how do you organize your doll clothes??

[Homemommie]

I bought a whole bunch of the replacement hangers but that only works for dresses. SO what do you do with pants and skirts??

[mominindianapolis]

Well - as awesome as those hangers are, what we ended up doing is buying the clear plastic totes that are about 18" tall and have the lids with handles. Sterlite maybe? Then I took an extra catalog and we cut out pictures of all the girls we own. Dh and dd put them onto the ends of the totes with clear packing tape over them. Each girl's things fit inside the tote. You can pretty much lay an outfit flat in the tote. We do try to put the outfits on the hangers and loop necklaces and accessories over the hanger if possible. Pants we fold over the hanger and put the shirt on top. When we put them back into the tote we make sure the shoes, socks, and anything extra that goes with it is also there. The totes all stack nicely behind dd's bedroom door and aren't noticed when the door is open. Her room is pretty small - so it is also nice just to pull out the totes for the dolls she is playing with and to move easily from room to room. Our GOT stuff has it's own tote and then there is a 1/2 size tote for extra hair and misc. items. The scenes & settings (minus only Addy's!) slide under her bed, and then the beds, nightstands, and Molly's table & chairs all line up in her closet. Jess's tree swing was a bit of a challenge - but I think we found a spot. Marisol's items just stay in her trunk and it stacks with the other totes.

Hope this helps a little. Another option would be to do something similar to what we did with ds's lego - dh custom made a sort of bookshelf that held various sizes of clear plastic sweater and shoe boxes. This would work well also for storing different kinds of things. I could even see putting dowel rods across 1 shelf to hang all the dresses and then having clear totes for shoes, socks, and other accessories. You could hang a curtain across the front of it to keep things out of sight when not in use. Hmmm - sounds like another project to add to dh's list for the future! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[DaisyDee]

Well, I used to use ziplock bags for each outifit, but pretty soon I got too many for that, and went to a suitcase. Then I grew out of that, and went to two plastic drawer organizers, and now I've even surpassed that. Right now I have things in boxes all over the place, and when I can find the time for the undertaing of this monumental task, I'm going to transfer it all into a dresser, or maybe two. Most of my items are AGOT, only a few historicals, so I put stuff away according to garment since I like to mix and match. Socks, undies, tights, in the top drawer, shoes in the next, followed by short and long-sleeve shirts, and sweaters in one, and another for shorts, skirts, and pants. When I get into the dresses, coats, costumes, and sportswear, that's when I'll need a second dresser. I also bought some plastic shoes bins to organize my accessories: Camping, cooking/food, historicals, etc.

[GreyMyst]

Organization? What's that? Yeah uh not happening here, LOL

I am NOT an organazation type person, hehe. Everything is just tossed into a big trunk.

[Miss_Nellie_OMalley]

So far I have 3 designated decorative boxes I have gotten from hobby lobby (well one from tjmaxx) They are about the size of a medium freezer bag. Elizabeth and Felicity share a box that looks like a coach trunk, Nellie has one done in victorian print paper mache, and Jess (Kaede is sharing this trunk for the time being) has a bamboo trunk. I put each outfit and accessories in a slide lock zipper bag and place it in the box. The outfits for my dolls who do not have their own special box yet (haven't found the right one) are stored in an AG doll box all in respective baggies. I keep hats in AG boxes and some other trinkets that just don't belong in baggies in their respective boxes. I also have a large clear clothes tupper ware type box where I store everything but the decorative boxes (as they look cute out)

[mystere]

I don't use hangers; I don't have the space to hang anything. I used to use the sweater storage shelves that hang in the closet and that worked very well. I just laid garments flat and each doll had two shelves. After moving recently to a 650 square foot house with NO extra closet space, I changed my system.

