How to Organize and Store Your Hair Accessories — A System That Actually Works
Hair accessory organization has a specific failure mode: it looks great on Pinterest and falls apart by Tuesday. The beautiful trays, the perfect hooks, the dedicated drawer — all undermined by the reality that you put the bow back wherever you were standing when you took it out of your hair.
A system that works has to be built around that reality, not against it. Here’s what that looks like.
The Honest Assessment First
Before organizing anything, it’s worth asking what you actually reach for and what you haven’t touched in six months.
Most people have:
- A core rotation of 4-6 items they wear constantly
- A backup layer of occasional-use pieces
- An accumulation layer of things that were impulse purchases or gifts and never really found their place
The organization system needs to serve the first category and contain the other two. Treating all three categories the same is why systems fail — when everything is equally prominent, the things you actually use get buried, you can’t find them, and you start keeping them on the counter next to the sink.
Step one: Pull everything out. Separate into the three categories above. Be honest about the accumulation layer — things you haven’t worn in a year are probably not going to find their time. Set them aside. The organizing system is built for what you actually use.
The Working System
Core rotation — keep visible and immediately accessible. These pieces go where you get dressed or do your hair. Options that work:
A small shallow tray on the dresser or bathroom shelf. Wide and flat, so nothing is buried under anything else. You should be able to see every piece in the tray at a glance. Four to six items maximum — this isn’t storage, it’s staging.
A hook or rod inside the wardrobe door. Bow clips can hang from small hooks; ribbon bows can be pinned or clipped to a fabric loop. This works particularly well if you get dressed in front of your wardrobe.
A small cup or vessel for clip bows — the kind where you clip them to the rim and they hang accessibly. Better than piling them in a bowl where the bottom items get lost.
Occasional-use pieces — stored, not staged. These go in a drawer or box, but stored properly to maintain their condition:
Bow shapes: lay flat with the loops shaped correctly. A small piece of tissue inside the loops keeps them round. Don’t pile bows on top of each other without protection between.
Silk and chiffon pieces: fold as little as possible. Store in a fabric pouch if possible, or lay flat in a divided drawer insert.
Clips and barrettes: clipped to a fabric strip or laid flat. Don’t dump clips in a container where they tangle.
The accumulation layer — containerized and reviewed. If you’re keeping it, it goes in a box in a drawer with a lid. Review twice a year. If something hasn’t moved from the box in six months, be honest about whether it ever will.
Material-Specific Storage
Grosgrain ribbon bows: Very low maintenance. Lay flat or hang from a hook. Grosgrain doesn’t crease badly and holds its shape well in storage.
Silk and chiffon bows: Store flat, never folded, with loops shaped. Away from direct light (which degrades silk over time). Not in plastic bags (which trap moisture) — fabric pouches or open trays are better.
Lace pieces: Lay flat, not folded. Keep separated from other pieces to prevent the lace from catching on hardware. A layer of tissue paper between pieces is ideal.
Crystal and embellished bows: Store individually or separated — crystals scratch each other and can scratch softer materials. A divided box insert or individual fabric pouches.
Ribbon lengths (for tying yourself): Wound loosely and secured with a light clip or twist tie. Not wound tightly around anything — this creates crease lines that are difficult to remove from silk.
The Daily Use Reality
The best organization system is one that makes putting things away as easy as getting them out. If returning a bow to its proper place requires two steps (opening a box, then laying the bow flat), but leaving it on the counter requires zero steps, the counter will win most mornings.
The working solution: make the storage location as close to zero steps as possible. A hook right where you take off your accessories. A tray right where you stand when you do your hair. The path of least resistance should lead to the right place.
The counter isn’t actually wrong as a storage location, provided it’s organized. A small tray on the bathroom counter is a legitimate home for your core rotation — the problem isn’t the counter, it’s the uncontrolled accumulation on it.
A Realistic Maintenance Schedule
Daily: Nothing, if the system is set up correctly. Putting the bow back should be automatic.
Weekly: A 60-second check — are things where they should be? Is the core tray getting cluttered with occasional-use pieces?
Monthly: A 5-minute check of the occasional-use storage — anything that’s migrated into there that should be in the core rotation? Anything in the core tray that you’ve stopped wearing?
Twice yearly: Review the accumulation layer. Edit if it’s grown. Any silk or lace pieces that need cleaning?
[Explore pieces worth organizing — the Berkam collection →]
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best way to store ribbon hair bows?
Lay flat with the loops shaped correctly, ideally with a small piece of tissue inside each loop to maintain the round shape. Keep away from direct light (which degrades silk) and avoid folding or compressing bow shapes. Grosgrain bows are the most robust in storage; silk and chiffon bows benefit from fabric pouches or flat drawer storage with minimal stacking.
How do you organize a hair accessories drawer?
Divide the drawer into zones: a shallow tray or insert section for your core rotation (4-6 pieces you use constantly), and organized compartments for occasional-use pieces. Store bows flat rather than piled. Clip accessories to a fabric strip or lay in divided compartments rather than dumping them together. The goal is to see every piece without moving others.
How do you store silk hair accessories?
Silk accessories should be stored flat, not folded, away from direct light and humidity. Avoid plastic bags (which trap moisture) — fabric pouches or open trays are better. For silk bows, maintain the loop shape with a small piece of tissue inside. Keep silk pieces away from crystals or rough hardware that might snag the fabric.
How many hair accessories is too many?
The right amount is whatever you actually rotate through. Most people have a genuine core rotation of 4-8 pieces and accumulate far more than that over time. A useful test: lay out everything you own and identify what you’ve worn in the past three months. That’s your actual rotation; everything else is accumulation. The accumulation isn’t necessarily wrong to keep, but it shouldn’t drive your organization system.
Should hair accessories be stored in the bathroom or bedroom?
Either works, but the key factor is proximity to where you use them. If you do your hair in the bathroom, your core rotation should be accessible there. If you get dressed in the bedroom, that’s where your most-used pieces belong. The mistake is organizing everything in one perfect location that isn’t actually where you are when you need the piece.
