I bought a whole bunch of the replacement hangers but that only works for dresses. SO what do you do with pants and skirts??
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I bought a whole bunch of the replacement hangers but that only works for dresses. SO what do you do with pants and skirts??
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]
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.
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.
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)
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]
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...
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.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...w22/Trunk1.gifhttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...w22/Trunk2.gif
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...w22/Trunk3.gif
Dani
<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.Quote:
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.
Hmmm ok so tomorrow I need to go to the thrift store AND hobby store to find neat trunks hmmmm
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!
I put the outfits into ziplock bags with a notecard telling the contents, then they all go into a doll box. So far all my outfits fit into two doll boxes, with hats setting on top of them. These boxes go into a cabinent, that has room for 4 boxes.
Right now, all of our outfits are in their AG boxes inside one huge tupperware container in the closet. I definitely need to figure something else out!
We started with the Storage Caddies but that just isn't very neat and doesn't hold many things that don't hang. I've copied several peoples' ideas.
Ours system is not pretty, but it is effective. We're lucky in that we have a playroom that has plenty of space for doll storage because I like everything neat and spaced. The little girls are the best at cleaning up, but they have some trouble getting their BB outfits on the hangers.
Anything that can hang is hanging in a wire cube "complex," sorted by girl or owner for AGT.Then we have rolling carts and storage cubes with drawers for accessories, pants, shoes, and all of those BB toys.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2.../WireCubes.jpghttp://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...nnah/Carts.jpg
The sturdy boxes are great for storage. Like the AGT keyboard box has Coconut's accessories in it. The BB/BT books are in a BB box.
We only have 2 doll rooms for furniture, DDs would like to have more.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...sefinaRoom.jpg
<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 06, 2006 10:39 AM: Message edited by: OSusannah ]</font>
Our system is to use the 1 gallon zip lock bags with sliding zipper, very easy to use. I take a catalog picture or I've used Meg's site for some of the retired items.
Then I print up labels for each outfit and everything that is supposed to be together. All of Felicity's labels are printed green, Molly's blue, etc. AGT are all purple. Then I used the packing tape to put on the picture, stick on the label and we're done. The only things that don't usually fit are Sam and Nellie's hats.
Since Diana isn't reading yet, she can look at the picture and see all the contents that "should" go back into each bag. Notice, I said "should". Oh well, she tries at least.
Then I have big rolly plastic carts and each girl gets her own drawer. BB and BT are just in drawers, I never made them the bags yet. All the BB animals are in a separate drawer and Coco and Licorice also have their own drawer.
then I have bookcases set up for the dolls themselves and some of their accessories. We also have all the books and the Hallmark bookends which you can see in my album of the dollroom.
Laurie
Well, I have a trunk or chest for each of the historical dolls. For the AGOT I put small cafe curtain rods in a small linen closet and hang the outfits there. I made round tags to fit on the rods (like sizes in a dept store) and have the years the things were made. I hang the AGOT items by years. You could do the same thing with the historical but instead of year put the names of the characters. It works out great. I use a small ziplock attached with a rubberband to the hanger for the accessories. I fold up all the boxes and tissues paper and store them by character in a large carton in the basement.
I use the same floal box as in the picture to store bitty twins stuff under their crib. I got it half off at michaels the other day. Now as for the rest of it, everything but the furniture and the dolls live in a large sterlite contains the dolls live on my desk and the furniture is stacked in the corner of my room on top of all my Star Trek Stuff in boxes.
Ashley
We use those clear plastic containers. Each has a picture of the historical girl and her name (in her color) taped on the outside. We borrowed these cute portraits from Kurt's website. A separate box each for shoes, hats, food, accessories, and today stuff. We don't have much in the way of furniture or accessories - DH is not so understanding when he sees yet another charge from AG on the credit card. (Me-But honey, we really need it! DH-Doll stuff? Again?!)
Just a word of caution using cardboard storage - make sure it is acid free. We want all our treasures to be preserved for our daughters and their daughters, too.
I bought a large rolling plastic container. You can find them at Target etc. and they roll under your bed. You can fit a lot of stuff in one.
