A graphic of an open jewellery box with various rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings in it, also some jewels strewn around the table around the box
Episode 181 – Sentimental jewellery

Episode 310 – How to choose what to wear with Jennifer Mackey-Mary
Episode 309 – The evolution from chaotic to calm
Have you got lots of lovely jewellery some of which you’ve had for decades? Over time, jewellery becomes sentimental and that makes it harder for us to make the right decisions about it when we are decluttering. In today’s podcast we're talking all about sentimental jewellery.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
[00:00:00] Ingrid: Have you got lots of jewelry, some of which you've had for decades? Over time, jewelry becomes sentimental and that makes it harder for us to make the right decisions about what to do with it when we are decluttering. In today's podcast, we're talking all about sentimental jewelry.

[00:00:20] Now, Leslie, before we start with this podcast, I'm wondering how many times I'm going to trip over the world. Jewelry, because that's quite, that's quite a tricky word to get out, isn't it, actually? Quite hard. 

[00:00:33] Lesley: I think it's quite a hard word for, for, I mean, you're more or less a native speaker now, to be fair, you've been here that long.

[00:00:39] But, um, jewelry, I think it's quite a hard word anyway, even if that's your language. 

[00:00:45] Ingrid: Yeah. And what we also realized in America and here, we spell it differently. So in America it's Jewel ry and we say, right, Jewel er y. Which I think makes it even more of a tongue twister. I'm not sure 

[00:00:59] Lesley: it's an American versus British thing.

[00:01:02] I think, I think there's two ways that people spell it in both languages. 

[00:01:08] Ingrid: Ah, 

[00:01:09] Lesley: well, I don't think it's like one in America or Canada or wherever and one everywhere else or whatever. I don't even know where people spell it, but anyway, but I think there are two spellings here in the UK as well. 

[00:01:25] Ingrid: Okay. Well, we'd be wrong.

[00:01:28] We do the jewelry, but I think that's what makes it a tongue twister. Anyway, so today we are talking about sentimental jewelry, Leslie. Yes, well 

[00:01:40] Lesley: done. You said it very nicely. Yeah. So jewelry quite often gets left. Like we just don't do it because it's a little bit awkward and it's a little bit small and it's just kind of in a box somewhere or in a drawer somewhere.

[00:01:53] And it's not really, it's not going to be as big in terms of wins, is it? As doing your wardrobe or doing your kitchen or doing your bathroom. It's kind of leave it. And honestly, when you do do it, I'm not going to lie. It takes a while, doesn't it? Because we're talking about lots of tiny little things. But today we're not talking about just jewellery, all jewellery.

[00:02:15] We're talking mostly about sentimental jewellery, which is slightly different. We have done a podcast on general jewellery, which we just looked at and was 145 episodes ago. So if you're interested in a general jewellery podcast, do go back and look at that because we talk about all types of jewellery.

[00:02:32] But today we're really going to go down the sentimental route, aren't we? So Ingrid, what makes jewellery sentimental? 

[00:02:40] Ingrid: Oh, that is a really good question. I think Either if it's passed down within the family from like maybe a grandmother to a mother to a child. So that I think makes it sentimental. I think it makes it sentimental when it was worn at a special occasion.

[00:02:57] And that can be a 21st birthday party to a wedding to a when you were a bridesmaid or whatever it was. So something really like a special event makes it sentimental. And I think it makes it sentimental for, from the person that gave it to you. I think that really depends as 

[00:03:17] Lesley: well. Yeah, it does. And I think one of the things actually that we quite often think about when it's sentimental jewelry is whether it's costumed jewelry or real in inverted commas jewelry.

[00:03:26] So something that's made out of precious metals or something that's just made out of. Something random, that's not a precious metal, I don't know what that would be. Costume jewellery as opposed to real jewellery. I think that also in our minds becomes then sentimental jewellery or more special jewellery than the other.

[00:03:43] So this is interesting because we don't quite know ourselves what sentimental jewellery is, do we? We know what's sentimental to us, but is that actually sentimental? This is the question. 

