Wow, I love that design! It would be useful for anyone with limited space and a lot of jewelry. Very clever!

I've never seen one like that! Very cool! Your really thinking things though and have her best interest at heart. Getting old is rough on all of us. Your dealing with it in a classy manor.

I've made a wall mounted version, fairly easy if you have medium level carpentry skills.

It's a great idea.

However, in a reality check, things will walk away in any institutional setting, regardless of how you try to protect tem. Better yet to spend a little time on setting aside a few pieces so she can have some choices, and heavily editing the rest. Tell her you'll keep the rest at home, and you can bring something when you visit, and take a piece home. in rotation.

That's what I am doing sushi? I don't understand your comments? It'll stay locked and she gets a few pieces at a time. Unless someone takes the entire thing, they can't have much.

Rob, my Mom had one of those and also a another upright jewelry chest with drawers and a door that had pull out hooks for necklaces. She loved her jewelry and spent a good amount of time choosing what to put on every morning even after a stroke that paralyzed her left side. Unfortunately, after the stroke she was confined to the lower floor in the house and the only place for her collection was next to a 4 foot square floor register above the coal furnace in the basement. You wouldn't believe the amount of her treasured baubles, especially earings,that were found in the spaces around the base of that furnace when it was removed after Mom's death.

May your Mom continue to enjoy her collection in the best possible location for the rest of her days.

I got one similar for Christmas last year I posted a picture of. Mine hangs on the back of my bedroom door so it takes up no floor space. It does have a lock but believe me it would not take much to pry it open those little locks aren't made with much strength. I love mine. It makes a great mirror and I love that it lights up brightly when it is opened. It holds quite a bit of jewelry.

I agree that no matter how much you try to protect her belongings they will disappear when in care facilities. It certainly happened to my mom and my sisters mother in law and several other people I know of.

I definitely recommend the one I have. I would get it again. But there's a lot of difference quality in this type of product. Read reviews. Mine

Yes, even a tiny bottle of my mom's favorite cologne was stolen from her room, as well as new clothing that I got for her (to be easier to dress). Just be prepared for the likelihood that anything and everything that someone else would value or be able to sell will disappear.

It would be better for her to have one of the hanging ones as no matter how careful she will be those feet are an open invitation for a trip and fall.

I also have to agree with the above posters that things will disappear. Any thing with a key means that key must be placed somewhere. Some people know the most likely places for those things. One of the 90+ women at my husband's nursing home knew all of the hiding places. Once every few months the staff would with the patients guardian's permission search her room until she realized what they were doing. Last time I was missing something I was told she had a hiding place that the staff had not found. I also wonder how you are doing the required marking of that stuff so if found can be returned to your mother? Husband's place had a once monthly afternoon where family or caretakers could look at found stuff and reclaim.

Never did find my husband's top plate but his bottom retainer did show back up in the drawer. One thing about dentures is that they are very difficult to mark without irritating in inside of the mouth.

An embroidered pillow, one of the few portable things we have in Mom's room, disappeared. There's one resident who wanders in and out of rooms, so I walked the halls to see if she'd "borrowed" it. Well, it was in the common room; staff had given it to Mom to prop her up, and later it was set aside. I notice that now it's always in the room.

That mirror is nice. I want to find a smallish vanity table for my dad, with a mirror, with a wide enough opening that he can wheel up to it, but with drawers on the sides. The sink is too high for him to see the mirror well, and there's no reachable storage for him.

It seems to me that stealing dentures ...

...wouldn't be very fitting!

(Especially for someone considered to be something of a Big Mouth).

(Along with not fitting, in a somewhat different dimension, other personal property).

ole joyful

joyful it is not the fitting it is the I see, I want, It is mine until I forget I had it. Fairly common in each and every generation for some.

She'll never open it alone. It's going to stay locked unless I'm there.

Since she can not open it unless you are there wouldn't it make more sense fore you to keep the jewelry at home and only bring a small case each time you visit? You can not go every day at the time she is dressing. Trying to do that is something that is just not possible unless you want to wake up around 3:30 each day. You have not mentioned how large her living area is but even if she is living independently that large of a stand would be in the way. Not only that she may become frustrated that she does not have access to her own stuff. Anger is one of the reasons people tend to go down hill more rapidly as they see their freedoms removed.

Sorry but while on the surface this appears to be a nice gesture it is a controlling gesture if she is unable to open as she wishes. Just give her some of her jewelry and do not worry about it being gone. Her mental health is much more important than any amount of costume jewelry.

I appreciate the suggestion.

Halfway through it all. Left foreground is going. Right foreground is keeping for later distribution. Behind? Donation and trashed. There were bags too! If she loses it, or someone takes stuff from the front left box, it's no loss :)

Great find, Rob. I could use one of those - as one who makes jewelry, I have quite a large personal collection as I keep all of the pieces that are prototypes or that have any type of flaw.

I think it’s great Rob. Very thoughtful of you. You know I am thankful we never had to experience a long term nursing home with our parents except for DH’s Dad in Florida, and that was really fairly short and we weren’t there.

I would imagine some residents just take things whether they need them or not because they can. Like crows or raccoons, they go for the shiny loose stuff and hoard it whether it’s useful or not.

Assisted living units are not the same as a nursing home. My mom was in one for awhile and it was like a small apartment. Doors could be locked when she was out of the unit (and even when she was in - staff had a key but only for emergencies or if she required daily attention, which she did not). Even the cleaning staff knocked for entrance. No one could enter without her knowledge if she so desired. And since she was a rather private person, she was reluctant to make friends that she would allow to come and go. The place was completely furnished with her belongings, just as one would an apartment, and some were quite valuable. Nothing was ever disturbed or stolen.

I appreciate this. I think you are doing a good job keeping jewelry in her assisted living area - and it sounds like you are simply keeping the costume jewelry there, not the pricy bits of gold and whatever.

Mother passed before she could reach assisted living. Dad however ended up in one, with a stage of dementia. None the less, he kept a couple of relatively valuable paintings on his walls - and they did not disappear, no doubt due to size.

Due to his dementia, the staff HAD to enter. But there was simply nothing to take that would be portable.

Our experience has been the same as gardengal's. Mother moved from her home to a one bedroom independent living apartment. Many of her antiques, all of her jewelry. And, she'd worked several years at a jewelry store....and found those employee cost + 10% terms very hard to pass ;0) From independent to a facility that was both independent and assisted when she needed a little more help. Again, a one bed apartment. I moved her in February to a studio in a facility where she gets more attention after finding response time too slow where she was, staff too limited. It's working out perfectly. She is in a studio apartment in a wing called enhanced assisted. Not full time nursing but more attention while still giving her some independent opportunities, stimulation, activities she may choose. Her own furniture and some of her antiques. Some of her jewelry still - because she asked for it, and its hers. Nothing has ever been missing, disturbed, 'borrowed'.

Her antique barristers cabinet is outside her apartment at the hallway end. It was that, or storage and I didn't want to take it away from her. It holds some of her porcelain and pincushion dolls, family photos in antique frames, some of her books. No one has touched it other than housekeeping when dusting or cleaning the glass doors.

This last facility is huge, and lovely. Every level of care from just reaching the point of wanting dining room meals and housekeeping, to full memory care. I moved her in February and am still carrying a map in my purse ;0) It's on enough acres it has three postal addresses depending on which wing one is residing in. An enormous staff as you can imagine, everyone so far has been helpful and honest. I've yet to meet or hear of a light fingered neighbor.