Dolls and Doll-related Items for Sale

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

A New Idea for Clothing Storage: Collectible Card Storage Boxes

I don't know about other countries, but here in the United States, there are lots of reasons why people might own collectible cards, from sports, to games like Pathfinder, Magic: The Gathering, and Pokemon. And of course, if you have a lot of cards, you need a place to store them. When my last attempt at clothes organization didn't work out (three ring binders,) I decided to try the collectible card box idea, which I'd been considering for a while.


There are many different sizes of collectible card boxes. There are boxes that are about half the length of the box up above, although I've only seen those online. There are also larger boxes that have three or four rows inside for cards. Of course, the boxes, or slots in a larger box, are only one general width, collectible card width. However, that seems to work out really well for things like Barbie-sized shirts and shorts/shorter skirts. Plus, when they are standing upright, I can flip through them, almost like cards. It's not like in a box where they are laying flat, when you might have to pull a bunch out to get to the ones in the middle. At least, that's what I ended up doing. :)


Slightly longer skirts fit in fine sideways.

I've discovered that the length of the boxes that I have, is perfect for knee-length dresses and longer skirts, and pants/capris.


The thing is, and I realized this when I was trying out the 3-ring binder method, some Barbie clothes are so proportionally "thick," that sometimes they almost stand up by themselves. Of course, the box with my shirts in it also works well, because the box is fairly full. However, the skirts and shorts also seem to stay fairly well arranged in their box. I'm sure if I threw the box around enough, things would get out of place, but then again, the box is small enough to not have a lot of room for that.

I tried out the next size box, to see what I could fit. For now, this is going to be both my "ankle length, poofy skirt" box, and my full-length dress box. Since the box is really too long for either, I'm kind of sticking the skirts at one end and the dresses at the other, for now.

Of course, there other lengths, and I may be able to find something a little shorter, length-wise, online. I bought these from our local gaming store, because Mr. BTEG and the Dancer have played games there for hours on end, and I want to support the store. Now that I think this is going to work well, I can experiment with other sizes, too.

Just to share my experience with you, what went wrong with the 3-ring binder method was that I only wanted to use the smallest plastic pouches for my smallest tops, to save space. However, because of the thickness of Barbie clothes that I mentioned earlier, the tops really wanted to just pop right out of those small pouches. On top of that, I quickly filled up two binders (with more clothes than you see here) and both binders were so stuffed that they were too fat to hold their neat triangle shape. I could easily see the binders getting out of control, space wise, plus some clothes were falling out of the pouches, and putting them in a sleeve with bigger pouches would just take up even more room.

Teresa organizes hers in plastic bags, and then in larger plastic bags, by things like doll, year, and what fashion pack it came from. However, I'm not really much of a collector when it comes to Barbie clothes. I don't try to collect all the outfits and accessories from the 1965 Barbie and Ken wedding set (making the name and date up here.) I'd rather be able to find them by top or knee-length dress, rather than what Fashion Fever multi-outfit pack it came from. We take different approaches to our fashion doll clothes, which is fine. I hope maybe my approach will work for one or two of you out there.

I also have outside box measurements, if you are interested in those. I'm not sure how these card boxes are officially measured, if it's from the inside, or what. But this should help you know what you're looking at, when shopping for your own boxes.

Small box:

Length: 7.5 inches, about 18.5cm

Width: 4 inches, about 10cm

Height: 2 and 7/8 inches, about 7cm

Long box:

Length:  about 12.5 inches, about 31cm

Same width and height

If you prefer plastic boxes and can find some in a useful size, great. When I decided to try the "standing up" approach, the only thing I could really find both narrow in width and long enough in length were collectible card boxes. Obviously, they're not going to set inside each other for stacking, like some plastic boxes will. But, they do stack, and maybe in the doll space you have, you'll store them all flat on a shelf or in something like a drawer instead. Anyway, this is a storage approach that I have not seen anyplace else, and I hope if it doesn't work for you, it might spark an idea for something that will. Happy storage!


11 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this. I am always looking for organizing tips.

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    1. Thank you! I like looking for new ways to keep things organized as well.

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  2. That's a good idea. And since they're cardboard, you could always write what's on the box in Sharpie on the outside (and it wouldn't scrape off like it would on plastic)

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    1. Thank you. If you look at the last picture, top box, I have been writing what's inside the box. It's also easy to write on multiple sides, so you can see what the box has from different angles.

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  3. That worked out well! Thanks for the info on the binders too; I was thinking of trying that, but I guess I won't!

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    1. Yep, I am very glad I got a good result this time. I was frustrated about the binders not working; it seems to be a go-to for lots of people, but I had lots of issues with it.

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  4. This is a great idea! I had never heard of those boxes for cards, but I've seen sometimes similar boxes used as packaging. Currently, I keep most of my dolls clothes and accessories in hardware organizers. I use the ones with smaller drawers for shoes and bags and the ones with bigger drawers for clothes. I don't have many Barbie clothes, so for now it's working fine.
    Years ago, Fashion Doll Stylist wrote a post about how she stored her gowns and long dresses in shoe boxes. She basically glued a wooden dowel and hanged the dresses. She even covered the inside with scrabook paper to make it look like an actual closet, it looked really nice.

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    1. Yeah, for now I have the clothes specifically made for my curvy Barbie body in a flat organizing tray, because I only have a few outfits. But I want my Barbie clothing collection to be even bigger than it already is, so I needed something else. I did think about the hanger idea, but I would need so many hangers, and a lot of the things that I have won't work well on hangers. I do keep some of my 16" doll clothes on hangers, and even with the bigger size, I sometimes have a problem keeping clothes from falling off of the hangers. I'm clumsy with my fingers a lot of the time.

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  5. A neat stackable idea for storage Barb, and it would certainly work for smaller items. Not for me though, they wouldn't be big enough. :) I have all my dolly clothes/shoes in clear plastic boxes, which makes it easy for me to see what's what.
    Big hugs,
    X

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    1. Yep, these are definitely not for every size doll, Xanadu. I keep the shoes for my bigger dolls in clear plastic boxes. I have a wooden wardrobe and a wardrobe trunk for my 16" dolls, and also have a whole dresser drawer devoted to them. :) But I was having trouble finding something small enough for this little stuff.

      Big hugs

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  6. Yes, I really enjoy being able to see all the clothes at once too. It's so much easier to find things this way than stacked in a plastic box.

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