[00:03:52] Ingrid: Yeah, and I think as well, I think definitely value, I think in your own mind, if you know something that is gold or silver or platinum or has maybe a small diamond or whatever it, I think you're more almost attached to it, maybe because it's more expensive, I don't know.

[00:04:12] I mean, I don't have tons of that really, really nice stuff, so maybe that's makes it more special. 

[00:04:18] Lesley: Yeah, I know. I know you're right. And a lot of a lot of our truly, truly sentimental jewelry we wear. So wedding rings, engagement rings, um, eternity rings, you know, quite often we'll have neck people put special things around, uh, into necklaces.

[00:04:30] And so we do have sentimental jewelry that we wear all the time. But I guess what we're talking about when we talk about decluttering, cause you're not going to go. Declutter your wedding ring, unless something that's gone awry. Um, are you in general, you kind of keep it on. So I really want to talk about that kind of sentimental jewelry that would just stays in a box for a reason that is unknown.

[00:04:50] And that's what we're going to talk about because the bottom line is when it comes to sentimental jewelry, and you talked a lot about things having been passed down. It's all about whose memories are they, which is everything when it comes to sentimental stuff. And this is one of the reasons why we typically get stuck when it comes to sentimental items because we get things passed down to us, but actually they don't hold any sentimental attachment to us.

[00:05:14] We have no memories associated with them, but we feel like they're sentimental because somebody gave them to us and they've been passed down through the generation. Now, quite often, those things. Might become sentimental because of that, but they weren't always sentimental. Does that make sense? 

[00:05:32] Ingrid: Yes. Yes.

[00:05:33] And for me, I'm not thinking already like in my own situation. So my mother downsized last year and she gave me the, I think the ring that belonged to my grandmother. It's really nice, but I will probably never wear it. So, but it's still sentimental because I remember my grandmother wearing it, but sometimes you get kept, you've got like, you find this maybe a little gold chain or something in your, in your jewelry books.

[00:06:01] And it's like. Was that mine? Or did, who gave that to me? Or was it passed down? I'm not completely sure. Is it actually gold? Or does it just look gold? You know, there's lots of kind of thinking going on when you're trying to do this project. And that's why I think what makes it quite tricky to do and not a quick kind of one hour job.

[00:06:23] Unless you've got like five pieces of jewelry, but that's mostly never the case, is it? 

[00:06:28] Lesley: I think, I think some people are more jewellery wearers than others, do you know what I mean? And I think some people go down the sentimental jewellery rather than the costume jewellery route as well. So I think it really makes a difference in that perspective.

[00:06:41] But just getting down to the nitty gritty of this. First things first, let's talk about jewellery that's been handed down through the generations. Should it be sentimental and should we keep it just because it was passed down through the generations, Ingrid? 

[00:06:54] Ingrid: No. Uh, no, I just because it's been handed, it's, it's with everything else.

[00:06:59] It's just like furniture, it's with artwork, it's with photograph, just because it's passed down doesn't mean we need to keep it. I think the same goes for jewelry. So, unless you've got a memory attached to it, like with the ring of my grandmother, I remember her wearing it. I mean, she passed away a long, long time ago, but I can still see her in my, in my vision, in my, inside my head.

[00:07:24] With that ring that is different than something that she might wore but I can't even remember So I don't think you necessarily need to keep it 

[00:07:34] Lesley: Yeah, you've got to have a memory associated with it. And as I say, it's that big thing, isn't it? With, with sentimental items, whose memory is it? And it's so important that you've got that tangible memory.

[00:07:45] So you get that warm, fuzzy feeling inside when you see that. But then my argument is, should that then lie in a jewelry box? So if it is highly sentimental to you, what we quite often do, particularly if it's, if it's expensive or we believe that it's expensive. We don't wear it when we would our normal costume jewelry, because in our mind, we've got a distinction between costume jewelry that we just throw on with normal clothes and then other jewelry that we need to keep for a special occasion.

[00:08:14] Because it's got that sentimental attachment, we almost think, well, we need to keep it for a really special occasion. And that's one of the things, actually. That I did quite recently when I did my jewelry last was I found a necklace that had belonged to my grandma didn't have massive amounts of sentimental attachment to it, but it was my grandma's and she was very special to me and it was very beautiful, but it wasn't quite what I would normally wear.

