The other day I saw a woman with the most beautiful Kendra Scott necklace. It sat right in the hollow of her neck, not quite a choker, but not quite dangling either. I ordered one later that evening, but when it arrived, it did not fit me the way it had fit her, even when I set the clasp to the smallest setting. It was a bit too long and, to my chagrin, sat just below the hollow of my neck. I then spent a few days researching ways to shorten a necklace and found three methods that work in most cases. Please let my misfortune be your gain.

First, I looked for advice on TikTok, where I saw a hack that seemed too good to be true: you shorten a necklace by folding the chain in the back and then pushing the bar of a small stud earring through the fold, shortening the chain. You can also slide the earring through either side of the chain without folding it, thereby skipping the clasp mechanism altogether, like this.

Obviously, this hack only works if you don't care about how your necklace looks from behind (like if you have long hair that can cover it), but it seems like an effective solution…if it works for your necklace. In my case, the chain links were too small to thread the pin through. (What can I say, I love a dainty necklace.) But if your necklace is big enough, this is a clear winner, because the earring backs hold the whole thing in place securely.

When I was searching TikTok for tips that would work for a smaller necklace, I came across videos of women using small rubber bands to shorten their necklaces. They did this by tying a portion of the chain to the side of the clasp or by wrapping the chain around both ends on either side of the clasp, making the necklace appear shorter.