How do you clean your doll space?

I am super picky about keeping my entire house clutter free and organized, so that goes for the doll room too! Currently, my doll room is also a spare bedroom, so the dolls are sitting on the floor on doll furniture. I used to have shelves, but took them down to sell the house and plans changed and I miss my doll shelves!! But the furniture will do. I also have a chest of drawers custom built to hold 12 plastic tubs. A few dolls sit on top of it, and each doll has their own tub of clothing and accessories, which go in the drawer (with two in the closet because I have 14 dolls with tubs.) In the closet, a few pieces of formal wear that I don't want wrinkled are hanging on a bar. The top shelf of the closet holds all of the doll boxes, the middle shelf has the extra clothing tubs, extra tubs, extra furniture and any dolls I currently have for sale. The floor holds the doll carry bags, the huge tub of spare wigs and a huge tub with extra props, loose CoAs and paperwork and a few other odds and ends.

I keep everything in that room with the door shut, so my dog doesn't go in there, and I'm only in there when I'm doing doll stuff, so it doesn't get dusty at all. I still dust everything in the house once a month, but there's not really ever any in there, and even if there was, I handle my dolls so often, they wouldn't get dusty anyway. I vacuum in there once a month too, and wash the window and curtain a few times a year. Because I handle the dolls so much, I probably should give them all baths more often than I do...that's something I really need to keep up with.

For cleaning out old stuff, just depends on when I feel like it. I keep an inventory list of what my dolls own and as my sewing skills improve or I buy higher quality clothing, I sell the older stuff that doesn't get used as much. Also, sometimes my dolls' styles change over time. If it's a piece I really love that nobody will wear, I keep it in an "extras" tub, but if I don't love it, I sell it. I'm kind of lazy about selling though, so sometimes my clothing sales bin just piles up over a few months before I get around to listing, though I usually do take the bin to doll meets to sell things for cheap.

 

The doll space is just another part of the house (you might also say the entire house is doll space, there's so many of them), so just gets cleaned the sme way (that is to say, enough to keep on top of it, but not as often as it probably should be), ideally with a more in-depth "spring clean" type go at it once a year.

Dusting is haphazard - we dust when we notice dust rather than havign any sort of routine for dusting on a regular chedule - the whole house is packed with collections (not hoarder-full, but collector full).

{laugh!} It's nice you assume we'd have one.

With over fifty BJDs on top of a house-full of other types of dolls, bears, and stuffies, many of who have multiple outfits, the clothes, shoes, wigs, and accessories take up a lot of space on their own.

I keep them in boxes of various sizes. Some with divided-trays for things like shoes, or wigs. Different boxes for different sizes - Lusion, SD13, SD, MSD, Tiny, and teenie-tinies etc. Some of the clothes boxes are also separated by gender. A few of the dolls have their own box, if they have enough clothes, or their style or size is sufficinetly differnt that they don't tend to share items with other dolls. The boxes are all in the spare bedroom, mostly on one long, deep shelf of a shelving unit that runs the length of the room. The ones that won't fit are on other shelves around the room wherever they'll fit (top of a bookcase, on the shelves of doll making materials and patterns, and a big plastic crate in the corner), in the wardrobe, and a small stack that slide under the folding bed when it's unfolded for use.

Good grief no. There's not enough space for the dolls to be displayed in an uncrowded way, let alone adding clothes displays to the list.

Hardly ever. I I notice somethign that doesn't get used, and is unlikely to, while pouring through a box for an outfit to change doll into, I'll put it in my "Swaps, Sales, and Donations" box but that just sits there taking up space until I can take it to a doll meet for the swaps and sales tables.... if I remember to take it, which is seldom.

Teddy

 

My dolls are split between two rooms, there you have the doll/hobby room where almost all dolls are in Cabinets or their displays, the Cabinets let in just a bit of dust, therefore I don't need to dust them a lot + there isn't much movement in the room, therefore less dust. The dollroom has the majority of dolls (over 110 :P ) .

The other is my bedroom/office and those get more dusty, I am trying to dust them once a month but ... to be honest sometimes I just don't have the time. There is a very bored Mom living under my apartment who has fun vacuuming or mopping the place every week so eh... she does it while I am at work. She knows not to touch any doll stuff without my permission though.