[00:08:40] But now I've started wearing it. And so now it's just in with all my other necklaces. I feel more special when I'm wearing that because it's got this added. Kind of sentiments touch it. And I feel it feels nice to wear it and it feels that I'm honoring her and it's lovely to wear it, but I haven't put it somewhere different.

[00:08:56] What we quite often do is we put these things somewhere different. Don't we in a different jewelry box in a different section. Why do we do that? Why don't we just bring all these things together? 

[00:09:07] Ingrid: Yes, Leslie, I think you're making a very valid point here. The thing is, if it's special. We sometimes end up putting it somewhere differently and not in our kind of Main kind of area that we see it and because we kind of tuck it away somewhere we're not being reminded to wear it and I also was thinking, when you said that, it's almost like we want to save it for best.

[00:09:33] I mean, you know, we want to wear it on special occasions. It's the same when we keep clothes for best, or a whole dinner service for best. But when's best? You know? If we wait for the moment to be perfect, we're never going to get around to wearing it. And it's the same with the jewelry. Why could you not wear a nice golden necklace on a Tuesday morning?

[00:09:52] You know what I mean? Why not? 

[00:09:54] Lesley: No, you're so right. So all of what we talk about sentimental jewelry here, but you're absolutely right. This is applicable to any kind of sentimental items. And what we do is we create a barrier, don't we? That stops us from using that stops us from enjoying it. And the stops is honoring that memory.

[00:10:09] You know what I mean? We kind of almost. Put it somewhere special in a box, in a loft, in a garage, in a basement, in the back of a cupboard, in a safe, wherever that is, that means that we don't use it and we don't honor that memory. And so that's kind of strange, isn't it? We should totally not be doing that.

[00:10:25] So we're here to say today, bring these. Things, whether it's any other sentimental items or indeed jewelry that we're talking about today, and use them, honor them, enjoy them, love them. Share those stories with the people around you. That's what's so important, isn't it, Ingrid? Yeah. Yeah. I 

[00:10:42] Ingrid: mean you, if you have a 10,000 pound ring with a diamond in it, you might want to, don't want to wet it when you're scrubbing your loo on a, on a Thursday afternoon, but, Everything else completely applicable.

[00:10:54] Don't wait for best, because that day might never come, and the best is past you before you know it! I know. And then you regret it. Yeah.

[00:11:02] Okay. So we're back for part two, all about sentimental jewelry, Leslie. 

[00:11:09] Lesley: Yeah. I think the first thing that I wanted to talk about when it comes to the practicalities of decluttering sentimental jewelry is really look at the sort of quality of it.

[00:11:17] Is it tangled? Is it broken? Is it tarnished? So does it need attention now? The problem is, and you know me, Ingrid, I've not got the biggest amount of patients in the world. I'm not really that patient person. As Ingrid says, I like to live my life at 200 miles an hour. I manage, I manage actually to find patients when it comes to my clients, but I'm not very good.

[00:11:40] When it comes to my own patients, so if you gave me a tangled up jumble of jewelry with a client, I would sit there for hours on tangling it. But if you gave that to me, I would give it to somebody else in my family to do. Isn't that weird? 

[00:11:51] Ingrid: That's weird. What 

[00:11:53] Lesley: about you? Are you patient enough to sit there with tangled chains and stuff?

[00:11:58] Ingrid: You know, it's so funny. My client yesterday said to me, Ingrid, I just love it how patient you are. I'm like, can I please record you? Have this on tape so I can share this with other people. Because normally I'm quite impatient, but for some reason, I just really have the patience to, to sit, sit down and do these jobs with my clients.

[00:12:18] But indeed at home, I would say, Anne, you, you, you untangle this for me. I don't know make a time for that. So interesting. So interesting because I'm exactly the same. But anyway, what 

[00:12:26] Lesley: we want to talk about is if you're doing a jewelry declutter of any kind, and you're going to have to do this stuff. Yeah.

