. Organizing Dress Up Clothes

I recently received the following inquiry:

I have 4 large tubs of dress up clothes, shoes, jewelry, hats, costumes, etc. for my grandchildren.  I can organize them but after one visit the boxes look like a tornado whipped through them.  My dilemma is creating a system my grandchildren can use that will leave the dress up clothes organized and  tidy.  Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Marlene B.

First, let’s take the mess and divide it out into groups.  Considering what you have indicated, it appears we could organize it as such:

1) Clothes – you are right, these would best is hung on hooks, but a second best idea is confining them to a tub or two.

2) Shoes – these would best be stored in a tub (and I assume one container would appropriately contain all the shoes)

3) Jewelry – these could be stored individually in small ziploc bags with easy-to-pull zippers

4)  Hats – these can be stored in one tub

5)  Costumes – the accessories for each costume might best be stored in 2-gallon ziploc bags which have been clearly labeled to contain all the items together.  Then these ziploc bags would be kept in a container.  The larger pieces of clothing for each costume could be kept with the other items in the clothes container.

Now, having shared how I would divide up the dress up clothes to make sense of them, I would also institute “Grandma’s Rules”.  I am not yet a grandma, but I sense I will want to teach order and cleanliness, in small ways, to my grandchildren and one of the ways I could do it would be to organize all the dress-up clothes (and then put away the tubs) in anticipation of the grandchildren’s next visit.

When the grandchildren come to play next time, explain the new system of organization, showing the children the different, labeled containers, the different ziploc bags with costume accessories and jewelry, where everything goes, and how the whole should look when it is put away properly.

Then, let the children choose one tub to play with initially.  After they have played, let’s say with the shoes container and put all the shoes away in the container and put the container away, ask them if they would like to try taking out two containers, playing, and returning everything back to where it belongs.  This time I would let them play with, say, the shoe container and the clothes container.  When they have successfully played with these, put the items back where they belong, let them try getting out a costume bag or two, playing with them, putting the costume accessories back properly, putting the ziploc costume bags back in the larger container, and neating the room back to its rightful order.  And on and on…

In other words, I believe a grandma needs to teach order in her own home or she will lose a larger battle.  It is “keep order now in the small things” to have order later in the bigger things with larger number of children, or “let things go from bad to worse to a total mess” which you have to clean up yourself after they have left.  Not a very good scenario, in my opinion!

Knowing that some of you have opinions in this area, I would also appreciate your comments, suggestions, and personal experience.  Take care now, my friends and have a good week!

Find more helpful ideas in my House of Order Handbook.