American Girl Doll Storage

Wow! It's been a long time since I posted here. So much to catch up on. Being a room parent has kept me busy, but for this school year, I am also subbing. I absolutely love it! However, the unpredictable schedule is hard for me to plan things. I'm not complaining, though. I've always wanted to work at my kids' school and now I am.

We did have some spare time this past weekend to work on my daughter's American Girl doll collection. The collection started with Bitty Baby when she was 3. Then Santa brought her Kit on Christmas when she was 5. I thought one girl and baby was enough, but then Molly was retiring last year and Claire really wanted her. Really, it was her, not me. Even though the doll has my name and her year is 1944 -- my Dad's birth year -- it really was my daughter who wanted her. It's just that all those things added up to it being okay for Santa to bring her this last Christmas.

So, now she has 2 American Girls and one Bitty Baby. She loves them and I couldn't be happier! I love that my little girl wants to play with dolls. She changes them into their pajamas for the night and dresses them in the morning. However, over the years, she's accumulated a few things to go along with the dolls. She was having trouble finding certain outfits and accessories she wanted to play with. It's great to have choices, but not great if you can't find them.

In her room, we already had 2 bookcases that I had purchased from Target that stored random items. I saw a couple ideas on Pinterest where someone used a tension rod to hang doll clothes. I thought that was a brilliant idea. I had enough to work with and got started.

On Saturday, we gathered all of her American Girl doll items and got to work organizing. We made little rooms for her dolls on the shelves. We left enough space between the the bookcases for the tension rod and under that is room for the bunk bed.

It's not glamorous by any means, but it's very functional and my daughter was excited about the finished look. She can see everything and knows where everything goes.

Let's take a closer look:

The left bookshelves have the bathroom, living room and cubbies on bottom shelf for 

shoes and clothes:

The right bookshelves have the kitchen, kitchen accessories/supplies, and more clothes. I was going to purchase shallow containers, but instead we used the lids from AG products we purchased to store foods and miscellaneous kitchen play items. 

Also, the salon chair on top so they can get their hair done, of course. : )

Here's where we used the tension rod; spread between the two bookshelves and the "bedroom" underneath that. One thing about the tension rod: it kept sliding down, so we just rested it on top of the bookshevles for now and it works. 

Our next project is to paint her room. Now, that will be exciting! 

Hope you found this idea useful!