2026 Spring-Summer Jewelry Swap-Over

Hello again, my friends! I hope you've enjoyed a gander at my "new" closet - if you missed the big post, it's here.

There were just too many pictures to include in that post once I did my jewelry swap-over on Friday, so I thought I'd post it separately. And there are some outfit pics coming - they'll be up on Monday, so make sure you stop back in and check out the first 'fits of spring! 

So, here we are, this is what my jewelry collection has looked like since we got the kittens back in early October 2025.

Yes, a bit of a disaster! Whateley proved himself to be a Thief of Jewelry (my wee black cat pin is still MIA), so I had a cashmere moth-holed cardigan draped over all of the plates, dishes and containers, to keep them from being too tempting. It worked - he did stay away from it after that, but dealing with a cardigan every time I wanted to get at my jewelry was mildly annoying. I needed a new system. 

I start by unpacking and spreading out all my existing jewelry. Hmmm...what do I want to keep? 

"All of these look delicious."

Starting with my brocade bag, which holds all of my large chunky necklaces, including the chains and pearls. 

Moving onto my dessert stand where I store my big cuffs. 

I Windexed the glass and bowls as I went, and dusted all wooden surfaces with oil soap. 

Separating what would be staying out for spring-summer, and what would be packed away.

Things that feel "heavy" or are more slanted towards the season (Hallowe'en), plus most of my brass, which feels very fall-ish. 

Then I removed the hole-y cardigan. Nothing else was missing...that I could tell! 

I love my wee bowls and plates, but I needed to figure out better storage, to make this all less tempting for little kitten paws. 

I go through every storage container, pulling out things that don't feel right for spring-summer, like my black glass snake pendant (a birthday gift from Mom, bought in Venice for me). I let go of the little moon tile - I never wear it.

My pendants live in this tin with the gold and silver chains. 

Then I went through the rings, which took up three containers (I do love rings). 

The centre pile is getting stashed away, and I'm going to re-sell the silver "wings" ring, as it's too big and spins around when I wear it. Very annoying.

Up next is the sorbet dish, used for cuffs and thinner bracelets. 

Pack a few away, keep the rest out. 

A bowl of large earrings (I am gentle with these to avoid scratches).

And a plate of brooches/seasonal things. 

My divided crystal candy dish is where I keep my small earrings. 

It all gets dumped out and dusted and sorted. 

And then  my big enameled copper plate and the copper jewelry that lived there. 

Empty containers and stuff to put in them. But I still need to unpack all my stored things! 

And I'm not done with the existing pieces yet. 

A candy dish full of large pendant necklaces. 

Most of my Brutalist pieces feel very heavy and more appropriate for fall/winter.

All of the pieces on the right got packed away. 

My velvet bangle-holder was emptied. 

I gave the black velvet a gentle scrub with a damp cloth to clean all the dust off it.

And then on to my Gram S's jewelry box, which I've had since she died in the late 90s. I've always kept brooches and vintage jewelry in it.  

Due to the Kitten Situation, it had been difficult to access with the cardigan over it, so I'd gradually emptied it of the many brooches that used to live in it - this is all that was left by the time I did the swap-over. Vintage earrings and seasonal pieces remained, plus a few pins and my amber collection. 

This really wasn't working for me, so I decided to dedicate it to my amber collection and then see what was in the spring-summer collection that could live in here. 

"I love crunchy pretty things!"

Barnabas, I'm watching you! He just sniffed around, and didn't try to bite anything. What a good boy! 

I tried to be chill while they Godzilla'd their way across the bed, letting them smell things (this takes away the mystique) and get used to the chaos.

"Whateley, these are so fun!"      "Yes, Barnabas, and easily carried away!"

I did have to take a skeleton earring away from Whateley before he absconded with it. Naughty boy! 

And then, onto my big Bombay Company jewelry box which holds a substantial amount of my favourite pieces. 

Two side areas for hanging necklaces, and drawers galore! 

Let's do the necklaces first! 

The ones on the left stayed out, and the tangle on the left got put away for the season. I don't do anything fancy for my jewelry, just slide it into a big bag and tuck it back into the storage box. 

Barnabas, I see you. 

"Shhhh, I'm hiding!"

He didn't carry anything off. I'm amazed at how well-behaved they were. 

The wide-open jewelry box, all dusted and cleaned out. 

I see myself in the top mirror! 

And now that I've emptied everything and sorted out what to put away...it's time to unpack! This single velvet bag, and the box are my storage - they live in the den/closet room off-season. 

I'm gradually trying to shrink my collections, which is hard because I keep buying things! My goal is to cut it down to ZERO swap-over once I've retired, so I have two years to reduce this. Lots of time! 

As I unpacked each small bag, I determined: Keep, Let Go and Archive (for special pieces that I don't wear, but I'm not ready to let go of). 

I culled a small amount that were no longer speaking to my style, and they'll be in my next Limbo sale. As I emptied bags, I refilled them with all the pieces going into storage. It always works out - the box and bag are ready to go away for another six months. 

As noted, I needed to be more secure with my day-to-day storage. I reminded myself, "Just because "this is how I've always done it" doesn't mean it has to stay that way!"