[00:12:34] You need to make sure that if something is tangled, broken or tarnished, that you untangle it. Unbreak it or untarnish it. Yeah. So you're going to need to clean it if it can be cleaned or take it somewhere to be cleaned. You're going to have to, if it's a broken chain, then you're going to need to get it fixed if you want to keep it.

[00:12:51] And if it's tangled up, then you're going to have to spend that time on tangling it because you can't do a jewelry declutter. Unfortunately, without doing this stuff, you wouldn't leave all your clothes if you were doing a wardrobe declutter stuffed in a bag at the bottom of your wardrobe and never look at them.

[00:13:06] Otherwise you wouldn't have done the job appropriately. So we really do have to get down to the nitty gritty when it comes to jewelry decluttering, don't we? It's long. It can take as long as doing a whole wardrobe. Let me tell you, can't it? Oh, 

[00:13:18] Ingrid: absolutely. I mean, I've done several jewelry declutters with clients, both costume jewelry and sentimental jewelry, and some of it very cheap, some of it very expensive.

[00:13:30] And just finding the right sets of earrings, Leslie, you know, with the backs on them, you know, and then trying to untangle lots of little bracelets and very, very thin gold chains. I mean, it's just, but it is worth it. It is 

[00:13:45] Lesley: worth it and it's worth it because what that means is all of a sudden we reconnect with our things and we start to wear them which is what this is all about what's the point of having things in a jewelry box if they're never ever going to get looked at what's the point yeah that's what this is all about reconnect with those stuff bring them back into into use get them cleaned up look at them and think oh i really like that you know Fashions change hugely.

[00:14:10] The kind of things in jewellery that we should be keeping is the sentimental or the old fashioned jewellery or the, um, you know, the ones that have been around for decades that don't date. And the costume jewellery typically dates very quickly, doesn't it? Yeah. 

[00:14:23] Ingrid: I, I had a gesture, Leslie. I, I had a... Uh, uh, a kind of greenish top on and I thought, Oh, it had a bit of a, kind of a cowl neck, so a bit lower.

[00:14:31] So I thought, Oh, a nice piece of jewellery. And I thought, Oh, I've got this green butterfly thing in my, in my jewellery, kind of, my hanging system. And I put it on and I thought, No. We're way past this now. This is the, I mean, the colour was perfect, but it just didn't look good. So that's, I think, one of my things I'm going to declutter soon, because...

[00:14:52] But I just had to get my, I've had to get my head, my own head around it and I'm like, No, we're, we're, we're behind, that's behind us now. 

[00:15:00] Lesley: Yeah, no, it definitely is. I think jewellery fashions definitely go through quite quickly. But this is what's difficult about sentimental jewellery, because that also dates.

[00:15:08] So more expensive jewellery definitely dates. So what do we do with that? So if it's really dated, but it's still got sentimental value attached to it, how do we get through that? So if you've got a really, you know, tiny, very thin ring from when you were very young, and you typically wear something that's got more punch to it, let's call it, What do you do with that piece of gold that you were given when you were 18 years old that you're not going to put on your finger?

[00:15:30] But you do want to remember the sentiment and I am a big fan, as you know, of repurposing jewelry and putting it into something that you will absolutely use. And so do think about this because, you know, I've got a ring on that's two or three pieces of jewelry brought together. And I do think about the sentiment to all three when I'm wearing the ring.

[00:15:49] And so you can still regain the sentiment because you know what went into it. And so I think that's something that people just leave for a rainy day. Do that now because actually you can get a brand new piece of jewelry, which is very beautiful Which you would wear today for not that much money because actually the cost of it is in the gold and the diamonds and the rib Whatever you've got to put into it That's where the real cost of a piece of jewelry is and actually you'll just pay for the making up and if you're lucky And the cost of gold or silver or platinum is it a good you might actually make money back Yeah.

[00:16:21] Ingrid: Yeah. I think it's, this is really a project, isn't it, Leslie? This is not something you can do over, over, over a day. You know, this is, it, it, it, this requires several steps, but I love the idea of repurposing. But of course a very important step in, in that is to find somebody that you. Trust a good, a good company, a good jewelers with a good reputation, or maybe somebody that, you know, you can create something for you that you like their style.

