Quick organization question

I'm laughing quietly because anyone who sews for their dolls will end up with more outfits than they can possibly store and organize the way you've described. Just a friendly chuckle...

I like to hang my doll dresses up -- I usually keep the slacks, sweaters and tshirts flat in boxes. I often use gallon ziplock bags with a small hole cut in the middle of the folded bottom, then poke the hook of the hanger through the hole and pull the bag down over the dress. It keeps clothes from getting dusty. I do save the boxes and still have some of the original maroon boxes and clothes bags from the early 1990's, but I use them to store things like doll shoes.

I also made a habit of logging everything I buy and make for the dolls onto an Excel worksheet. If you start doing this before you have too much, it's easy to maintain. I set up the worksheet by names of the girls, then list everything that belongs to them and how much each item cost. For clothes I make myself, I include the price of a comparable item. So most of my doll dresses are valued at $18, which is what an AG outfit USED to cost! This helps me to figure out what I need to make (who needs pajamas?) and it's going to be very helpful for the inventory I have to make to include with my will. I can also see at a glance what I've already ordered/own and what I haven't got. Just another way to get organized.

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...it's going to be very helpful for the inventory I have to make to include with my will.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">[img]rolleyes.gif[/img] I never thought about that! I don't have any kids, either. I need to find someone to leave my AG stuff to in case I get hit by a bus or something. [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

Cherry- were you chuckling at my system?
So far the bags are working well. I have them into my cabinent with room to double the amount of clothing I have before I go to the second shelf. (I am using my nightstand for doll clothes storage, so having the 2nd shelf for me is nice.) I think it would be cool to hang the clothes, but I have no space to hang them, and if they are hung my husband could easily look and see exactly how much I have! Right now, ignorance is bliss. (I didn't really realize how much I had...)

We'll see how it goes in the long run. Right now the clothes are organized by doll and then by "today" and "homemade" Those two categories only have 5 total outfits! I have a spreadsheet by month of which doll wears which outfit. That way I make sure I use them all, and the girls match somewhat.

I also have an excel spreadsheet of my purchases over the past year started, but it doesn't help me much on past things. I have no idea when I got them or how much I paid. Everything I have has come straight from AG, but prices have changed over the years. ($82 dolls were nice...)

I'm so horribly disorganized! I've got everything in one big plastic storage tub, and there's not enough space. I'm considering ordering a trunk soon (leaning towards Kirsten's) but I doubt that alone will hold everything. I guess I'll have to get Molly's, too... [img]graemlins/devil.gif[/img]

I was chuckling at the idea of trying to stay organized once you start sewing your own clothes, not at your organization system. That sounds fine. For now...

I plan to leave my collections to my favorite public TV station. They were fine with the idea and have the capacity for auctioning items either on tv or on ebay. Special dolls, bears, etc. will go to special people, but the bulk of everything else is going to WGBY.

Well the sewing hasn't taken over the house yet.
We'll see.

What a nice thing to do with your collection. I don't think mine is substantial enough to do something like that. I haven't really given any thought to what to do with it- or any of my stuff- if I die. I actually don't even have a will yet. I really need to start being an adult, and work on getting something like that together.

I purchased a small child size cedar chest when I first started collecting the 18 inch dolls. I figured that it would store all the doll clothes and accessories! Silly Me! I started using it to store just hats. There is no more room for any more hats. I purchased a large round hat box from the craft store. I am going to cover it with fabric and use a decorative trim on the edges.I will spray it with protective finish. I will store hats in this from now on. I hope that it is pretty enough that it can even sit in the living room and maybe one of the dolls can sit on it.

I keep all Samantha's clothes in the box she came in, and all her accessories in the box her "Meet" accessories came in. Why don't you put each doll's clothes and accessories in their respective boxes.
On the other hand, I have a human-sized dresser full of my fashion doll clothes!

I tried keeping the doll clothes in their boxes, but the problem is for awhile the outfits came in bags, so those clothes don't have boxes.

And then I have over 50 outfits and 10 dolls, so the boxes just completely take over. I imagine if I also had accessories it would just be AG boxes everywhere!

[/QUOTE] [img]rolleyes.gif[/img] I never thought about that! I don't have any kids, either. I need to find someone to leave my AG stuff to in case I get hit by a bus or something. [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img] [/QB][/QUOTE]

Kitchywoman,

Feel free to leave it to me [img]smile.gif[/img] My kids would love it!

Jo