make your frame earring holder by following the next steps.
- Get a mesh from an art and craft store. It is better if the mesh is made of plastic so it can be easy to work with. However, without a plastic mesh, you can get a metallic one and spray it with the color of your choice. Make sure you spray one side and let it dry before spraying the second side.
- Get a picture frame and remove the glass panel. A picture frame can also be found in an art and craft store without a glass panel. You can always paint the frame if you don’t like the color. Ensure the mesh is slightly larger than the frame’s opening by trimming it.
- Using glue, attach the mesh to the back of the frame and allow it to dry for an hour or two.
- Allow the already fixed frame to lean against the wall of your dresser. Hang the earrings on the mesh.
Benefits of Proper Earring Storage
There are several reasons you should consider the proper storage of your earrings as listed below:
- Protection from tarnishing: As already said, tarnishing occurs when there is too much humidity in the atmosphere. When metallic earrings get exposed, they begin forming rust layers. Tarnishing also happens when the earrings are directly exposed to too much sunlight. The earrings start to lose their shine, and eventually, they become dull and tarnished.
- To know your collection: Piling all your earrings in a single jewelry box may prevent you from accessing earrings that you probably even forgot you had. Organizing them helps you know what you have in store and gives you an idea of what you can wear with what outfit.
- It helps with easy access: You wouldn’t believe how long it will take to get a pair of earrings from one jewelry box carrying several types of earrings. However, it could help if they are stored in an organized manner. It gives you easy and faster access to the earrings.
- Proper storage protects your earrings from damage: When earrings are stored improperly, they are tangled, and stones scratch against each other and lose their shine and color, and even break in the process.
- It makes parking easy: Suppose you are traveling. Accessing your earnings becomes more manageable when arranged and stored appropriately. This makes the packing process less frustrating.
Final Thoughts
With the above information, you can easily store your earrings safely for easy accessibility as you prevent them from tarnishing. Before storage, look for damaged earring pieces so that you may figure out if they can be repaired and brought back to your collection or thrown away. Secondly, you must ensure the earrings are clean and sparkly following simple cleaning.
When it comes to proper storage, helpful tips like storing earrings separately, aligning the jewelry box with felt, storing them away from direct sunlight, placing them in a Ziploc bag, and others, will protect your earrings from tarnishing and rusting.
Featured Image Credit: Pixel-Shot, Shutterstock
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