Get To Know Me!

I'm not sure I have confided in all of you my love for organizing things.

By "organizing things," I don't mean taking things and organizing them. I loathe that, unless the "things" are pretty and shiny.

By "organizing things," I mean things that are designed to organize other things. I love them. I once went into The Container Store and had a brief out-of-body experience.

I have dozens of shoulder bags for work, church, and school. I haven't yet found "the one." You know, the one that will hold everything I could possibly need in an organized manner, be slim and attractive, and hang on my shoulder without falling off or hurting me.

I have dozens of purses. I haven't yet found "the one." You know, the one that will keep everything neat and organized, hold enough items to get me through an unexpected weekend away, but be small enough and light enough to be cute and feminine.

I have an inappropriate amount of affection for Rubbermaid. I can easily spend four figures in the Rubbermaid aisle at Wal-Mart. Easily.

I absolutely adore luggage. Sven won't really let me walk down that aisle at Wal-Mart, but I bet I could find a lot of stuff I like.

So, naturally, I found a hobby that combines my love for organizing things with my passion for shiny things:

I collect jewelry.

I hasten to clarify: I collect quirky, unusual, or antique pieces. I have nothing truly "valuable" in my jewelry collection.

Years ago, when my accumulated jewelry began to overflow the simple box my parents gave me as a teenager, Sven bought me a pretty red leather jewelry box. I have spent the last 12 years or so filling it:

I love this jewelry box. It had neat hidden compartments, and lots of different places to organize, so I could keep pearl jewelry in one part, silver in another, and gold in the rest. That being said, it did have drawbacks. The clearance for the ring slots was fairly low, so my higher-profile pieces were always in danger of scraping across the top. There were many compartments, but each was fairly small, so big pieces were really squished.

I don't wear a lot of jewelry, as a rule. Generally, I wear a wedding band. The one I wear now is stainless steel, $7.95 from Amazon.com. What I do with my jewelry collection is take it out after the kids are in bed and play with it. I look at the pieces, put some of them on, lay them out, and just enjoy them. That's all.

After one such night last week, I came to a conclusion: I need a new jewelry box. My beloved red leather one was crammed full, and many of the pieces couldn't be seen.

It arrived today.

A train-case style, brown leather jewelry box. Here's the comparison between the old and the new:

Don't pretend you're not impressed.

The kids and I spent a happy hour this afternoon transferring all of my "pretties" to the new "pretty box."

I can already tell you I will spend many, many happy hours playing with my new "pretty box." There is room to spare.

Maybe, one day, there will be need for my little leather one again. Perhaps I will use it for my costume pieces, or my everyday pieces, and store my new bad boy somewhere out of the way. For now, Red Leather goes into the closet to wait.

She's earned a rest.