KMart has these Martha Stewart cardboard storage boxes. They are decorative and not too bad looking. Each doll has a large box for accessories (which I store in their original boxes). Other stuff I like to group by historical doll and brand, as well as clothing articles so I can pack as much stuff in one space as possible. Dresses go in large plastic under-bed bedding bags. They are clear plastic with areas that breathe and are about 1 1/2' x 4'. I stack the dresses but do not cram too many in a pile so I avoid wrinkles. Addy and Kirsten have one, Samantha and Felicity have one, Josefina's clothes fit in her accessory box, and my elven and faery doll clothes fit in another accessory box. I keep LOF and AG clothes together by historical time period.

Shoes and socks all go in Martha Stewart four-drawer cardboard organizers from KMart. I think they're prettier than clear plastic and they were LOTS cheaper- about $7 each. They are the perfect size- each drawer holds about 9-15 pairs of shoes plus socks and tights. AG shoes and LOF shoes are stored separately and by time period so I can easily match shoes to outfits.

My husband built an absolutely gorgeous cabinet for the living room to store all the small things like aprons, umbrellas, hair ribbons (stored in plastic baggies by doll), etc. It is 2' wide and 4' tall and has four shelves. Each shelf has two canvas 12x12" boxes that I bought at Lowe's. It's a really lovely piece of furniture and at some point when we have more room I think I want more storage pieces like it. I use the top for display. He built it from poplar and the canvas boxes are natural colored.

I can't imagine hanging the dresses- the dolls would need their own closet! [img]redface.gif[/img]

[jennifermarym]

I have a tower of hatboxes. This is just for the Historicals--I haven't figured out what to do with the Today girls yet.
Here's how I organized it:
1. Hair ribbons
2. Shoes
3. Accessories
4. Hats
5. Clothes (Felicity-Josefina)
6. Clothes (Addy-Molly)

It works pretty well and they are very pretty. No one would ever know I was storing doll stuff in there...

[Southpaw22]

I also have bought some very cute and relatively inexpensive trunks from Michael's. Pic 1: Josefina uses the top, and Jess and Lindsey the bottom. The set was $17. Pic 2: This trunk is for Sam and Addy. The straps actually snap down, and the locks work! $20. Pic 3: These scenic boxes were only $7 & $9. My two today dolls use the floral, and Kailey uses the beach scene box. These hold quite a bit, and are much cheaper than an AG trunk! I only have one AG trunk and that's Kit's, which Kit, Kirsten, and Molly share.




Dani

[Homemommie]

Member Rated:

posted January 05, 2006 11:56 PM
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I also have bought some very cute and relatively inexpensive trunks from Michael's. Pic 1: Josefina uses the top, and Jess and Lindsey the bottom. The set was $17. Pic 2: This trunk is for Sam and Addy. The straps actually snap down, and the locks work! $20. Pic 3: These scenic boxes were only $7 & $9. My two today dolls use the floral, and Kailey uses the beach scene box. These hold quite a bit, and are much cheaper than an AG trunk! I only have one AG trunk and that's Kit's, which Kit, Kirsten, and Molly share.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Dani I LOVE the pictures of those boxes!! Sooo pretty! Oooh and you are really making me want a doll form , not to mention the fact that you have the 1 dress I desperatly want.

Hmmm ok so tomorrow I need to go to the thrift store AND hobby store to find neat trunks hmmmm

[JustMagicMaria]

I guess I'm in a minority. I do use the plastic hangers. I put the outfit on a hanger (as best I can) and I put the shoes and accessories in a small plastic ziploc that I poke a hole in and hang from the loop of the hanger. I then hang these in my American Girl Today dolls' giant wardrobe (made from an jelly cabinet from an unfinished furniture store) or in one of the historical girls' doll trunks (one for each girl). I like having things hanging because they're easy to leaf through and I like having them be out of the plastic so I can see them better. I put big accessories (like the skis for the skiing set) in rolling plastic Rubbermaid drawers, separated by season. These stay in a closet since they're not pretty like some people's hat boxes and trunks!