Mom’s Jewelry Box, Armoire and Suede Chest.
Background. Mom fell and fractured her hip. She couldn’t put any weight on it for about 2 months. She had to be admitted into nursing care because a mechanized lift had to be used. We gave up her assisted living apartment because even if the hip mended her dementia had worsened to the point where she couldn’t live on her own. And, falling was a big concern. Previously, she had fallen and fractured a shoulder. Another time, she fell and had a head wound.
My task was going through her clothing and jewelry. I will write about that process later. In this post I’m going to write about her jewelry collection storage, covering the three she used. In her bedroom walk-in closet, she stored jewelry she wasn’t wearing. There were also several small jewelry and trinket boxes. For example, there was a little box containing her “Red Hat” jewelry collection. Once in a while she would take a box into her living room and sort through it. Because Mom was the last surviving member of her family, she ended up with everybody’s stuff and I found rings in various containers and had no idea whose they were. At first, I didn’t want to upset Mom so I didn’t show her anything. However, Mom doesn’t remember having her apartment. I took some clothing to her, she thought I was bringing her new stuff. Later, she forgot that I brought it and thought the nursing home was gave it to her. “They’re so good to me, they bring me stuff all the time.” I didn’t correct her. So, I started taking a few pieces.
The Suede Jewelry Chest. After going through the various storage boxes from the closet, I opened this. It contained nothing but pendants, which I learned later were called Enhancers, and metal collars and cords to wear them on. Great concept. It was overwhelming to me because I had no idea what some of the stones were and no idea about their cost. Thankfully, most of the Enhancers had “markings” identifying the metal used and often designer marks, and I found matches for most of these using Google searches.
I had the idea of hosting an “Enhancer Party” and found I had the perfect black leather case (with a handle) to put them in; and a black patent leather case (with a handle) to put the collars and cords in. I just finished creating posts of all the Enhancers (in groups).
The chest now contains Pearl jewelry. It is a design of Lori Greiner (the designer of Mom’s Jewelry Armoire, refer to the following entry). It is lined with an anti-tarnish fabric. Which reviews say really works. However, other reviews were negative “It’s falling apart”. The adhesive on Mom’s is coming loose in places. And, when you slide-out the hinged trays, the compartments on each end are not easily accessible. It appears that Greiner has discontinued making it.
Jewelry Armoire. I thought it was just a mirror. I didn’t know it had two sides full of jewelry. When my sister-in-law, Leeann, opened it I said, “I’m not dealing with that” and it went to the storage room. After going through what I had taken to my house, I realized the value of Mom’s jewelry and that I needed to get it out of storage before it was damaged by humidity. It was jam packed and it took me hours to get all the jewelry out. Especially difficult to remove were the hook earrings. Watch the videos, they promote the armoire as holding hundreds of pieces but note that they leave space between earrings so that they are easy to remove. Mom’s necklace hooks were also jam-packed resulting in tangled chains. FYI, the armoire is still in the storage room - anyone interested - send me a message.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s29TPL_-Qx8 .
Gold & Silver Safekeeper Double-Sided Jewelry Armoire by Lori Greiner with Jennifer Coffey (anti-tarnish for 25 yrs or more)
Holds over 850 pieces. 5 easy payments of 55.95 = 279.75
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6jPPj-i1N0 . Lori Greiner. 164 pair ER’s. 25 to 40 yrs. Clearance price of 249.96. She’s a Shark Tank star.
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