How to Organize Hair Accessories for a Clutter-Free Vanity
Sort through the jumble of scrunchies, hair ties, and bobby pins with these tips from a professional organizer.
I have a lot of hair, and this very full mane requires a mountain of hair accessories to keep it looking halfway decent, but I’m always in a rush when I’m rifling through everything in the mornings and this often leads to chaos on my bathroom vanity. Certified Professional Organizer Julie Bestry of Best Results Organizing in Chattanooga, TN says this is actually one of the biggest reasons her own clients struggle with maintaining their supply of hair accessories.
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“People are in a hurry! It’s morning, and they're late for work or school, so they grab something from the accessory pile, then perhaps discard it when it doesn't look right. They choose something else, and run off without taking the time to put anything away,” she explains. (Relatable, honestly.) So Bestry gave us her best tips for decluttering, storing, and maintaining all those pesky little hair pieces.
Habits You Should Break (and Make)
There are plenty of bad habits that perpetuate our messy cycles. Like we mentioned earlier, folks routinely zoom through their mornings, and then they’re too tired at the end of the day to put things away, Bestry adds. She suggests setting a reminder on your phone to work through rooms in the evenings and put things back where they belong, including any scrunchies and headbands laying around.
Another bad habit Bestry has seen in her clients is holding onto hair accessories they've never worn. “Focus on function first (by keeping only what you use), then organize by type,” she says. (Decluttering tips in a second down below!) Something else that people regularly do is purchase or DIY organizing set-ups that make it impossible or annoying to retrieve what you need—if it’s hard to access and put away, you’re far less likely to keep up the habit.
Sort and Declutter
In order to get your things…. in order, you should purge anything you no longer need. “There's no sense organizing what you're going to let go of, and you won't know how much space you'll need for each category until you jettison the excess,” Bestry says. She suggested asking yourself these questions to help the process along:
Is it damaged or uncomfortable? Let go of anything that is broken or cracked, and anything that causes discomfort. (A cute headband that gives you a headache isn’t worth saving!)
Is it out of style? Fashion trends come and go, and this applies to hair accessories. If you're holding onto pieces from another decade (or century), put them in the "dress-up chest" for your kids or in a "costume box" for Halloween.
Is it your style? Maybe somebody gave it to you as a gift or you bought it when you were in a different season of your life. Give yourself permission to wear and use only what you like.
Is it just a big nope? It's great to experiment, but no accessory is perfect for every person. Your fails need to be tossed or at least passed along to someone with a very different style, hair texture, or vibe.
Bestry also detailed these other common items you’re probably safe to nix:
Hairpins or bobby pins without the protective caps at the ends—they can scratch your scalp or pull out hair!
Metal barrettes that leave ridges in your hair
Fake hair pieces and enhancers like Bumpits. These tend to be impulse purchases, and if you weren't planning on buying a hair accessory before you saw the ad or the item on a store end-cap, you probably don't need it.
Anything that isn't suitable for school or work and is too complicated to wear safely and apply by yourself is a nope for your everyday hair accessory area.
With the exception of special-occasion items (and a lifestyle that includes actually wearing those special-occasion accessories), toss or donate what no longer fits your future (or current) life. Only donate hair items that are clean, and either unused or only gently used.
Divide and Store by Accessory Type
Now that you’ve pared down, you can start organizing your accessories. Bestry says the key is to categorize by type and like-with-like together. See below for tips and product suggestions that’ll help.
Scrunchies and Ponytail Elastics
Corral them on a colorful carabiner, just as you'd arrange keys on a keychain. (This works better for thin elastics than fat scrunchies.) You can also repurpose plastic shower curtain rings if you don't have (or want to buy) a carabiner.
Hang them on removable wall hooks. Stick a few on the wall, with only a few to each hook, or combine with the carabiner suggestion, and hang the carabiners on the hooks.
Use a sectioned sock divider to display your scrunchies in a drawer. The key is to make it simple so you can see what you have at a glance (and then put it away with minimal effort).
You can buy a vertical acrylic scrunchies holder stand like this one, but a dollar-store, plastic, paper towel holder works just as well. Scrunchies will stack loosely, and you can pull them up and over the others if you want one from the bottom. A totally free option: Pile scrunchies on an empty paper towel roll insert.
Lots of extra large scrunchies can also go into a clear glass or plastic cookie jar or canister, just make sure it has a wide-enough mouth to insert your hand and grab the right color or style.
Hair Bow Clips and Barrettes
Clip them to a grid wire wall panel.
Buy and hang a pretty hair bow holder with vertical panels for attaching bows and barrettes, like this product.
Headbands
Acrylic or velvet headband holders are excellent for displaying everything at once on a t-bar or vertically and providing easy access.
You can also hang a headband holder with elastic bands to keep lots and lots of headbands (or ribbons) in place. This is suitable if you have much more vertical space than horizontal space.
Large Hair Clips and Claw Clips
Steal a bungee cord from the garage, or grab a retractable laundry line from the household travel supplies, and use it for clipping claw clips and baby clips. Just pinch a clip to add or remove it from the line.
Tiny Elastics, Dreadlock Beads, and Decorative Pins
Store in clean baby food jars or other small, open-mouthed jars arranged on a tray or in a drawer
Keep them divided in an ice cube tray.
Cut a length of pretty grosgrain ribbon from the fabric store and attach barrettes and stylized bobby pins. Hang the ribbon from a bulletin board or attach a Velcro loop so it can be wrapped around a towel rack in the bathroom or an accessory hook in the closet.
For regular bobby pins, instead of a bowl or repurposed ashtray-full that are like to spill over your counter, stand them up in clean prescription bottles. Shake out a handful (TicTac-style) and then put the lid back on. Alternatively, you can always clip them onto the edge of an empty toilet paper roll; they will stay put as long as they fit tightly. Older or misshapen bobby pins are often too loose to properly pinch.
Muffin or cupcake tins (whether metal or silicone) are great for corralling the tiniest hair accessories into groups. Baby claw clips, hair pins, or barrettes can be sorted by color, style, size, or unique attributes.
Multi-purpose Storage Solutions
If you'd prefer to use one type of product to house all your different types of accessories, check out the below ideas.
Try stackable glass or plastic vanity containers.
Colorful plastic weave baskets from Target, dollar store, or Amazon, shallow enough to use in drawers or atop a vanity.
Shallow plastic bins like the The Home Edit By IDesign Hair Accessory Bin With Sliding Tray lets you see you accessories and keep them neat and accessible without them getting buried under layers.
Over-the-door shoe organizers with clear mesh pockets (most suitable for large headbands, headscarves, and big ribbons)
Hanging plastic organizers with small plastic pockets work similarly to the over-the-door shoe organizers but can hang in a closet, from a valet hook, or on an over-the-door hook in the bathroom.
If you've got multiple kids using hair accessories, set up a pegboard with hooks and scooped hanging bins for your scrunchies, hair elastics, headbands, claw clips, etc. Add labels (or photos so kids not yet old enough to read still know where to return things) to keep the system running.
Maintain a Schedule
At least weekly, tidy up your vanity or bathroom counter and drawers, and vacuum up loose hair and product residue. Put accessories back with their similar friends. At least seasonally, sort through your accessories by category and let go of the broken items, the mistaken purchases, and the "not my style" items. Keeping your hair accessories down to what you truly like and wear, will make your mornings so much easier—there will be less to rifle through and put away!
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