The Historical Doll

I've noticed over the years that many people, when they first begin collecting American Girl dolls, find themselves with a rapidly expanding collection and various questions about how to display it and store it.  As the collections can be rather valuable, everyone (of course) would like to ensure that their collection is stored in a way that maintains the items' integrity and also accommodates their needs for accessibility.  In this portion of the website, I give some ideas about storage and display based on some varying circumstances I've found myself in, as well as a some hints and tips I've learned from other collectors over the years.

How do people store doll clothing- the dresses and the mountain of shoes, hats, aprons, undies... AAHHH!

There are a variety of ways that people have found to store doll clothing.  A lot of it depends on your preferences in accessibility and use.  Are you storing them only for adult use, or will kids need access as well?  Do you have an extra closet, or are you operating to minimize space used for storage?  Do you like to mix and match, or are you a "purist," only putting dolls in the same outfits as the catalog?

Clothing Storage Ideas for Purists and Those with Small Children

For "purists" and those with small children who want to keep all parts of the outfits together: dresses hung on AG hangers in a wire storage cube system, with all accessories in a plastic bag attached to the hanger.  Or, alternatively, you could put the dress and all accessories in a gallon size ziploc bag and then store these in stackable rubbermaid totes or underbed boxes.  Some moms with young daughters have put print-outs of the complete outfits and a list of all the pieces in the bag as well, enabling little ones to sort their doll clothes back into the correct outfits for storage (so as to not lose all those tiny bits and pieces).

The Mix and Match Crowd: Storing Dresses, Coats, and Other Large Clothing Items

If you have closet or room space but not a lot of money you could hang (or box) the dresses in a wire-cube system (pictured below left, compliments of Jean C from Hostboard).  Or what I have done in the past (and is pictured below on the right) is use closet sweater organizers.  The sweater organizers keep the dresses dust free and I just stack them loosely enough that they do not wrinkle.  It is pretty space-saving, provided you have an extra closet to begin with, and allows you to see all the dresses easily.  Two shelves or so are enough for one historical doll's complete outfit collection.  As an added benefit, skirts, pants, shirts, etc. can be folded and stacked along with the dresses.  The disadvantage with sweater organizers is that they are not as portable as the plastic boxes.  If you don't have all your dolls near the closet, you end up making a lot of trips.

    

Here is my last doll closet, since I had an entire wall of closet space to use.  Wire shelving was cheap and provides a narrow enough edge to hang doll hangers (they won't fit over a normal sized closet pole).  The added benefit is that you can use the shelving top for storage behind the dresses.  The top-most rung of this closet was built using a curtain rod.One tip is that Life of Faith (www.alof.com) offers high quality doll hangers at very reasonable prices- the best price I've found yet.  The next doll closet will go back to hanging sweater organizers and/or rubbermaid totes.  I don't have this many doll clothes anymore and it takes up a lot of space to do it this way.  Though it is fun and easy to find stuff.

If you do not have a closet or lots of space, and you don't want to spend a lot of money, there are several options.  First, you could make a small freestanding doll closet out of a large, sturdy cardboard box.  Asian AG from Hostboard makes these doll closets and they are both functional and nice-looking, with the added bonus of being cheap.  If I remember from posts correctly, Asian AG explained that very sturdy boxes work best- like the kind computers come in.  The inside and outside are lined with contact paper to give a finished look, and you can add a cardboard shelf and shoe storage box from the same material, as shown on the right.  Hang a small dowel rod inside and attach an inexpensive latch from the local hardware store, and you're done!

    

I lived in a 650 square foot house last year, and I didn't even have the room for a couple of doll trunks.  So what's a collector to do?  Well, there's a bunch of space in your home that is probably just collecting dust bunnies... under your bed and couch.  I've found that the space under my bed holds a vast array of historical and modern doll clothes, packed nicely into underbed storage boxes.  The boxes are cheap (I got all the ones in the picture at the bottom at Lowe's for $10, the large size like at the top will run you about $15) and hold a ton.  I used to use two large underbed boxes, like the one at the top, and two mid-sized ones, but I got tired of the humongous size of the large ones.  It was a real chore to get them out from under there and back.  So I switched to all mid-size and small boxes, and labeled them so I can see what I'm grabbing for.  Each doll gets one mid-size container.  The nice thing about this system is that the boxes are portable, so I can tote them around easily.  The only real disadvantage is that the clothing will get wrinkled, and you have to be careful to lay them flat every time or you get strange creases.

