We asked our good friend, Jenny, to write an entry about her very clever idea for organizing dress-up clothes:
Whenever anyone asked my daughter what she wanted for Christmas this year, they got exactly the same answer – “dress-up clothes, a baby care center, and gamesâ€. We already had some of the big Disney princess dresses
I’d gotten an idea from the dress-up area at Johnny’s Toys – they have cubbies where the clothes are hung on pegs, with space for shoes on shelves above or to the side. I searched online, but I couldn’t find anything like it. It was time to get creative. In our basement, we have four bookshelves for toy storage. Two of them are a good size and configuration to store toys, games, and puzzles. The other two are … not so great for that. So I thought about it and decided with some rearranging, toy donation, and refresh of toys at Nana’s, I could free up those two bookcases for dress-up storage (after all, they already contained two bins full of the accessories). I took all of the shelves out of one and installed a tension rod for hanging the dresses instead. I put the maximum number of shelves in the other one and used it for storage of shoes, wands, purses, and crowns. The bins for some of the accessories will eventually have princess stickers or something on the sides for the finishing touches, but I haven’t gotten to that yet. The drawers hold extras, wands, and jewelry. We moved these bookshelves side by side, and added a mirror on the pole next to one for the ultimate in kiddie dress-up fun. Now everything is neat, organized, and on display – a very enticing play area!
10 comments so far:
That’s adorable. For my kids, all we have is a large pull out drawer. I guess if I took their dress-up a little more seriously, perhaps they would clean up a little more often?
Actually, I did a similar thing to Jenny and bought a Mammut armoire from IKEA to organize all of my daughter’s dress-up clothes and she loves it so much she does return everything to it after playing. I think it does help if there is some type of unique storage solution for toys, kids actually enjoying putting the things back then. Hmmm…I tend to be the same way!
TSS, I think one of the cute kid’s lockers available on your site would be a great piece to use for this idea. (Use coupon code SS5 for 5% off at The Shelving Store)
Thank you! I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out how to handle their clothes & didn’t want to buy one of the expensive ones I have seen online. Great idea!
Thanks, Meg! We will let our friend know how much you like her idea. Welcome to our site1
where did u get the bookcases
I ordered mine at Home Decorator’s Collection but any bookcase will work as long as it has adjustable shelves. These are nice though – they have the drawer at the bottom!
Thank you soooo much . We just re-modeled our playroom( which is my dining room soon to be seen in 5+ years!) I actually used shorter shelves to hold her toys and didn’t know what to do for her dress up clothes when I searched I found you — and went and purchased one more identical shelf and did as you said and it worked PERFECTLY have had so many compliments — thank you soooo much again— AND our daughter absolutely LOVES it!
Angela, so glad we could help!
I bought an old steamer trunk for my daughter when she was four. I wallpapered it and reconditi oned the leather. It had four drawers on one side andhanger space on the other. When it was not in use, we closed it up. She just turned 21 and we use it,dress up clothes still inside, as a side table. It wont hold all the cool stuff that you have.. Green with envy!! Maybe a couple of unfinished cabinets with added feet (withdoors) would be fun to do. Lucky little girl and good mom. Enjoy, they grow up fast. Debi