[00:16:50] So this is not kind of a quick, quick, quick. This is okay. But the first step is finding that jewelry. Realizing what is, what is sentimental and what is valuable and what is costume. And then with the valuable stuff, is this something that I actually like to wear? So it's, it's a phased approach, isn't it?

[00:17:09] You're 

[00:17:10] Lesley: so right, Ingrid, when you say that this is a project. If you're in the middle of decluttering your wardrobe and you find your jewelry collection, do not stop your wardrobe decluttering, your clothes decluttering to suddenly get waylaid by your jewelry because all of a sudden that's going to span hours and hours and hours and you're never going to get your wardrobe done.

[00:17:28] So it's very separate. It's sentimental. It's difficult. It's small. It's As you say, it's got several steps to it. There's going to be a lot of action points to it. So this is definitely something that's going to come at the end of your decluttering project in your bedroom. Isn't it Ingrid? 

[00:17:43] Ingrid: That's the reason why we've put sentimental jewelry in our sorting out sentimental course.

[00:17:48] Isn't it Leslie? Because we know. That jewelry, unless it's all costume and an old cheap, that can be done. Then when your bedroom is done, you can go, right, I'm going to finish it off. And I'm going to, if your jewelry is in your bedroom, which it normally is, I'm going to do the jewelry. But if you know that it spans a lot of sentimental items, it is wiser to do other parts of your house first.

[00:18:10] And then at the end of your decluttering journey, do your sentimental items. And that's exactly the reason why sentimental jewelry is in our sorting out sentimental course that we have. 

[00:18:21] Lesley: So anyway, just to recap on what we've spoken about sentimental jewelry today. First things first, we need to really think about whose memory is it.

[00:18:29] If you have no sentimental attachment to it, but somehow in your mind it's sentimental because it belongs to somebody else, really think that through. Is that something that you need to keep? Make sure that you bring your most precious pieces in with your general jewelry collection. If you can, if it's not like...

[00:18:46] Hundreds of thousands of pounds, because that would not be sensible. So that you see it every day and you will choose it. Don't create this barrier. So, so important. If you're going to do a jewelry project, it's really important for you to do that at the end of the rest of your decluttering, because it is a big process with lots and lots of different steps.

[00:19:04] So a sentimental jewelry project is a lovely project to do. It takes time. It takes energy. It can be lovely. It can be very special. But it's very, very labor intensive, isn't it, Ingrid? 

[00:19:15] Ingrid: Yes, but lovely because you're going to find lots of stuff that you have forgotten you had and that you suddenly think, Ha!

[00:19:23] Look at this! It's a bit like finding a treasure when you're doing a wardrobe decluttering. You suddenly find a top that you... For completely had forgotten you had and it's the same thing with jewelry and you can then really mix and match it with your outfits in your decluttered wardrobe. So it all starts to fit together.

[00:19:39] Definitely repurpose some of this jewelry. If you think to yourself, you know what, I'm never going to wear that, but see if you can create something differently so you can get the wear out of it and enjoy those pieces in a different way. So that's it for this episode, Leslie. Next week, we are talking about gathering like with like, so we're going to go to a completely different part of the decluttering and organising process.

[00:20:06] So I'm looking forward to it. 

[00:20:08] Lesley: I know we're going to go all the way from the end, all the way back to the beginning. 

[00:20:11] Ingrid: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's how it goes. It's a decluttering and organising. So thanks so much for being here and we'll see you next week.
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Debbie Riley says:

19 March 2022 at 7:25 PM

A pleasure to listen to as always. Never thought of combining special jewellery before. Definitely a project! Thankyou lovely ladies.

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1. Ingrid Jansen says:
  
  23 March 2022 at 4:21 PM
  
  Hi Debbie, Thank you for your comment and we’re delighted we have inspired you. Ingrid
  
  Reply
Episode 181 – Sentimental jewellery

Episode 310 – How to choose what to wear with Jennifer Mackey-Mary

Episode 309 – The evolution from chaotic to calm

Episode 307 – 10 household things people get seriously passionate about

Episode 306 – Navigating motherhood in a fast paced world with Zoe Blaskey

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