Since becoming a minimalist, I wear the same jewelry 95% of the time. This necklace and earrings match everything. Once a week or so, I change it up to wear jewelry that uniquely complements my outfit. But most often, it’s about getting ready easily and without much thought.
Decision fatigue is real. Decision fatigue is when you tire from the need to make so many decisions on a given day. On average, we make 35,000 decisions a day from what earrings to wear to which road to take. It especially affects people when a large project is present in their life, such as a home remodel, moving, or job change.
But when we reduce or eliminate simple decisions then we’re better equipped to handle the big ones. Many successful people wear a “uniform” to make head-space for the most important decisions which improved the quality of their work.
My jewelry is nearing uniform-level. But simplifying my collection is an ongoing process because many pieces are laced with sentimental value. I hold onto them because they evoke a memory, but I have reduced it to a reasonable boundary over time.
Here are 5 helpful ways to simplify.
Collect All The Jewelry
Remove all the jewelry from storage devices. Lay the items on a table or a towel on your bed. Group the necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings. Sort and set aside the sentimental items. Get a sense of how many items are purely sentimental.
Color Profile and Style
Look at the colors and tones. Organize by color, gold, and silver. Are there any styles you no longer wear? I switched from gold to silver, so my jewelry collection evolved and I kept just a few gold pieces.
What about your favorite colors in your wardrobe? Does the jewelry match? Or are there colors you do not like and therefore rarely wear?
Set a Boundary
Establish a reasonable boundary to house your jewelry. I have a beautiful, but small jewelry box, an earring tray, and two necklace hangers. This is my boundary. It’s easy to use and ensures I can find the jewelry I want to wear.
Keep Items
Pick out your keep items first. What pieces do you wear most often? What pieces of jewelry match your lifestyle? I wore more elaborate jewelry in my corporate days, but as the workplace has become more casual, so have our clothing and accessories.
Consider your current lifestyle and what you wear 95% of the time. Are you working from home? Or staying home with your kids? This does not mean you’ll never dress up. But it does mean you should keep fancy accessories in proportion to the amount of time you wear them.
Share with Friends and Family
Periodically, I go through my jewelry and donate pieces to a local thrift store or ask family and friends if they might like something from my collection. My cousin admired a pair of earrings I rarely wore, so I gave them to her.
I also made a list of my intentions to accompany our will. I know, this sounds morbid but I want certain pieces to go to specific people. Also, I don’t want to burden my son with a pile of jewelry (or other stuff) to deal with when I’m gone. By identifying one of two pieces of jewelry that I chose for him and his future spouse and children, he can feel good about passing the rest on when I’m gone.
Do you struggle with a large jewelry collection like I once did?
Jewelry is one of those belongings we just collect and hardly ever review. What a great idea to pull it all out and remove the items that we would never wear. Perfect rainy day project!
You’ve given some key advice! People acquire jewelry but rarely purge it as they (sometimes) do with clothing, shoes, and handbags. Me? Not an issue: I don’t wear earrings (I don’t even have pierced ears) and only have a couple “good” pieces. Otherwise, I have what I call “bad boyfriend” jewelry, bracelets or necklaces I love, but which still have a tinge of regret due to the giver…those are tucked away for when I can enjoy wearing them. Otherwise, I try to buy a piece I love when I travel – a necklace in Venice, a ring in Edinburgh, to remind me of the trip. I only keep what I love and what actively energizes me. The rest has that boundary of the jewelry box, and I never feel compelled to acquire without downsizing a bit of my youth-era choices. 😉
I love jewelry but since the pandemic, I haven’t been wearing much. So I’m working on eliminating a lot of it. I think silver goes best with my (now) gray hair so I am considering giving away all my gold jewelry. I also am finding that I like necklaces and bracelets more than earrings so am looking to let go of most of my earrings. Thanks for the guidelines.
I love your point about decision fatigue. I’m sure that’s why (a) my childhood jewelry just sits in a box and never gets looked at, and (b) I basically stopped wearing jewelry during the pandemic, entirely!