You know I love to organize my jewelry almost as much as I love jewelry itself, and one very important question all jewelry collectors must face from time to time is how to safely pack and transport our treasures. We’ve addressed this question before,  but I’ve since made one major change to how I transport my treasures: I learned a better way to pack necklaces!

With my previous move, I chose to pack necklaces using a method I’d seen on Pinterest that involves plastic straws. It worked, but it was time consuming. Even more importantly: now that I’m more informed about how bad plastic straws are for the environment, I can’t recommend using a whole bunch of them just to pack necklaces.

But we don’t need the plastic straw trick anymore, anyway – there’s a better way to pack necklaces. The secret is shelf liner.

My new favorite way to pack necklaces.

What the heck is shelf liner? It’s this wonderfully useful nubby stuff that comes in long rolls like paper towels. Its intended purpose is to make surfaces less slippery, and that just so happens to make it a perfect tool to use to pack necklaces.

I learned this trick from the wonderful Judi Powers, who learned it from Rachel Atherley, who learned it from Sara Freedenfeld. (Jewelry designers are such useful people to know!)

STEP ONE

Cut a piece of shelf liner that’s long enough to fit a few necklaces – how many is up to you, but I find that this is more manageable when you do multiple batches instead of one big roll.

Lay the necklaces carefully on the shelf liner one by one, leaving space between each one so that they won’t touch once it’s all rolled up. Make sure all the clasps are clasped so none of your pendants can slide off.

STEP TWO

Step two:

Start at one end and carefully roll up the piece of shelf liner with the necklaces inside. You want to roll it firmly enough to keep the necklaces inside, but not so tightly that anything gets bent.

I bought two of these shelf liner packages and I used maybe one and a half (and I saved the pieces of shelf liner for the next time I need to pack necklaces). I have a LOT of jewelry, so unless you’re a major bling hoarder – something I would only respect – you don’t need more than one roll.

Please note: if you have necklaces that don’t bend, this won’t work and you shouldn’t force them. For those, you’ll need little boxes or bags depending on their shape.

STEP THREE

Secure the end of each little tube in some way (I used masking tape) and then place the little mummified necklace bundles in something that will keep them safe. I used a shoebox and it worked perfectly well.

And that’s it!! Be sure you keep track of your little shoebox full of necklaces and never leave your jewelry with movers. This method is safe for your jewelry and it’s easy and relatively quick, both during the packing and unpacking processes.

The next time you need to pack necklaces, just get yourself some shelf liner!

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