        

The Mix and Match Crowd: What To Do with Bits and Pieces

Some people use the doll trunks, either from AG or others.  I found the trunks to be inadequately sized for a complete collection of dresses, shoes, etc. and have little space for hats if they are the steamer variety.  When I had my first doll room closet about three years ago, each doll had a large box.  The disadvantage is that Addy and Kirsten, for example, could not share aprons or shoes without me rummaging through multiple boxes.  I came up with a new system now that I really like. 

I got two four-drawer cardboard mini-dressers from KMart (from the Martha Stewart collection) and they work fantastic for all doll shoes and a few hats and parasols that are too elaborate to be stacked with other hats (like Kirsten's St. Lucia wreath).  I have now found these also work very nicely for storing crowns and wings, if you happen to have fantasy dollies.  The nice thing about these, aside from looking decent, is that they also are quite compact and can be squeezed in all sorts of locations.

I found that the tops of filing boxes make excellent shoe storage.  They are perfectly sized trays in which you can organize all dollie shoes and easily tote them around for play time.  As a bonus, you can put them on top of almost anything, including mini-dressers or closet shelves.

My husband made me this custom storage cabinet for the dolls' bits and pieces, such as hats, aprons, ribbons, and undies.  Each doll has a box or two to store undies, aprons, purses, hats, etc.  A few dolls whose wardrobes are more limited, or who swap clothes, share boxes.  An amazing amount of stuff fits in each of these little boxes, and the cabinet was made with a protective lip around the top shelf so that a doll could have her home there.  You could do something similar with any bookcase unit.  I bought the canvas boxes (approx. 1x1x1) at Lowe's, and I keep very small items, like jewelry and hair ribbons, grouped in ziplock baggies.

    

Dollie Dream Closets

What to do if you have a closet, or more, some time and some money...  the sky is the limit!  Below are some "dream closets" that would make any doll collector drool.  Loving both AGs and organization, these are my inspiration for my future doll room.  It's hard not to love dust-free, organized, and beautiful solutions for playing with our dolls!

Here is a doll closet designed by boop0415 from Hostboard that is not only functional, but fun!  It's doll-sized scale makes it kind of like a real closet, and there is plenty of room for hats on the top shelf, a nice bonus since they tend to get squashed without some sort of planning for their storage.  Doesn't her doll look happy?

Here is a very spiffy free-standing unit created by Jeanette M from Hostboard.  Notice that the racks' height are uniquely designed to maximize storage space- dresses are stored together, shirts are in separate smaller compartments, allowing for more to be stored overall.  If desired, one could also store shoes underneath the dresses, or even put them in trays that could be stored on the shelves, if you wanted portability.  More pictures of Jeanette's storage below...

Jeanette cleverly made more storage space in this cabinet by having three side-by-side pull-out closet pulls, rather than one dowel rod.  This allows her to make good use of the depth of her storage cabinet while not losing the joy and ease of seeing all your doll clothes at once.

Jeanette M's in-closet doll closet.  Again, great use of all the space available by customizing the height of the dowel rods to accommodate different types of clothing.  Bits and pieces are stored in canvas 1'x1'x1' boxes, like I store mine.  The canvas box storage unit is available at Lowe's.

Room for lots of shoes under Jeanette's AGT doll closet.  Note that they are in a slide-out drawer.  Again, it is details like this that you would want to think about if you are planning a big doll closet system.  Digging through all those shoes underneath the clothes would be a pain, but rolling out the shelf allows you to see all your shoes at once!

MollyGirl's (from Hostboard) doll closets take the cake, in my opinion, for being almost a display unto themselves.  Historical clothing is stored (as is shown below in the display section) in the historical trunks, but AGT and Bitty Baby items are in customized doll closets.  Here, this lovely AGT doll closet, complete with darling heart dowel-rod holders and shelves, combines function and a serious sense of dolly style.  Shelves in the back of the closet allow accessories, large items, and books to be stored, while the dowel/shelf configuration allows for a walk-in style dolly dressing experience.

