How to Pack Jewelry

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Published by
Jimmy at
August 30, 2017

Consider the Jewelry You Travel With
We’re judged by our fellow humans on the trappings we adorn ourselves with. Trappings like jewelry, clothes, shoes, sunglasses, jackets, bags. As trite as it sounds, our incomes and bank accounts are summed up by the brands and size of diamonds that we wear. Spot a two carat diamond flashing in sunlight and I assume the wearer (or her significant other) has money to burn.
If I didn’t have two coins to rub together and I was desperate enough, I might consider robbing her two carats to buy myself the necessities… or a luxury.
Or, following her back to her lush hotel room and grabbing her jewelry bag, which must be overflowing with other costly, sparkly jewelry. Just sayin’.

Of course, not everyone thinks like this, but when you travel with expensive, irreplaceable jewelry, you worry about the simplest things. Like taking your rings off to wash your hands and forgetting your pile of rings next to the sink, as my college roommate did in our apartment.

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Only when you travel, it’s much harder to return to that sink and reclaim your rings. Especially if you’re on a day-long bus ride from Rome to Salzburg and that sink is now 50 miles in the rear view mirror.

Bring the Right Jewelry
Once, when I boarded a plane, I pulled my bag’s strap over my head, catching my earring and shooting it off into the sticky depths below the plane seats. It wasn’t until I sat down in my seat and the backing fell into my hand, that I realized my earring was missing.
Not until the plane touched down did someone find my earring and, blushing, I reclaimed the naughty little CZ stud.
After almost two decades of traveling with jewelry, I’ve learned these two rules:
Travel with jewelry that you don’t mind losing
Travel with a small amount of jewelry
For me, this means wearing a simple white gold wedding band. I pack two or three pairs of small earrings, including my CZ studs, and two necklaces.
How do you figure out which jewelry to pack? Bring only the jewelry that makes you happy; the pieces you reach for day after day.
If that jewelry is more expensive, hunt down a cheap version for traveling. You’ll feel like yourself and look good on the road.

Jewelry to Leave at Home
Here’s how to pack your precious jewelry: Leave it at home.
“My wedding rings have been in storage for almost ten years,” says Jenn Sutherland-Miller, editor at Packsmith. “I travel with a simple silver wedding band.”
Tuck away your name brand items like an easily-recognizable Tiffany necklace. Keep your intricate bracelets with their emerald tiger eyes at home. Lock up your gorgeous diamonds, rubies, and pearls. Secret away in a safety deposit box your fancy watches and cuff links.
“I always leave my wedding band and engagement ring at home,” says Megan Duggan, world traveler and avid jewelry collector. “And I just wear something simple. I don’t travel with anything I would be devastated to lose.”
I leave at home any jewelry that means something special. Including the aquamarine stud earrings that my husband gave me when we were still dating. And definitely my two anniversary diamond bands and engagement ring.

To figure out which jewelry to leave at home, ask yourself:
How heartbroken would I be if I lost this?
How hard (in terms of money or time) would it be to replace this?
If your answers are “very” to both questions, better leave that piece at home. If your answers are “eh,” and “not hard,” then pack that jewelry.

How to Pack Jewelry

Jewelry can be a packing nightmare. Pieces are small with multiple parts that wander off and render the entire piece useless. Often involving long chains that always — no matter what you do — seem to get knotted. Traveling with jewelry is not always easy. With a few tricks and tips, you’ll tame the tangles.

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Here’s how to pack your jewelry:

Necklaces
Traveling with necklaces is hard. These mischievous little buggers like to wrestle and tangle themselves into a hot mess.
My unruly necklaces misbehave regularly at home; on the road, they’re even worse. That’s why I only bring two necklaces: an everyday and a fancier necklace. I wear the everyday necklace and pack the fancier one. When packing necklaces, you have three options: straws, silk jewelry bag, or small plastic bag.

Straws

Loop one end of the necklace through the straw and fasten the clasp. A brilliant way of traveling with necklaces, but only doable if you have access to straws. The other downside is this method takes up a bit of room, but the upside is outstanding: No more tangled necklaces.

