A Clever Way to Store Athletic Medals
My niece is an Irish Dance (if you couldn’t yet tell!); and being an Irish Dancer who competes a lot, she has accumulated a hefty collection of medals and trophies. If you have a child (or maybe yourself) who has a similar collection, you very well know that while exciting to earn, these items pose a bit of a decorating “challenge,” often looking cluttered and messy!
Need proof? Here is my niece’s wall, pre-makeover!
And here is mine and my sister’s solution to the medal mess conundrum!
Much better, don’t you think? It was super easy too…let me show you what we did!
While she didn’t want to get rid of any of them, my niece wasn’t adamant about having her medals on display (fortunate for us!). When I saw this big glass jar at HomeGoods, I knew we had our solution!
This baby is big (and was only $15) – all the medals fit perfectly, and there is room to grow! And because my sister and I can’t leave anything alone, we added a vinyl border and Irish Dancer to coordinate it with the room!
The jar is now on display on my niece’s bedside table, and she can take them out an reminisce any time she wants!
What a quick and easy solution! Now, if only we could come up with a solution for those darn trophies (that she wouldn’t give up!). Any ideas out there???
Have a great day!
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Megan
Megan
11 Comments on “A Clever Way to Store Athletic Medals”
Really? My children are all grown up, their rooms have been transformed into craft/art spaces for myself or guest bedrooms for the kids/grandkids in this big empty house. What I wouldn't give to have back the days when my daughter used her own unique decorating style to make her bedroom her own sanctuary. Those trophies are a proud display, I say leave them be:)
A hockey coach of my daughters once gave me an idea for trophies. He came from a family of five kids and said there wasn;t room for trophies. He would peel off the metal name plate and stick that on the wall and get rid of the trophy. I have done the same with my four kids but put the name plates in a shadow box frame for each child. If it is a special trophy, such as an MVP one, then I tend to save the whole trophy!
They're trophies…not hit lists or smut art. They are proof of extreme hard work and dedication to a sport that, I personally, know takes an emmense amount of talent, time and money. I don't think it's right or fair for adults to want to shove them away so that it doesn't mess with the aestetic of a room that, quick frankly, they should keep their decorating mitts off of once a child reaches an age to express their own personal style – even if it's odd, quirky and as far from a home styling magazine as you can get. Parents that take away all (or even any) of their grade school age children's voice in a room just so they can show it off as yet another Restoration Hardware picture perfect room in their house are pretty lame. Should children be expected to keep their rooms picked up and tidy – sure, that's not a bad habit to enstill. Should they be allowed to hang up that poster of the cute movie star or singer, or display "garish" (apparently) proofs of hard work and acheivements? Abso-freakin-lutely. I wonder how miserable the children of these (probably helicopter-parents-to-boot) parents are who strive to be so "image perfect"? These are probably the same poor kids who are also probably not allowed to play in the sand for fear of wrecking their personalized-matched-to-the-season boutique outfit. So pathetic.
I have to agree with the above posters. Those trophies and ribbons are her's. They mean a lot. I'm quite sad that you dumped all the medals into a jar. If you want true OCD storage and design, build a skinny (side to side) bookcase that you can hang medals and place trohpies on. Something IKEA with extra shelves would probably work well. Then she can keep them all. For the medals you can pin back the excess ribbon and just show the medal and the lower V ribbon when you tack them to the shelf.
I agree! When I saw the top picture, I thought…"cool!" Then I saw the "before" comment. What's wrong with displaying them and rotating when they take over the whole room. She should proudly display them! My daughter is a competitive Irish Dancer, too, and we are ALL so proud!
Really don't like the pile them in a jar 'solution'. The room looked adorable before.
That is such an IMPRESSIVE collection of medals and trophies and I would love to have all of them displayed! What about fixing a storage cabinet up with a glass door up on the wall? It would keep the dust out but still have them out and visible.
Great suggestion, Tom!
Thanks,
Megan
Take a photo of each trophy and make a nice collage to frame and hang on the wall then deposit all trophies carefully in a box to keep safe and dust free.
Loved the article!
I am from a business where I deal with trophies and medals printing. I am overwhelmed knowing the ways how people like you store them very well. Thank you!
You’re welcome!
As you might have seen in the comments, I’ve gotten quite a few negative comments saying I was “stuffing achievements” into a jar…but this method worked out really well for my niece!
Thanks for stopping by!Megan