(Sorry for the late post!)

Recently, I’ve started wearing jewelry much more often, and have built up quite a collection of bracelets, necklaces, and especially earrings. So, decided to tidy up my collection using Marie Kondo’s “joy test” (however, I did not actually get rid of any of the items). To store my accessories, I use this plastic container which is usually used for craft supplies like beads or embroidery floss. I have them organized in a way that seems cohesive to me, but may sound a bit strange to explain. The top left section contains a few necklaces (two of which happen to be references to Avatar: The Last Airbender). The section next to it contains all of my smaller earrings (from a set I bought at Target), and two pairs of hoops (these earrings being much more tame than the ones in the third section on the left).The second section on the left is the more necklaces, along with three glasses chains I bought in a set off Amazon, which I did not include in my process. The second section on the right is a set of chain necklaces I bought together, and another smaller silver necklace. The last two sections on the right contain bracelets, most of which I made myself.

Since my collection was already organized into categories, I was ready to begin Marie Kondo’s process of tidying up. Going section by section, I determined whether or not each piece sparked joy. With my necklaces, the process seemed fairly simple. I know which necklaces I wear the most often, and which ones I know I could live without. But there were a few that had me stumped. My necklaces of a cameo I bought in Italy, and Starlord’s blaster from Guardians of the Galaxy were two of my most worn necklaces for a long time, and their chains are evident of this. What used to be clean, shiny, silver metal now looked darker and almost black in some areas. It felt hard to let them go, but I have not worn either of them as much as I used to because of this. (Since they’re not real silver I have no way of cleaning them effectively). I ended up keeping the cameo, since it was one of my only souvenirs from my trip to Italy (and the most expensive one), and saying goodbye to Starlord’s blaster because it had served its purpose to me (and the Guardians of the Galaxy movie is much older than I remember).

Next was bracelets. I knew this category would be one of the hardest because most of the bracelets I own are handmade. I ended up keeping most of them, probably because it’s the category that has the least items. I do not wear bracelets very often, and I realized afterwards that I left out one of them because it was on my wrist the entire time, and I wear it almost every day (that bracelet obviously made the cut and stayed on me). I thought at first I would want to keep all of the handmade bracelets I had, since I was the one who got to decide what they looked like. This actually was not the case. I had two beaded bracelets, one that was a seven-layer stack of beads in the colors of the rainbow (this type of bracelet is called a cuff) and a small bracelet of multicolored star beads. As much as I enjoyed the rainbow cuff when I first made it, it’s not very good-looking and not the most practical to wear. I mostly made it to see if I could understand the process of how to do so. The same thing goes for the star bracelet. I made it using one of each color bead that came in the bag I bought, and it looks pretty, but is a little too tight, and the beads sometimes dig into my wrist when I wear it. These two bracelets did help me learn more about making kandi bracelets, but don’t serve much of a purpose in my daily life.

The last category was earrings. This was by far the biggest, and most recent collection of all. I only started wearing earrings daily towards the beginning of this year, and since then I’ve bought many different pairs. Most of my smaller earrings came from a set of 16 (?) pairs that I bought at Target. The bigger earrings come from a variety of sources, some from stores and local businesses, one pair from Amazon, and two handmade pairs. I ended up keeping most of the bigger earrings, except the black and white beaded ones. While I do wear them fairly often, and they match a lot of the outfits I wear, they don’t really look like the vision I had for them when I made them. They are supposed to be stars, and I’m not sure how well that comes across. I was also reluctant to say goodbye to the banana earrings I bought from the farmer’s market a few weeks ago. I’ve never worn them for more than about 10 minutes, because I did not like how transparent they are. Regarding the smaller earrings, I did not end up getting rid of most of them. I like how small and simple they are, and they match every outfit. I did get rid of one of the pairs that made me want to buy the set, a pair of black stars. I used to wear them at least 3-4 times a week, but soon after I started wearing them, the paint began flaking off of them. So, I put them to rest.

All in all, tidying up was a fairly straightforward process. I find it pretty hard to let go of things, especially something as habitual as clothing or accessories. But since the cost of jewelry can add up pretty quickly, I am often careful when making selections. If I had it my way, I’d buy any pair of funky earrings that catches my eye. It hurt my heart a bit to consider getting rid of pieces I had made myself, but I know that if they actually were to leave my collection, they could brighten up somebody else’s outfit. I feel happiest when I am able to be surrounded by things I enjoy (which is probably the reason why half my desk at home is filled with knickknacks), but I also know that too much of a good thing exists. All of the pieces in my collection have had a chance to shine, but some of them do a better job than others. I enjoyed Kondo’s process much more than I thought I would have when I first learned what it entailed. I’m not sure if it would have been this cut-and-dry if I was actually planning on getting rid of the items, but the feelings were still there. I would definitely consider using this process on a larger collection, like my books, when I come home.