Silk Jewelry Bag
“I usually wear one necklace,” says Megan. “Or bring a little fabric bag and drape the chain out, so the chain is around the bag’s clasp. That way the necklace won’t get tangled.”

Small Plastic Bag
Here’s the trick I use to pack my second necklace. Use one bag per necklace. Drape the clasp out and seal the bag with a small section of the chain on the outside.

Rings
Use a small plastic bag or tuck the rings into one of the silk jewelry bags. Keep your rings organized in a jewelry roll or organizer, if you’re traveling with one of those.

Bracelets
Roll up a washcloth or hand towel and slide the bracelets over the rolled up towel. Tuck the entire towel (with bracelets) into a plastic Ziplock bag to keep any bracelets from wandering off.

Earrings
If you’re not bringing a jewelry roll or organizer, you have two options:

Buttons (aka small method)

Cardboard (aka flat method; perfect for bringing more earrings)

Buttons
Insert the earring through a button hole. One button per earring pair. Use one of the many spare buttons included with a long discarded sweater or button-down shirt. Gather all your earring-buttons and corral them in a soft jewelry pouch.

Upside: Your earring pairs will always stay together. Packs down small.
Downside: Sometimes those buttons are small and might get lost in the dark corners of your bag.
Cardboard
Use a stiff piece of cardboard from a plastic bag box or shoe box. With a pen tip, punch holes in pairs into the cardboard. Insert earrings through the holes. Slide the entire cardboard into a quart plastic bag to safeguard against any earrings running off.
Upside: You see all your earrings displayed in a single glance. Perfect for traveling with many earrings.
Downside: A little bigger than a soft fabric bag. Might be hard to find a good spot to pack in your bag.

Your Travel Jewelry Bag
Ready for the whole enchilada? This is how to pack your jewelry without it becoming a gigantic, headache-inducing mess.
You have several options for how to pack your jewelry:
Jewelry roll
Jewelry pouch
Plastic quart bag
Jewelry box
Glad Press ‘n Seal

Pill case

Jewelry Roll
Spring for a gorgeous silk or soft fabric jewelry roll to pack your jewelry. A well-designed jewelry roll is a perfect way to bring a few pieces of jewelry on your trip. And, it’s an even better way to keep it all organized.

Best part is the jewelry roll packs up into a small amount of space.

Jewelry Pouch
Remember that silk jewelry pouch? Use it to pack your jewelry. Slip your earrings (on buttons) into this pouch, wind a necklace around the clasp, and you’re good to go.
This is how I travel with my jewelry. The pouch’s vibrant color makes it easy to spot in my bag’s dark depths. And it makes me smile and feel pretty, even when my dirty hair definitely doesn’t smell pretty from a long day of travel.

Plastic Quart Bag
Go cheap by using a plastic quart bag to pack all your jewelry.
While it’s not high tech, the benefits are killer: You see all your jewelry at once, the bag easily closes, is waterproof, and pretty darned durable. If the entire thing breaks, plastic bags are easily replaceable.

Jewelry Box
Traveling with several pieces of jewelry? Opt for a jewelry box to keep your jewelry organized and orderly on the road. Go for a small jewelry box so you’re not tempted to bring every piece you own.
This jewelry box is only five inches square and perfect if you’re bringing several rings and pairs of earrings. Or, pick this smaller jewelry box and use the larger compartments for necklaces.
Glad Press ‘n Seal
Alex from Travel Fashion Girl recommends using Glad Press ‘n Seal.
Lay your jewelry out on one piece of Glad Press ‘n Seal and put another piece over top. Press and seal. Voila! Ready to go.
Only downside is when the plastic wrap loses its stickiness, you’ll need to find a new method of packing your jewelry for the way home.

Pill Case
Use each pill compartment for a piece of jewelry. Nice, tidy, and ideal for traveling with minimal amounts of jewelry or delicate jewelry that likes a hardy spot to live.