What's the best way to store my engagement ring at home when I'm not wearing it?

The bathroom counter is the worst place in your house for a diamond. I tell clients the best way to store your engagement ring at home is a simple padded box in one consistent spot, not the edge of a sink, and definitely not loose in a jewelry drawer with a dozen other pieces.

What I recommend at home

Buy a small leather or fabric-lined box with a single ring slot. It doesn't need to be expensive. Stuller sells a padded single-ring box for about five dollars. The slot should be padded enough to stop the diamond from touching the bottom or the sides when the box is closed. If you have multiple rings, each ring gets its own compartment. A diamond rubbing against another diamond in a drawer is how pavé stones get loosened and prongs get lifted.

Then put the box somewhere boring. A nightstand drawer, a dresser top, a shelf in your closet. You'll actually use the same spot every night. If the ring is not on your hand, it's in that box. That is the entire storage system.

What not to use

Never wrap your ring in a tissue or paper towel. I've lost count of the times a client has told me they wrapped a ring in a tissue, set it on a counter, and then thrown the tissue away. Tissues are designed to look like trash. They work.

Ceramic ring dishes with no padding are another problem. They look responsible, but a diamond ring dropped from four inches onto a hard ceramic surface can knock a prong loose. It won't shatter the diamond, but it can shift it enough that the stone rattles. Last spring a woman named Nicole came in with a 1.7 carat pear diamond that had been knocked loose because she'd been storing it in a ceramic dish on her bathroom vanity next to a jar of face cream. She reached for the cream, knocked the ring into the sink, and caught it before it went down, but the diamond shifted. The retipping and straightening ran $165. The dish had no lip and no padding.

If it isn't padded, it isn't storage. It's a prop.

For longer storage

If you're not going to wear the ring for more than a week, put it in a small zippered plastic bag after it's clean and dry, press the air out, and put that bag inside the padded box. For most engagement rings this is overkill. For sapphires and emeralds it's cheap insurance against dust and the oils in your other jewelry.

I keep my own daily ring in a plain leather cup on my nightstand, not in a safe. It's a plain cup, no edges, lined in suede. I've had it for 17 years.