Welcome to day 26 of decluttering to free your home and your mind.
Before I give some hints on decluttering jewellery, I want to share with you an experience that happened to me in the last twelve months. My home was broken into and a lot of items were stolen. I had all my jewellery locked in a cabinet, they took the whole cabinet as well! It is devastating to be violated in this manner. The situation becomes more agitating when you have to fill out police reports and then insurance claims. Both the police and insurance companies want proof that you have those items. I rarely ever took photos of myself wearing my jewellery. A friend had a few taken photos when we were on a cruise together, so my watch and necklaces were photographed, but that was all. Each piece of jewellery is special to us, it has a story behind it. Being robbed of my jewellery felt as if my stories had also been stolen.
The key here is proof. YOU have to prove you have the items. The police need them if they find them, and the insurance company will not pay out if you cannot prove you had them. The wedding ring I was keeping for my children was given to me many years ago, there is no longer a receipt for that. The necklace a friend made for me, gifts that people gave to me, there are no receipts for them. FIRST thing to do today, photograph your jewellery and send a copy of the pictures to a place you can recover them later. Imagine if your computer, camera, phone was stolen as well. How would you access the photos? Store them in the cloud, or send to a friend.
I had completely forgotten that due to a bad airbnb experience earlier that year, the police had taken photos of both the inside and outside of my jewellery cabinet. When I remembered this, they sent me the photos so I now had proof of my cabinet. The two photos I am including on this page are the actual photos taken by the police. (Don't look under the bed, I was packing up to move house). Sadly, the jewellery that was stolen from my closet had not been photographed.
If that sounds a bit scary, imagine coming home and finding your valuables gone, and you have no proof of what you owned.
When you are sorting out jewellery, it is the same as photographs, each piece will have a wonderful story attached. Often you are the only one that knows the story. If the story is important, write it down, journal it, so that when you give it to someone else, or when you are gone, others will know about it.
Is there any jewellery that you want to either throw out, give away, or sell? My belief is that I keep the things I love, and not keep those that aren't truly in my heart.
Is there any jewellery that needs repairing? If you cannot wear it because it is broken, either get it fixed, repurpose it, or get rid of it. Someone else may love to fix your broken treasures.
Wear it. We often keep pieces for good, and then seldom wear them. If you love it, let it be shown off. After all, you are amazing, and your jewellery is too. Let others get to see it as well.
Enjoy your jewellery after the cleanse today. You are looking and feeling awesome!
Please feel free to comment about any cleanse that you experience, and enjoy the rest of the decluttering series.
Happy Travels!