A good example: I put all of my copper earrings into the top lid of the big jewelry box, where I can see them and they're out of the reach of Whateley. 

The ring drawer is all of my "home-grown" vintage and actual vintage rings, mostly my meaningful pieces and old family rings. 

On the right are the chunky rings, too big for anywhere else. 

The next drawer is my large jangly pearl bracelet, the gold-tone leafy bracelet and some party earrings. 

I also moved my real gold hoops to this drawer, instead of taking up all that top lid space that they've lived in up till now.  

The quad earring drawer stayed pretty much the same. 

Mixed colours in the back, then gold(tone) and silver in the front. 

Then a drawer of bracelets, with the Jenny Bird cuff and small crystal bracelet on the left. 

I put all my copper bracelets (three of them that stayed out) on the right. I am fond of dumping the drawers out onto the bed and pawing through them. 

And finally, the last drawer, which is deep and holds my large leather cuffs. 

That's my UVic ID card that lives in the bottom - me in 1999. 

Then all the necklaces get hung up. 

The right side is the gold-tone ones and colourful statement necklaces, a mix of vintage and costume. 

And on the left are my copper necklaces and my silver/cool tones.

I enjoy being able to see it all and run my fingers through them while I look for inspiration. They're quite heavy, not easily filched by a wee kitten! 

A few of the bowls and dishes still got used. That's the candy dish barely shown in the upper right, full of my copper cuffs.

To the left of that are my big earrings...and another bowl of big earrings in front of that (I really like big light earrings!). 

And here's Gram's jewelry box, all tidy and nice. 

Holding my amber collection on the top level, a few pieces of golden in the sides of the lower drawer, with my Sherman crystal necklaces in the centre compartment. The earrings are in a removeable tray - I like to pull this out and peruse it. 

The bangle holder has a slightly different distribution and colour mix. Oh, yeah, I love those pieces! 

And there's my divided candy dish full of earrings. The pink slip of paper is the info about the Katti brooch (still missing! boo!). 

And finally, the dessert holder full of bangles and smaller bracelets. 

And the big copper-enamel plate now holds my thin bangles and bracelets, which are a bit heavy for a kitten to carry off. 

But what's in these boxes? 

I've had the two wooden ones (both India-made) since the 90s, and they were sitting empty on my sunglasses shelf. May as well use them! 

The smaller box has my large chunky rings: the new cobra ring, my jeweled scarab and the big gold/turquoise ring. 

The skinny box has my silver rings that have blue or green on them (I have a lot of green and blue stone rings!). 

Inside the blue velvet Birks box (which came with a pair of earrings that Petra gave me years ago), now live my other coloured rings. It's easy to open/close without flipping the rings onto the floor.

The classic crystal ring holder (thrifted in Sidney ages ago) holds all the plain silver rings. 

I also went back to my "classic" set-up on top of my dresser, with the big jewelry box open in the right corner.

The dessert/bangle holder acts as a barrier and discourages exploration - there isn't a lot of room for little cat paws to stand here. I hung a few of my big/inconveniently-sized necklaces from push-pins on the wall. 

I put a few of the small leftover dishes into these drawers in my "Stuff" table and put most of my brooches here. 

Gold-tone on the left, silver on the right. I love having them where I can see them all. 

Well, Barnabas, that was my jewelry swap-over - what did you think? 

"I'm sleepy."

Aw, it's been an exciting day, hasn't it? 

Whateley is plotting his next move, I'm sure. 

"No, I'm over those kitten shenanigans."

They are 11 months old now - almost full-grown! As of the time of writing this, none of the jewelry has been explored, much less any thievery. Fingers crossed! 

I hope you enjoyed this, my friends! I'll have an outfit and adventure post up on Monday, so stay tuned! 

Spring-Summer 2026 Closet Swap-Over (with Video!)

Hello, my friends, and get yourself settled in, as I have a ton of pictures for you of my closet swap and as promised, there's a video! My last closet swap-over was here in early October 2025.

I spent most of Thursday, my usual day off, doing the closet. After breakfast, I assembled my necessary things. 

Cleaning products (I also used my Folex), a drink and two albums by Jenny Don't and the Spurs, who we went to see live on Friday night. I figured I should get more familiar with them before the show. 

I got the vacuum out.

"Are you a cleaner person now?"

Only for this, Whateley. Neither cat was fazed at all by my swap, although they were pooped after a full day of stimulation and excitement and slept all evening. 

Here's the Before shot of our room. Ignore the messy desk.

Everything else is basically closet space for me or L. 

Over the course of six months, the areas get messy as I paw though things. 

The kittens also get into this stuff (they like to pull all my scarves out of the tower). 

I did a thorough cleaning and went through everything in these areas, removing some to be sold at my next Limbo sale. 

There were a lot of things I just don't wear anymore, or aren't my style. It's a bit sad to let them go, but I won't miss them that much. 

L's shoe shelves haven't been tidied since I set them up, some time during the Pandemic.

I pulled everything off and tidied it up. 

