Accessories Storage Solutions

by Heather

I had a little room off the master bedroom that I used to call the "English Room."  It was a sitting room with a comfortable chaise lounge positioned by the front window and filled with books and English objects handed down from relatives or picked up on travels.  Over the past few years, however, this space has morphed into a dressing area/storage for jewelry, purses, and scarves.  I'm always on the lookout for ways to store accessories so that they're visible but organized. In my next life, I'd like to have the type of walk-in closet/dressing room one sees in the interior design magazines, but in the meantime, here are a couple of inexpensive and not labor-intensive ideas that are helping me stay somewhat organized.

Bracelets:

A 3-tiered stand holds bracelets that are organized by color.

An antique handmade blanket chest handed down from Tom's great-grandparents provides storage for out-of-season clothing as well as a base for additional jewelry storage.

Purses:

Purses are sorted by color and season.  Summer purses (wicker, white, straw, etc.) are stored while current purses share space in an inexpensive Target shelf system.  Small chests with drawers help keep earrings and rings organized by color.  The bust (between the two chests) is a good place to host a hat and a few necklaces.

Earrings:

The turquoise drawer

Necklaces:

Tom created a storage area here by enclosing the space with molding and adding hooks for necklaces, which are then organized by color and length. I think I need to add a more decorative frame for it, though.  Any ideas?

Can you tell I like the Hamilton purse from Michael Kors?

Shoes:

Our house used to have an upstairs linen closet.  Tom built deep shelves at one end of his clothes closet for bed linens, and table linens are stored downstairs in a linen cupboard so I've always used the linen closet as a shoe closet instead.  Finally got around to re-organizing it this past week.  I took the last pairs of summer shoes out to be stored for the winter (remember, this is the Valley of the Sun and winter just started - or perhaps I've been procrastinating), decided which shoes and boots to donate, and rearranged what was left.  I guess I could have been more careful when tossing the "to go" shoes out of the closet, but the resulting piles made for funnier (or scarier?) pictures.

These are the shoes that either went into hibernation or got put in the donation box.

The newly organized closet:

Sunglasses:

Small Purses:

Scarves:
Bamboo ladders from Steinmart serve a useful purpose to organize my scarves by color.

Hats:???

Still haven't solved the problem of what to do with my hat collection.  I have cowboy hats with which to hide helmet-hair after motorcycling and other hats for both winter and summer. Tried putting small round plastic containers on the wall from which to hang hats, but that didn't work.  Any ideas?

Would love to see or hear about any ideas you have for storing and/or organizing your fashion accessories!

Love,
H