I know someone here on the board has turned a small crawl space into an American Girl walk in closet. It is very cool. Does anyone remember who has this?
Stephanie
Right now I kept 2 small AG boxes and all the stuff is crammed into them. They are on the second shelf of my bookcase along with the books, L.M. Montgomery books, the Felicity dvds, Smamantha vhs and Anne of Green Gables vhs and mini Elizabeth, a toy horse (grand champions maybe?) and my Felicity ornament, small Macy's teddy bear, Coolata bear and Hard Rock Cafe shotglass are all on the shel too, to help keep the boxes shut.
For a college student, I am definitely not an organized person!
<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 06, 2006 01:22 PM: Message edited by: Felicity_Fan85 ]</font>
I use a blue rolling cart that has 4 drawers,and I also have Kit's trunk and the retired flower armoire.In the rolling cart I have each outfit in a plastic bag.
I am fortunate enough to have a good sized studio that I work in and I have my AG's in there too.. here is a picture.. please dont mind the half sponge painted wall there.. I am in the middle of making curtains and painting the walls there.. the shelves look liek they are not straight in the pic, but they are.. I think that I was the one that was crooked when I took it.. LOL! So, I use the hangers.. well any kind that work for me.. I have some that are just like human hangers and I lay/fold the pants over them, then put the shirts on the hangers and then the jackets so that all of the pieces are there on one hanger.. did that make sense how I described that there?
Angie
<IMG SRC=http://www.gillygals.com/mydollshelves.jpg>
Angie
Those shelves actually look like something I might use. Dolls can sit and you can hang up the dresses at the same time!
That looks good!
Well, for me, I just have 2 clead bins I use to seperate my doll clothes from the accessories{The bins don't have a lid} & it's sort of worked! I also noticed that the Build A Bear Workshop hanges that you can get there fit AG clothes PERFECLTY! So I use a few of the ones I got when I went there!!
those shelves do look good
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">thanx..they were my husbands idea. I love having all my stuff organized where I can see it all.Quote:
Originally posted by Felicity_Fan85:
those shelves do look good
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">We have the same wire complex in our living room. They are really inexpensive (we got ours at target), very easy to put together, and hold a ton. I don't use it for doll stuff, but thought how great it would be for that, because you can hang dresses on the wires and put shoes underneath them on the shelves.Quote:
Originally posted by OSusannah:
Anything that can hang is hanging in a wire cube "complex," sorted by girl or owner for AGT.
<font color="#051E50"><font size="1">[ January 06, 2006 10:39 AM: Message edited by: OSusannah ]</font></font>
Of course, I don't have hangers anymore- I sold them all [img]smile.gif[/img] (Boxes work great for me... but if I was a kid, I'd love to have everything hung where I could see it.)
I have a closet with hanging racks and shelves. It works pretty well. I am soon going to have a whole room, though...with a giant closet. I'm pretty excited about that! LOL!
I keep hats and things like that in a big hat box.
Thank you all for the great advice and PICURES (LOVED the pics!) Now to start on my organization... I like the idea of hanging things up so I guess well attach plastic bags to hold the things that cant hang and then I can use my LOWES trunk [img]tongue.gif[/img] for shoes and accesories.
And ~*~ W~E*L~C*O~M*E ~*~ B~A*C~K ~*~ Angie!!
Thanks Starla...
I luv the pics of your DD. She looks EXACTLY like my niece, Molly!!!!! It is remarkable!! I will havr to email you a pic of her.
...AND Tracey,
Your dollie area looks just lovely! I could get lost in all your stuff for HOURS! LOL!
<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 06, 2006 03:58 PM: Message edited by: GillyGals ]</font>
I store all of my doll stuff in plastic storage containers.
I have Samantha's clothes and some of her accessories in two of her steamer trunks. Some of her furniture and the rest of her accessories are in a display cabinet. Nelly has her own steamer trunk for her clothes.
Molly's clothes and some of accessories are in two of her white trunks. Molly also has a shelf for some of her furniture and accessories to be display on.
Kirsten's clothes and some of her accessories are in her blue trunk. (It holds a lot, but does not have any drawers to hold the small items.)
Josefina's clothes and some of her accessories are in her carved trunk. (Again no drawers.)
