Dress Up Storage Ideas for Kids

If you have little girls, you probably also have something else, too . . .  Lots of dress-up clothes!  And, unless you are one of those lucky parents with organized children who like to put things away, you probably also have a big mess every time they search for something to wear.

Below is my previous solution for dress-up clothes.  In theory, the girls can clean up very quickly by dumping all the dress-up clothes inside.  Easy.  (All you moms are shaking your heads because you can see the problem already, right?)

In order to find what they want, they have to dump the whole thing on the floor.  Sure, they'll throw everything in the bucket when I tell them to (if I'm lucky . . . ), but the clothes are all over the place all day.  I tried putting the bucket in the playroom.  I tried putting it in Bear's closet.  I tried putting it in Boo and Lu's room.  Same problem.  Same mess.

By accident, I found a rolling clothes cart at Walmart for a good deal.  It was just what I needed!  I left off the wheels and lowered the hanging bar as far as possible.  The result:  PERFECT!!!

. . . but, I had no place to put all the extra junk that goes along with dress-up clothes.  Here's what I made today:

It was so easy!  I used a hanger from a baby gift that has been hanging--literally--around in the girls' closet for years.  All I did was add a new bow and sew on one-yard lengths of ribbon.  I glued ribbon on clothes pins and glued and stitched them to the ribbon.  Easy, peasy.

I hung it with a  removable hook, clipped on the gloves, feather boas, wands, cat ears, etc, and it was all done!  (I like clothespins because the kids can clip stuff on themselves.)

Add my new clothes cart, and here's the final dress up corner.  I love it!

Need some more dress up storage ideas?

• Hangers with clothespin clips are perfect for hanging wings and dresses with wide shoulders or skinny straps.  I made my own hangers by attaching clothespins.  DON'T do it.  It's worth the money to buy the hangers with the plastic clips already attached.  The wooden clothespins fall apart!  I love the clothespin hangers because little fingers can use them.  Pants hangers that come with clothes are a little tough for little ones to use.
• The ribbon hanger would also work for organizing girls' clip-on hair bows.  Just leave off the clothespins and let your girls clip on their accessories!
• I love the adjustable hanging rack because it can get taller as the kids grow and the dresses get longer.

Have fun organizing!  I'll admit, my girls don't always remember to hang everything back up, but at least we only end up with a few things on the floor--not the whole pile of clothes!

Now, will someone please teach me how to get my girls to put their regular clothes away instead of leaving them in a pile next to the dress up corner?

Thanks for stopping by!