Organizing dress up clothes

Imaginative play is a vital component to a child's cognitive, social and emotional development. As I watch my daughter dress-up as a teacher or fireman or dinosaur.. I can see her trying to make sense of the greater world and her place in that world. In a safe way, she is exploring her fears, learning to navigate power dynamics and developing an understanding of social and cultural norms. In short, I think that every kid could benefit from some dress up clothes. Still dress-up clothes can and often do take over!
Although I am not classically type A I have a strong aesthetic preference for organization. Of course in a small house the space available for storage and organization is limited. So when my kids dress up clothes threatened to take over their play area I looked around for underutilized areas in my home-Like a rather long and awkward hall way. Perfect!

Here are some of the techniques I used:
1. Coat hooks- kids can see all their costumes and it is easy for them to get things on and off. I got a couple nice ones at IKEA but I also found some pretty good ones at our local Dollar Tree. I couldn't use command hooks because our walls are textured but I hear they work great.

2. Laminated pictures: I hung a laminated picture of the costume over the corresponding hook to make clean up easier. I used stick backed Velcro on the picture and wall. I have found this comes off pretty easily as long as your paint finish is at least egg- shell. If you don't have access to a laminator you can attach the pictures on small pieces of cardboard and mount them that way.



3. Small clear shoe holder: perfect for holding masks and other accessories like necklaces/ handcuffs etc. I got mine ( 12 sections) from Amazon and hung it low on the wall so it was easy to access. I also printed out pictures for each section and mounted them to the inside of each pocket. I like to make it as easy as possible for my kids to clean up.


4. Using a broom organizer to hold hobby horse and cowboy hats. This is great, my kids can just slide their hobby horse through the tension holder and they are " in the stable" for the night. The trick is to mount the holder low enough on the wall that your kids can easily manipulate their horse in and out of the "stable".