Dolls and Doll-related Items for Sale

Friday, March 13, 2015

Where I Keep My Doll Accessories

D7ana encouraged me to share my pictures of where I keep my little doll treasures, after she showed us where she keeps some of her doll bits and bobs. I ended up really enjoying taking these pictures, as I realized how blessed I am with the extras I have for my doll residents. I'll start with the biggest piece of storage furniture, a dresser. When we bought a second-hand bedroom set for Daughter Number 2, the Dancer, we had an "extra" dresser, that now stores my clothes. My personal dresser with the mirror became a place to display and store dolls; sometime I will show the top of the dresser.

Top drawer:
Extra clothes for my 16" doll world, plus accessories
A box with compartments containing important stuff like shoes, purses and jewelry
Middle drawer:
Extra Barbie clothes, extra Cissy clothes, and a few things for my 18" Miss America dolls
 Bottom drawer:
I have more space in this drawer than I remembered. Barbie hats, Stacie size doll stands, We Three Friends
I also have some similar Sterilite boxes stored under the overhang of our platform bed. But that's not very picture-worthy.

One of my oldest places to store things is a small, basic plastic three-drawer unit. It is useful for storage; what is an issue is finding the flat space to keep it.


Barbie size shoes
Baby items and toys for babies in the Barbie universe
Kelly dolls, and Barbie's baby sister Krissy. I didn't want her in the higher drawer all alone. :-(
Last in the Barbie storage category is a large compartmentalized case. Again, this is a great place to store things, but I like to leave it flat, and it's too tall to slide under most furniture, and too big to use up that oh so elusive flat space. It also sticks out too much to put it under the platform bed. I struggle with where to keep it.

If Barbie gets hungry or needs a glass of wine, she knows where to go
For the 16" dolls, I also have a wardrobe case. It was made for the vinyl Josephine doll series produced by the Franklin Mint. I got it straight from the Franklin Mint, and I'm glad I did, as FM wardrobe cases run a lot on the secondary market. It's holding one Josephine doll that's not on display, plus a dress, a couple of hats, and some FM accessories.


Since I like having my dolls displayed in dioramas with furniture and props, I've tried to stock up on doll sized armoires for their display bedrooms, and I want them to actually store clothes and things like hats and shoes. I have almost all the armoires/wardrobes that I need; now I need to invest in hangers. Here's one example: a plastic wardrobe from the 8" Madeline doll line, produced by Eden and based on the children's books by Ludwig Bemelmans. Extra Madeline outfits came with hangers, but I don't have any extra clothes at the moment for these girls! However, I do have their hats and some gloves, socks, and shoes.


For my American Girl Samantha, I have a human-sized (on the small side) cedar chest for her clothes, dishes, extra shoes and stockings, etc. The chest itself is not very elaborately built, and probably cost less originally than Josephine's wardrobe case. But it does give Samantha's things a lovely cedar scent.


If you have the dolly money and a little bit of time, sometimes it's good just to scroll through interesting doll categories on eBay and see what you come up with. It's how I found that dresser for my Mary Englebreit dolls (which does store things like Ann's glasses), and also how I found this last piece, which stores jewelry for my 21" Cissy dolls, and other little items (Coca-Cola Cissy comes with a Coke bottle, for example.) This furniture item stands about 21" tall and has a real glass mirror, and two drawers lined with velvet. It was bought from a seller right here in the greater Cleveland area and the seller allowed Mr. BTEG to pick it up. Not only did it save me a lot on shipping, but it was a relief to the seller not to have to worry about packing it up safely enough for the mail. I vaguely remember it being made for some sort of doll club gathering, and it was made by someone who lived at the time only about 10 miles from my current home, going by the writing on the bottom of the chest. But there's so little information that I haven't been able to track down any other furniture this person might have made. Too bad, as this is beautifully made, like a human sized piece of furniture quality.

The main thing you can see in the mirror is my bookcase, with my dolly Christmas tree on top

My family will tell you that I adore buying all sorts of things to use for storage, from rolling carts to little plastic boxes like what you see above. Someday I'd love to go on a shopping spree in a Container Store. I'm always looking to store the maximum amount in a minimum space. Unless I bought another rolling cart (that I don't have floor space for) and filled it with trays for things like my Barbie shoes, Kelly dolls, etc., I think my storage system is about as good as could be, except I ought to get some of my doll clothes out of the plastic storage. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little tour. Do you have any clever storage tricks?

15 comments:

  1. Your dolls' accessories are very organized. I try to manage mine, but i i forget to put the things back in their place...Only the doll shoes are in order :)

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    1. It can be very hard to keep all those tiny pieces stored neatly. Most of the things I'm actively using at the moment tend to get disorganized.

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  2. Thanks for sharing your doll accessory organization, Barb. I love organizing catalogs and sites. It's fun and inspiring to see how others solve their storing needs. I like the variety of materials, too. Some wood, some plastic. The bright colors are cheery. Yes, I have enjoyed this tour ;-)

    BTW, i have that DotW Kelly doll, too. Little Miss Mexico. Adorable.

    Clever storage tricks? I like a new tip Roville left for me: she suggested I keep similar items together. Breakfast stuff in one unit, art supplies in another. Makes sense and for easier finding.

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    1. Those Kelly and Tommy dolls of different lands were cute, weren't they? Glad you enjoyed looking at my stash. :-)

      Definitely a good idea to try to keep similar items together.

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    2. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them cuties, Kelly and Tommy. They're like doll Tribbles though, lol.

      "Similar things together, yeah!"

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    3. I miss Kelly and Tommy in Barbie's world. Seems ironic Mattel stopped that line when everything seems to revolve around small dolls right now.

      Glad to see you making progress.

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  3. You're very organized! Is those multi-compartment containers fishing tackle boxes? They look perfect for the job.

    I love that Franklin Mint wardrobe as well - that's a nice-looking storage piece!

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    1. The top compartmentalized container is from a craft store. Probably either for beads or embroidery thread. The yellow and black container is made by a company that makes tools, so it was probably meant for things like tool bits or small things like screws or bolts. My husband has one that he uses to hold some of his various dice.

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  4. What a fun post! I love seeing how other people store their doll accessories, and I love seeing the accessories. You have a wonderful collection of doll shows, and I love those mini teddy bears.

    One of these days, I'd like to get a doll wardrobe with plenty of room to hang clothes. I keep looking for the perfect thrift store item to repurpose... like maybe a vintage suitcase or trunk. I see so many fun Pinterest tutorials!

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    1. There certainly are a lot of good ideas on Pinterest! At least with 12" dolls, you don't need as much space as people with 18" dolls do. Hope you find the perfect piece!

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  5. Hi Barb. I'm so excited to find your blog. You've been visiting my blog for quite some time. As they say, better late than never. I'm looking forward to perusing your blog. It's always great to see how people store and organize their dolly stuff. I am always on the lookout for new ideas.

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    1. Hi Vanessa! Thank you for stopping by. Hope you will come back often.

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  6. You could make your own little hangers from wire, wrapped with yard or thread. Also, beware of keeping things in bare cedar chests. They often put out sap (I had a cedar jewelry box that ruined some jewelry that way.),and it's recommended that you line the chest with an old sheet to protect the contents.

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    1. Thank you for the tip. I have had this chest for about fifteen years, so maybe I've been lucky. I'll keep an eye out.

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