The older I get, the harder I find it to throw things away. By far, clothes are the most difficult for me to get rid of as I keep thinking that I will have occasion to wear again what hasn't been worn in years. Despite my reluctance, I decided to go through my wardrobe and donate anything I hadn't put on in over a year. It wasn't easy to let go of some things, especially when I remembered how much I had paid for them and how little they had been used. After several hours, my closet was clean and my dresser drawers were all organized, save for one.

The drawer in question was one that held a lifetime worth of gifts from my husband, friends and family in the form of jewelry. I had accumulated enough that I started putting them in one of the top drawers of my dresser, which was starting to look like a pirates treasure chest. Not only did I store my jewelry away, I rarely wore it anymore as digging through that drawer for the right piece seemed more trouble than it was worth. I decided I needed to do something about that as well.

My first thought was to get a jewelry box (or three) to hold all his stuff. At least it would be out of the drawer and in a more appropriate place. I wasn't crazy about that idea so I asked a friend if she had any ideas. She suggested a jewelry armoire.

Thinking this seemed like a nice solution to my problem, I looked around online and found one that could hold all my jewelry and matched my existing bedroom furniture. It arrived on a Friday and I began what I thought would be the arduous task of organizing my jewelry. As it turns out, I had a lot of fun going through all the pieces and the memories that went with them. More importantly, the armoire displayed my jewelry beautifully, and I found myself taking great care to place each necklace, ring, earring and bracelet. I was very happy with my purchase, but the jewelry armoire did something even better for me. The following Monday before leaving for work, I remembered a pair of earrings I had placed in the armoire and decided to put them on. I hadn't worn earrings to work (or anywhere, for that matter) in quite a long time. That day, I received several compliments about my earrings. The next day, I found myself going back to the armoire to accessorize again.

It has now been several months since I purchased my jewelry armoire and picking out jewelry to wear has become a daily occurrence. I really enjoy having all my pieces on display to choose from and wearing my jewelry again has caused me to take a little more pride in my appearance. I am very happy that I can now appreciate and make use of my collection instead of banishing it to a dresser drawer. Sufficed to say, my jewelry armoire has made putting on jewelry fun again.