Home Reviews Traveling With Jewelry Is a Struggle. This Solution Costs Just $4.

Traveling With Jewelry Is a Struggle. This Solution Costs Just $4.


Leather jewelry cases, silky jewelry rolls, zip-top bags—I have tried just about everything to keep my jewelry organized on vacation. And I have failed.

I have scooped a palmful of earrings from a jewelry case, unable to find a matching pair. I have lost a ring for years in the crevices of a toiletry bag. I have spent an hour in an Amsterdam hotel trying to untangle two necklaces. When I finally pried apart the knot with the paper clip I carry for SIM-card ejection, I thought: If I can MacGyver this, I can figure out a better way to travel with my jewelry.

The solution, it turned out, was in my medicine cabinet: a simple, seven-day pill case from CVS. It has seven small compartments perfectly sized for the jewelry I usually travel with, including studs, small dangling earrings, and pendant necklaces.

With seven snap-close lids, a contoured bottom, and a translucent design, this pill case offers an inexpensive, simple, and easy way to keep smaller jewelry organized while you’re traveling.

One issue I’ve found with standard jewelry travel organizers is that they’re often too big for the palm-sized amount of jewelry I typically pack. They’re also too specific, with dedicated spots for necklaces, rings, and earrings, not all of which I end up using. With the pill case, I can take seven necklaces, seven earrings, or any combination.

An open green pill container with pieces of jewelry sitting below it.
You can fit a surprising amount of jewelry in a simple, seven-day pill case Maria Adelmann/NYT Wirecutter

With a pill case, each tiny compartment has its own lid, so your jewelry won’t shift or tangle in transit. (Many other compartmented boxes have a single lid with space between the walls and the lid.) Separate lids also make it easy to extract just one thing: Simply open a lid, flip over the whole case, and you get what you need without your other jewelry falling out.

Pill boxes tend to be translucent, so you can get an overview of what’s inside, and are often made of hard material like plastic, so your jewelry stays protected. The lids also offer a satisfying snap when they close, so you know your stuff is belted in for the ride. Plus, the newest version of CVS’s standard pill case has a contoured bottom, so you can easily slide an item out with just a finger.

My CVS pill case is also impressively compact. Slim and hardly longer than my hand, it slips easily into a toiletry case, a narrow suitcase pocket, or even the front pocket of a backpack.

But you don’t have to use my particular pill case. You might already have a pill case languishing at home that fits the bill. If you travel with even smaller jewelry than I do, you might prefer CVS’s medium pill case. And lots of other pill cases are available (yes, we have a guide), ranging in looks from clinical to surprisingly sleek. I recommend choosing one without a push-button design, so it doesn’t accidentally open while you’re on the move.

I also suggest considering the size of the case as a whole, as well as the size of its compartments. Too small, and your jewelry won’t fit; too big, and you risk the temptation to put too many pieces in one section. Although I’ll occasionally double up on studs in one compartment for a longer trip, packing much more defeats the simple ease of the pill-case method.

The system is not without flaws. Occasionally (rarely!), a necklace with a very thin chain tangles. And larger jewelry, including most bracelets, can’t fit.

Although my boilerplate advice is to take simple, versatile jewelry on a trip, even I don’t always comply. Sometimes I need my acrylic showstoppers or pom-pom earrings, logic be damned.

In those instances, I supplement my pill case with this five-compartment translucent box from The Container Store. Even though it has only one lid, the jewelry is too big to shift into another compartment. As a bonus, the larger container and the pill case fit together in the front zippered compartment of my L.L.Bean toiletry bag.

A person holding two translucent pill containers, one green and one clear, that contain many pieces of jewelry.
When I bring larger jewelry on a trip, I supplement my CVS pill case with a simple five-compartment box from The Container Store. Maria Adelmann/NYT Wirecutter

I’ll admit it: Jewelry travel cases and jewelry rolls can be alluringly luxe. Style-wise, a pill case just can’t compete. But much like the sneakers I wear every day instead of the heels I claimed I would wear when I bought them, the pill case has been my choice time and again in the face of a prettier option.

No matter how much I travel, I still dislike packing and living out of a suitcase. At this point, I’d probably pay hundreds of dollars for something that makes it easier. Luckily, this one costs only four.

This article was edited by Hannah Rimm and Maxine Builder.



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