Pin 135

Original pin:

http://colbyalmond.com/12-creative-ideas-the-will-change-your-life/

Once again, I am looking for the simple ways to change. my. life. (OMG!!!)
If you remember, I tried the straw-in-the-soda back at Pin 126.  Next up--number 4, perfect jewelry.

At the beginning of September I traveled to Chicago for an educational work-related conference. In packing my jewelry I remembered this trick. Not as easy as it looks.

First, none of the jewelry I wanted to pack fit through normal straws that I had in the pantry.  The clasps were just too large. I must have very tiny straws, right?? I guess that's just what you get when you shop at the dollar store.

See all the clasps up next to that "normal sized" straw.

Lucky me, I save those kid cups with the giant straws from restaurants. Smart, clever me will just use those instead.

Well, that worked for some. . . but not all. Either that clasp in the original picture is super tiny or my necklace clasps are gigantic. I fit the ones I could through the big straws and the rest just got packed in my jewelry case like normal. I even forced one through by smashing the straw a little flat first.

smashed straw

I was a little worried about the excess that wasn't through the straw getting tangled on its own and then having to untangle it WITH the straw complicating the whole mess.

So did it work?? Absolutely! It was so awesome to be able to pull out one necklace at a time.  Not a single snag or knot to deal with.

Total cost: $0

Total time: 10 minutes. Problem solving time here.

Final verdict: I may never throw those restaurant straws away again. They were the perfect size for my jewelry travel case. Even though not all my items fit through them, it was nice to have over half of them contained. The two that didn't fit were nicely separated by the strawed ones so I had zero tangles to mess with. I did have a little trouble getting the one I had forced through the smashed straw out and didn't want to pull too hard. I wouldn't recommend forcing them through like that. Overall, if you can make it work with what you have, I would recommend it.