This doll closet (again, created by MollyGirl) is storage, but also display.  Bitty Baby clothing is nicely hung from heart dowel-rod/shelf systems, and lots of accessories can fit in American Girl's storage system (on the right part of the closet).  The AG storage unit, shelf for display, and crib (along with the nice paint job) gives one the impression of a real baby's nursery.

You may be thinking... I don't have that much stuff yet- I'll never need all that!  So thought most of us when we began collecting... LOL- just give it time and a little "enabling" from your fellow collectors and ebay.  Your free time and money will be going toward becoming a dolly Nordstrom before you know it!

What about damage to the clothing?

You want to be sure of a few things when you store any of your doll clothing or accessories.  First, the area has to be dry.  It is very important to store everything in a secure location away from any danger of leakage during storms or condensation when it gets humid and hot.  Second, protect the clothes from moths.  Many of the wool items- Felicity's riding habit, Addy's coat and school suit- wind up with tiny holes in them if they are not well-protected.  Third, be sure that you protect the clothes from any odors if you think you may ever want to resell them.  Storage in basements, attics, and garages often result in the clothing smelling musty, and storage in a smoking environment will wind up with a strong odor.  One way to combat this odor if you already have the problem is Febreeze and plenty of time airing outside (protected from the elements, of course!).  Finally, be sure that you periodically air out any clothing that is stored long-term (without being displayed or played with) so that it has a chance to de-wrinkle and freshen.

How about all those accessory sets?

For years, I used to store accessory sets in their original boxes.  I also kept all the original boxes from outfits that I wasn't using- I broke them down and store them in rubbermaids in the garage.  I'm kind of Type A that way.  I am re-reading this now (two years later) and laughing- I must have learned to let go a little.  The extra boxes stuck around until I moved from California to Washington, and then they got recycled.  Even us type A people have our limits!

Really though, I do think that storing the accessories in their original boxes, well-padded with tissue paper, is the best way to keep them nice over the years, providing you store them in the house or in water-proof boxes.  I've been storing my accessory sets in this way since I began collecting as a kid in 1986, and all my accessories- even the fragile ones- have made it the twenty plus years 'til now.  If you don't have the original boxes, you can easily use other small, sturdy boxes and wrap them with tissue or wrapping paper.  You can get a huge box or roll of plain brown wrapping paper at Lowe's or Home Depot for under $20, and it's plenty to wrap everything and anything.

So what do you do with all those little boxes?  I've done two different things so far.  When I had my first doll room, I had a 4' by 4' bookcase that I put inside the closet next to my sweater-shelf thingies that held doll clothing.  The boxes were labeled and stacked, by doll, on the shelves.  Very convenient.  The thing is, when you get much beyond five dolls with nearly complete collections, you'll run out of room unless you have a gigantic bookcase.

Slightly less convenient, but highly space saving, is what I do now.  I store all kitchen, cooking, etc. related items together in one area, with smaller boxes combined into larger ones by doll/time period.  I decided to put all kitchen items together because I often end having the girls share food from each other, and this made it so that all of those items are in one easy-access location.

I also use the boxes the dolls come in to store the smaller boxes inside, then stack them on the uppermost shelves of our closet, which are not much good for anything else, anyway.  Each box belongs to a doll and is labeled.  The bonus is that it gives me a space to store my doll boxes and makes them useful at the same time.  I always keep an AG furniture box (one of the nice ones with lids) handy to hold ribbons, shoes, etc. as I undress the dolls so that if I get interrupted, I can put things away later and I don't have to worry about losing the little pieces.

The bonus is that doll boxes almost always can be squeezed on the top shelves of closets, no matter what size house I live in.  They are easy to stack, too.

Combining Display and Storage

My new favorite method of storing accessories is to store them just as we store our junk in real life- in each doll's "house."  In order to do this, you have to branch out from the AG brand furniture and find suitable doll-sized cupboards, china cabinets, hutches, and small trunks suitable for use in display.  It is very rewarding, however, because it turns your doll's room into a much more realistic house, with plenty of storage in her own room for dishes, food, and other accessories.

Any ideas for furniture, horses, and other large pieces?

My place of choice has always been the top-most shelves of closets and the insides of large trunks.  I find I rarely can use this space for clothing or linens, since it's hard to see what's in there and inconvenient for everyday use.  So my doll furniture, doll boxes, and any other large accessories go there.  I don't change out furniture more than a couple times per month, so it works.  I do not store furniture in the boxes, as these are far too big, but I have found that the boxes the AG chairs come in (if you order them individually) are fantastic for storing smaller furniture items- nightstands, chairs, etc.  They also work great for storing bedding and dollie linens.

