Making space for dolls? Storage ideas?

Anyone have any great ideas for making more space for dolls in a room? Or any good storage ideas? Esp. doll shoe ideas...we have about 50 pair of doll shoes. Leaving them out in the open gets them so dusty. I want everything to be able to be used and not put away. Any ideas on how to organize doll clothes other then an armoire or trunk? We hang ours in armoires but some things can't be hung like hats, accessories, socks, and pants...what do you do with these things? Thanks for any ideas! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

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Originally posted by KellyKelly:
Anyone have any great ideas for making more space for dolls in a room? Or any good storage ideas? Esp. doll shoe ideas... [...] I want everything to be able to be used and not put away.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I use a rolling 7 drawer plastic storage tower that I got at Kmart sometime back. The top four drawers are for shoes and I must have at least as many pairs as you. The shoe drawers are about 3" high, plenty high enough for any AG-size shoes, including skates.

One of these drawers is filled with socks and tights. I am not one to put colored shoes on my dolls without either socks or tights as I don't want to risk color transfer to the doll's feet.

The bottom three drawers are each 7" high and used to store unmentionables and other things that don't fit on hangers.

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KellyKelly continued:
Any ideas on how to organize doll clothes other then an armoire or trunk? We hang ours in armoires but some things can't be hung like hats, accessories, socks, and pants...what do you do with these things?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I took over the closet in my office and added poles so there are now three 55" poles on which to hang clothes. I use the nylon hangers rather than the cutesy AG hangers as the poles are standard sized closet poles. I hang everything I can, with the rest of the stuff neatly folded and arranged in the three big drawers mentioned above.

Taffy

I use Rubbermaid sweater boxes for doll clothes. This way items can be divided by category and doll . Re sealable plastic bags - sandwich sized are good for shoes and stockings. They keep stockings from being snagged and shoes from being mixed up. You can also put a label on each bag with the item number and source of each item in case you want to order more.( There are a lot of 18 inch doll shoes available) The shoes and other small accessories go into a box ( to protect them from predatory felines)

I keep the hat boxes that the hats come in originally, and I've found that I can usually fit several hats in one box, when I stack them with the smaller diameter ones on the bottom, gradually working up to the larger diameter ones.
Joy

I have a snapping-put-it-together-yourself closet organizer in my closet. The first 2 shelves store Samantha's and Felicity's shoes, socks, ribbons, hats, etc and the bottom 2 I made a little taller so I can hang their dresses. I found the unit at Walmart or Target I think for $10. For Josefina, I plan on using an under the bed rubbermaid type box since I find it difficult to hang her skirts...

If you have a lot of shoes maybe having a drawer thing like Taffy's would be ideal. That way all the shoes would be in one spot for easy choosing.

Kirsten and Addy's things are in Kirsten's trunk. Felicity's are in her wardrobe and Sam's stuff is in a fake trunk. I bought these boxes at Marshall's that are kind of like photo storage boxes but bigger. I stack them in my cupboard in my room.

following on this idea, how do people store the accessory sets? in a similar fashion as listed above? I am running into a space problem myself - Tammy's idea sounds good to me. I might have to make a run to walmart to pick up an item like that.

I keep the accessory sets in separate bags inside my bigger storage bins... that way the tiny pieces don't get separated or broken.
For general storage, I use clear plastic boxes available at the Container Store, Walmart, etc. It works far better than cardboard (which allows moisture, bugs, and other icky things) and is more durable. I keep ribbons, shoes, and doll necklaces in a little jewelry box- easier to access and assess that way.

I found an issue of martha stewart kids that converted a toy box into an AG storage box- with hanging rods for the clothes and these cute trays for the shoes. The lid had compartments on the underside for ribbons and hats. I am trying to get the issue from Time Warner (have a friend who works there) and will let you know which issue it was so you can get a copy from the library. I plan to convert an old cedar chest that is in my "dungeon" into an organized chest.

My husband is making a shelf that will go about 20" down from the ceiling along one wall in my daughter's room. I am going to put shaker style pegs under the shelf and hang some of the historic outfits as sort of a display. Can't wait to photograph all of this!

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I am going to put shaker style pegs under the shelf and hang some of the historic outfits as sort of a display.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I love that idea! Would love to see how it turns out.