Kirsten and Josefina share a shelf in the display cabinet with their nightstands and some accessories.
Addy is waiting for her trunk, so right now her clothes are hanging in a extra Molly trunk I have for Molly's friend that is coming in September. Addy is the last historical doll I got so I have not gotten a chance to display her yet.
Felicity and Elizabeth I am not sure what to do with their clothes. Right now I have Felicity's clothes on the doll forms and Elizabeth's hanging with Addy's. Felicity and Elizabeth share a shelf with some of Felicity's furniture and accessories. I am wondering if the new clothes press could be made to hold clothes? If a rod could be added that the clothes could hang from.
But the big question is what to do with the AGOT outfits. I was thinking of making little clothing poles for them. Kind of like tie racks but they would fit the hangers. That could be screwed on to a wall. So I could hang 3 or 4 on a wall. Will be working on this next month. I still want to think about how to store the shoes and accessories that go with the outfits. I was thinking about the little boxes that fishermen use. How to hang pants, shorts still working on. Need clothes pins that would be small enough to look cute and large enough to work.
I also want to make the display rooms for the dolls.
Will post pictures when I get it figured out.
[img]graemlins/smarty.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/smarty.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">We do this, except all of the ziplock bags are stored in the bottom drawer of DD's armoire. Since there is ample space in the drawer, it's easy for her find what she wants/needs. When she's finished, she just puts everything in the coordinating bag and tosses them in the drawer.Quote:
Originally posted by Skittl1321:
I put the outfits into ziplock bags with a notecard telling the contents, then they all go into a doll box. So far all my outfits fit into two doll boxes, with hats setting on top of them. These boxes go into a cabinent, that has room for 4 boxes.
A fairly big wooden armoire that my mom made holds all exclusive AG clothes except Samantha, Nellie's, and some of Molly's. Samantha and Nellie have a separate doll armoire in their "bedroom" for clothes, while Molly keeps a few of her pants and stuff in a doll sized bureau in her "bedroom." The ton of non-AG clothes get stored in a blue trunk...I guess it's the size of Josefina's or bigger...in organizd plastic bags. My Bitty clothes just fit in a suitcase. It's hard to believe that Molly's clothes used to just fit in that same suitcase!
Oh, yes, I do use the hangers in my big wooden armoire. They are VERY handy. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
All my 18in dolls, as you saw in my pics are happily sitting on shelves mounted on the wall with their purse/bag and doll. As for the rest of the stuff...well now at least I was able to contain it all in one big plastic bin. I'm trying to sort it out a little, using some of the AG boxes to put things like shoes and hangers in.
The new box that the rolling suicase came in is heavier and studier than past boxes(and prettier with paisely pink and purple). The lid is a hinge lid attached to the box. So I started to pile the extra shoes in there. As I receive my other orders I want to do the same with hangers, mini dolls and other small items.
I hope to set up a doll corner in my next apartment, but while I'm still a poor, unemployed college student I'm living in this tiny studio so at least I have my dolls to keep me company even if I can't easily get to the rest of the stuff.
Click below to see a pic of my doll shelves:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...1742913&idx=18
<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 07, 2006 12:15 AM: Message edited by: Katie from IL ]</font>
GEESH! This thread would greet me after a few hours of laboring in my doll closet today! HA! I just finished reorganizing the closet and hanging up the Christmas clothes.
<font size="6">WHAT A JOB!</font>
I even pulled out all my Ag boxes; which I just cannot bring myself to part with. Smaller boxes were put inside bigger ones etc.The amount of AG boxes from my orders and new dollies in 2005 was outrageous!
Here is the link to my dollie closet from a few months ago. It is still basically the same, but MUCH more packed. Am I a "Goner"???.. You bet your sweet "patoody" I am!
HEE-HAW!!
Prasnlrd's Doll Closet
[img]graemlins/island.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/island.gif[/img]
<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 07, 2006 12:27 AM: Message edited by: prasnlrd ]</font>
The whole stack right behind the door of the chamber dd and bins are not noticed when the door is opened. His room is quite small - it is also nice that out bins for dolls, she plays with and move easily from one room to the.