Many people, if they have enough space, find that their larger pieces are best simply left out and displayed.  It solves the storage problem and your dolls get to live in a fully furnished house all the time.  This is how I have organized my current doll room.  There is very little furniture that currently necessitates storage.

As for the sleigh and carriage... they're tough.  I owned the sleigh for a while and just kept it in the original box and stored it with my Christmas stuff.  Unfortunately, these are so huge they are very difficult to store, and the sleigh is seasonal.

What should I do with dolls when they aren't displayed?

When my dolls are taking a vacation from the fast-paced life of display, I choose to store them in their original boxes, stacked in my closet.  There are many dangers lurking for a stored doll- heat and cold can wreak havoc on the vinyl, mold can grow on them, they can turn green.  Seriously- I've heard of all these awful things happening!  That is my ultimate fear, so I rarely store a doll.  I like to check on them every day and make sure they are all right.  Plus, they tell me that they get lonely in my closet and they feel kind of cramped in their boxes.

At any rate, if you must store a doll, be careful where and how you do so.  I would only store them in the house, and avoid basements and attics (both places where the temperature is often not regulated).  Be careful of mildewing and molding due to condensation and humidity.  For long-term storage, you may want to invest in acid-free paper and boxes to wrap them in.  Also, do not store a doll for any substantial (more than one week) length of time in clothing.  Some doll clothing, including certain AG outfits, have a tendency to stain dolls if left on too long.  This is especially a problem with dark colored velvets.  Certain shoes, if left on for a long time, will stain your dolls' feet.  As sad as it is to box them up nekkid, that is what is best for them.  If you happen to accidentally stain a doll, I would recommend visiting the Just Magic! site (link is on my home page).  Many doll restoration tips are there, including products that remove stains.

Be sure to check on them periodically and make sure they're doing OK, and don't forget to reassure them that they are not forgotten or unloved!

I have a room of my own, but I don't want to make it only a doll room.  How can I have large displays but retain a lot of the space for other hobbies (or a working office)?

I now always combine my office and art studio with my doll display space.  Here are a few options we've used in various houses.  Idea #1: custom built-ins.  Here, my husband combined a desk with doll display shelves under the rafters in an upstairs bedroom.

Idea #2: put them in the closet on shelves you install.  This 5' wide by 2' deep closet is perfect for large doll rooms: Kirsten's cabin, Kathleen and Hannah's kitchen, and their attic bedroom.

I have a doll room, but I don't know what to do with it.  I feel like my dolls live on the floor, and it's more difficult to play with them there.  What can I do?

If you want to have a nice doll room without too much expense, the key is what furniture you already have lying around the house that can be converted to dollie homes.  Tables and desks work very well, and bookcases can make smaller homes.  A good, relatively square table or desk makes a fantastic space, especially if you have the scenes and settings.

Personally, I like my dolls to be up off the floor.  Part of this is because I have two dogs, and they tend to see anything on the floor as belonging to them.  I had a kittie for twenty years, as well (sadly, she passed away this year), and when she was around she was more likely to view the dolls' homes as her personal apartments and liberally gift them with cat hair if they were close to the floor.  With scenes and settings (or a handmade version made from foamboard), a few rugs for the "floor", and furniture and knick-knacks, your doll will feel very much at home. 

If you want to really go "all out" and have a bit of time and money to invest, consider creating a custom doll house or doll rooms.  As far as I know, Meg from Hostboard (yes, the same Meg who put together the huge and wonderful site that cataloged the entire historical offerings, including retired items) was the first to have the "doll room" idea and post it on her website.  I highly recommend you check out her "Doll Rooms" website for pictures and instructions. 

I'd also recommend visiting the Just Magic site and checking out the huge and amazing AG-sized doll house.  If you are not a member of one of the boards that Maria frequents, you may need to email with a request to have access to see the doll house, but trust me, it is well worth it.  Her basement playroom, complete with doll house, is an AG paradise!  (Link to Just Magic! website is on my home page.) 

