She challenged her subscribers to choose an organization project and then either send her a video response or an entry in the form of an essay. I filmed a bunch of footage for a video response, but when it came to editing, my lack of experience caused me to opt for a blog post instead. I will learn video editing in time, just not in time for the contest deadline!
Jennifer asked that we start with a photo and an introduction so here we go!
My name is Shannon and I was born and raised in California and moved to Colorado 3 years ago. I have been married to my husband for 7 years. He's in the USAF and was stationed here 3 years ago and we fell in love with the area and have since purchased a home and decided to live here. It's so beautiful and we love the outdoors and there is so much for us to do here. I have two step daughters. Kendall is going to be 18 on Dec 3 and she lives with us full time and Nicole just turned 15 and lives with her mom in Kansas. My hobbies include photography, papercrafting, cooking, decorating, organizing, reading, movies, exercising, gardening, make-up, and just about anything creative.
Here's me with my wonderful hubby. This was taken Memorial Day 2012.
For my project I chose my jewelry storage. This is a project I have been wanting (and needing) to tackle for YEARS! I am so glad that this contest gave me the motivation to finally tackle this project. I spent a total of $58 on supplies at Michael's (I got killer deals on everything) and it took me roughly 2 hours. Seriously, why did I not do this a lot earlier?
Before
This jewelry box I have had for over 20 years and the necklaces always got tangled and the items in the drawers got very little attention. In the top two drawers I was storing my bracelets. I never wore the majority of them because they got buried at the bottom. In the third drawer I was storing watches - with dead batteries that I completely forgot about and in the bottom drawer I was storing my rings.
Earrings were spread out between these three little jewelry boxes. The one on the left stored the majority of my earrings and it took forever to find a matching pair. The middle one stored smaller hoops and the one on the right stored my larger hoops. Not very organized and definitely not easy to find things.
The little container on the left was holding earring backs, the one in the middle held necklace charms and the one on the right was empty. Loved ones keep giving me these little boxes and although they are pretty, they just aren't working very well for me.
This was such a mess! This jewelry box was hand painted for me and things just got piled inside. All of my long necklaces were in the front piled on top of each other. Beneath those were some bangles and in the back were some more long necklaces and some pouches with various other pieces. Not practical and very difficult to navigate....
This is a shot from the bottom drawer of my night stand. The jewelry in all of these boxes never gets worn. I forget all about it and there are some beautiful pieces that I love and really should wear.
All of this went to Goodwill. On the far right there is a pile of jewelry and the rest are jewelry storage pieces I donated.
And now...the AFTER!
I walked into Michael's to look for some new organization pieces and they had the jewelry display pieces marked down 30% off and I also had a coupon for 50% off of one item and 25% off my entire purchase. My total was $58 for everything and I am thrilled with the results. I can find everything I'm looking for and am already finding myself wearing things I hadn't worn in years, simply because I can now see them.
This is how I am now storing my long necklaces that were all tangled and piled up before. This piece sits on my dresser and not only is it functional, but it's also decorative. It's like I have my own little jewelry store.
This is how I'm not storing all of my shorter necklaces. The rack spins around and on most hooks I only have 1-3 necklaces and I can see exactly what I'm looking for at a glance. It's also very decorative as well and nothing gets tangled up like it used to.
My bracelets are stored on these two display pieces. It's hard to see in the photo, but there is a shorter one in the front and a taller one in the back. I didn't realize how many bracelets I even had until I put them all together. I'm already wearing things I had forgotten about. It's like Christmas!
I also purchased several of these little plastic sectioned bead holders. I have two of the larger ones for earrings. One holds the dangle-styled earrings and one holds my hoops. It's so much easier to find matching earrings now!
The smaller ones hold pins, necklace charms, safety pins, etc. These bins are all stored together in a drawer and are very accessible.
That's everything. I am sooooooooooooooo pleased with the results! It's like I have an entirely new jewelry collection because I'm wearing so many pieces that were hidden before. It was a project that didn't cost very much money and didn't take a of time, but has made a huge impact.
Thank you Jennifer for giving us this challenge and thank you for the opportunity to win the fantastic prize package. Your channel motivates me all the time and I know you invest a lot of time and energy into your videos and I want you to know how much you are appreciated.