I also had a gap from my old PVC studded purse - the pleather was dissolving, so that's gone into the Free Pile. 

I was eyeing all the empty boxes on here, thinking of new solutions for storing my jewelry that will not involve little kittens stealing things. 

My old faithful steamer, lingerie chest and that pile of stuff is Limbo-bound. 

I added about 5 times that to the pile, saying goodbye to things that no longer serve me. 

My purses and walking shoes.

I got rid of many pieces of my vintage lingerie as I tend to wear the same pieces over and over, and I did a drastic reduction in the number of purses I have. 

And now...the closet! 

The Before shot - I'm pretty good at keeping it tidy. I put everything back where it belongs. 

The kitties investigate. 

I see a Barnabas body down there. 

My sweaters are overstuffed. 

I thinned out quite a bit there, including some of my vintage things that had been stored way up high. Again, I'm not wearing them at all, so why keep them? 

Whateley, and oh, hello, that's me in the mirror. 

Well, shall we get started? 

I started on the left and work my way around to the right side, removing anything that I deem as "Not Spring or Summer."

You can see my ladder in the background, and the first piles of things I've removed (the long skirts have been done here). 

I pulled out everything from the shelving above the skirt-hang and made piles, refolding them nicely.

I decided what I wanted to keep out, then put it back on the shelves. Of course, I'm dusting and cleaning as I go. 

Now the pants and dresses have been gone though. 

Note how the hangers have all been turned backwards. 

I have a lot of dresses - the piles grew! 

My goal by the time I retire (est. 2028) is to only have to remove big bulky extreme weather pieces.

That's a nice big pile of hangers. 

I'd say about 50% of my wardrobe is all-year now. 

I rejigged my two short-hangs on the right, moving a bunch of cropped/shorter blazers up, moving my short skirts up to the front. On the bottom are my blouses and longer blazers/jackets, plus my Weird Adidas jackets. 

I found it hard to remember I had shorter skirts with them shoved to the back, and I hated the blouses being up high last season. I also have quite a few jackets, and I wanted more space for them. 

Then it's time to remove all the shoes and clean these shelves well. 

I use Murphy's Oil Soap on the (real) wood. That Windex is from me doing the mirror. 

Here are the shoes and boots, all lined up down the hall. 

Whateley is inspecting. 

I hadn't even unpacked my spring-summer shoes yet. 

And none of my walking shoes are here.

All of these were in my closet. 

Pretty impressive, right? Those shelves hold a ton! 

All done...but wait, where are all the spring-summer clothes? 

There's a big tub under here, plus a Fluevog bag full of clothes, and a couple of bags squashed under the shoe shelves. 

Whateley liked this tub.

"Mine?"

Sorry, buddy, nope. 

The rest of the clothes were in more Fluevog bags under the left side. 

This is much better than I had a few years ago - there were layers of bags then! 

The boys liked the bags. 

"We love this game!"    "Can I have this bag?"

As I unpacked the tub and each bag, I hung everything up, hanger backwards. 

Then it's time to unpack the summer shoes. 

These three tubs live under the bed. 

When I was done those, I turned my attention to these areas, as I also had scarves, belts and purses stored away. 

I cleaned all this shelving and refolded all my scarves, and moved a few things around on the wall.

L's shoes all tidied up. 

I shorted by colour: blue, purple, burgundy, red and greens. 

I put my Kermit shoes on this shelf.

I used the wooden boxes that had been stored on here, plus a velvet jewelry box...but you'll have to stay tuned, as I'm going to do the jewelry in a separate post. 

The top of my lingerie chest.

Handy things like scissors, safety pins and bulldog clips, unworn small purchases. 

All my purses out looking pretty, and my walking shoes. 

I missed my pink sequined sneakers! 

I did collages of the items I didn't wear this season. 

I let go of the orange thing (edit: nope, I gave it another shot), and the cool lace-print jeans (way too tight). The acid wash denim dress gets another go in the spring-summer closet (it always gets a pass), and I'd hoped to wear my Depeche Mode "Personal Jesus" dress, but the occasion never came along. 

I moved the sequined dress into Limbo (I wore it for 15 years!), and put the berries and lilies dress into my dress collection. Again, I'd hoped to wear it, but just didn't have the right event. 

The pink vinyl mini is still fun - it's back in for spring-summer. 

Not shown: my Stella McCartney grey nylon jacket also didn't get worn, but it's set aside for an outfit! 

But this leather Helmut Lang mini didn't make the cut and is off to Limbo.

Three pairs of shoes that were up high...I packed them all away. I'm not ready to deal with them just yet. There's no rush! 

And here we are, all done. 

But that's not very satisfying, so please enjoy a video....

HERE. 

I have a YouTube channel, so it's totally safe to go there, no worries. I would not steer you wrong! 

I was totally impressed with the kittens, who only once chewed on a ribbon. 

"I see a deer in the tree!"        "Barnabas, that is a crow."

Barnabas watching the crows. 

"Deer! Deer!"

They were totally chill about the whole thing. 

"Whatever."

I hope you enjoyed this, my friends! I'll have the jewelry swap up in a day or so.