I had a doll room in the house we leased for 2006-2007, and I had six large (2x4x2) rooms and three medium (2x3x2) rooms.  They were huge, but worth it for a while.  They will hold Scenes and Settings at an angle.  I considered building ones that would hold them flat, but they were just too deep and/or wide to fit most rooms.  My husband built these for me, and as you can see, it's like having an AG-sized doll house.  You could even finish the outside or decorate the inside with wallpaper and window trim and such, rather than using the Scenes and Settings.

The picture below is a custom doll display created by MollyGirl.  The bottommost shelves have plenty of storage for the historical doll trunks, which hold their clothing.  A nice touch is the small shelves in the middle of the display that nicely showcase the dolls' books and Hallmark book-ends.  The top of the display has doll rooms for Josefina and Felicity.  A note about Felicity's new Clothes Press: while pretty, it is not very helpful for storage, as it was unfortunately designed by AG to hold two dolls rather than clothing.  Some people have modified it by inserting a dowel rod, which increases its usefulness considerably.  If you are concerned about resale value, however, you may want to avoid altering the clothes press, or do it in such a way that is reversible, because it may affect its resale value.

Here is AmericanMommy's (from Hostboard) doll rooms.  She explained that it is possible to download free software on the Web that allows you to print out poster-sized backdrops using an ordinary printer.  The software divides up the image so that they overlap.  Print out the image on high quality paper, rubber cement it to foam board, and voila!  A very spiffy doll room.  The paper dolls from American Girl come with a limited number of backdrops that can be enlarged to poster size using a normal scanner; this is how Kit's attic backdrop was created.  The garden backdrop was created in Photoshop.  The AGT bedroom was done in the "traditional" way for doll rooms- paint, wallpaper, etc. just as you would a regular room.  You can add trim and windows or not as your heart desires. 

If you are trying to do a nifty doll room on the cheap and you don't have extra furniture, one suggestion is card tables.  They are the right height, they are square, and after you through a nifty quilt or piece of cloth or something over them, you wouldn't know they're card tables.  If you want to get really creative, you could make a little wood floor for the dolls out of strips of wood.

Displaying the sleigh or carriage, especially with the horse hooked up, is difficult.  I have a long sofa table that worked well for this at Christmas when I had a bigger house.  The total length is about four feet, though, so some people just choose the floor or 'round the Christmas tree for this one.

I have NO space- none.  How can I display my dollies?

If you have enough room for one bookcase (about 4' wide), then you can have a doll house.  If you have a bookcase or a glass-front cabinet, you can set up little "rooms" in it.  My girls each get a small piece of furniture in their "room"- a chair, or a nightstand.  To me, this makes the space seem more like a display and less like a row of dolls.  And then the girls can "visit" each other too, and feel like they have a little space of their own.

If you have the space and money, a doll cabinet works very well, as I found when I had a 650 square foot house for a year.  This one has glass-front doors (removed here while I play) and is about 4' wide by 4' tall and about 16" deep.  It was from KMart and cost about $300.  It came with three shelves and they are moveable.  It's a very handy cabinet for dolls and the doors are easily put on and off, so I could take them off to play and rearrange things and put them back on the rest of the time.  I liked that the two doll houses in the cabinet are protected from dust.

More display ideas...  What goes into the display is partly determined by how much space you have, and partly by how big each doll's furniture is.  For example, you can fit Kirsten's nightstand (behind the doll) and one chair easily in this 2' wide space, but you would not be able to fit one of Samantha's chairs and her commode- both are too bulky.  This is a nice way to set up little houses if you have limited space (look at what you can do with 2 feet!).  It's also pretty inexpensive, considering all you need for a nice, cozy display is a doll's nightstand and a chair, which only costs around $50 together from AG.  Here's a close-up of a Kirsten mini-room.  The stove was an antique salesman sample my in-laws picked up at a yard sale. 

My dollies' homes when I lived in the very small house were mostly on the tops of tall bookcases and cabinets- LOL!  But they didn't seem to mind their penthouse apartments.  

    

If you have absolutely zero space, you can put shelves around the room about 2' from the ceiling.  Then the dolls can hang out up there- but you may want to invest in doll stands for their lofty perch!  Also, be sure that you install the shelves very securely, especially if you plan to display heavy furniture and dolls together.  I would not recommend that option for those of us living in earthquake prone areas, however.