The dollclothes not in use are put away in boxes, same for supplies, shoes, eyes, etc. everything nice and sorted, partially by size or even by character (some are more spoiled than others *coughts* ). It's all organized in a bento style aka smaller boxes within boxes to divide everything and made it more easy to find things, I fold my stuff according to Marie Kondo and that counts for the majority of doll cloth too; everything here is very organized, every tiny piece has its place, it was a lot of work to do but it was worth it. Funnily I even took a photo of a doll doing the joy-check for his clothes :'D

I mostly clean the dust off with dry dust wipes, when I see a doll got really dusty I handwash the clothes and see what else I can do to undust them.
To be honest I never clear out doll clothes because I got it all for a reason and sometimes old pieces get their time to shine, I just recently got a doll that is now wearing a coat I commissioned back in 2008 that was worn many times by a lot of dolls but never stayed with one, now the coat got a doll that will keep it.
I have thrown out eyes though and old selfmade cloth that weren't up to my standards anymore, with the eyes it was cheap ass ugly acrylics I got as random eyes and they weren't worth the hassle of selling.

 

What is your way of cleaning and/or organizing? Do you deep clean every week, month, or twice a year?

I have all my dolls on display throughout various rooms of my home in artistic vignettes, like artwork installations. Therefore they generally get tidied and dusted whenever the room is tidied and dusted. Everything is deep cleaned once a year, unless I’m moving the dolls around between displays. Then I’ll take that opportunity to deep clean and reorganize whatever specific display space I’m working on.

Or do you just dust here and there?

I live in the high deserts of Arizona, so dusting is a pretty regular and ongoing thing around here, especially during certain seasons of the year.

What is your organization system? Do you prefer to keep clothes and accessories in a little closet, in bins, or put away?

Like I said, my dolls are displayed in special little artistic vignettes and groupings throughout my home, wherever I can find a nice bit of space that calls for some interesting decor. So I do my best to keep the wardrobes for those dolls nearby (at least somewhere within the room where they’re displayed if at all possible.) Everything is discreetly tucked into rehabbed dressers, redecorated trunks, or pretty decorative boxes stored somewhere nearby.

Do you like to display your doll's clothes and accessories?

I have a couple of small trunks that I display alongside their dolls, and those I will open and show off a pretty dress or two casually draped, like they’re getting ready for a change. And I have a rather stunning collection of SD sized hats by a seller I adore on Etsy. My husband made me a bunch of hat stands in differing heights to display them throughout the doll vignettes however I like. Everything else is kept in see-through zip lock bags, tucked neatly away.

How often do you go through all the clothes, accessories, and props? And/or go about getting rid of unwanted items?

Throughout my many years of my collecting these dolls, it’s been all about the fashion for me. I initially got into them to be my fashion muses, so I could explore all styles and eras to my heart’s content…and I have! Each doll has their own wardrobe, and few items are shared. So their wardrobes are an integral part of the collection. I know exactly what I have and (like the dolls themselves) none of them are going anywhere. Props are integral parts of the displays, so they are always on view.

 

Since the pandemic started, I started wiping down the bodies of my dolls. (with alcohol wipes because my dolls dont have body blushing)
I got suspected covid and pneumonia and i was stuck in my room so naturally i spent a lot of time with my dolls. I got sicker and sicker so I became paranoid that touching my dolls a lot was not hygienic.
Wiping down my dolls every now and then became a nice habit since their bodies to get touched by grubby hands a lot during posing and dressing up. I also hand wash clothes occasionally.

 

This post made me realize I should probably be cleaning my doll space more often...

I have a (very very small) windowless room just for dolls and some other stuff like bookshelves / sewing materials and it just gets tidied whenever it seems overly messy I guess. Vacuumed when the rest of the apartment is vacuumed, etc. Honestly it has a habit of getting cluttered very quickly because of how little space there is to begin with, and I should probably be dusting the display case my dolls are in, but I guess I assumed because it's an enclosed display with doors that it wouldn't really get dusty inside? Since that's what I assumed closed displays are for to begin with. I haven't noticed any dust at all when I open it tbh.

I don't handle my dolls that often and I try to only handle them with gloves, so I haven't felt the need to wipe them down yet; I'm kind of paranoid about getting them dirty so they usually stay in the glass display 24/7 when I'm not changing them or doing photoshoots, and I keep the door to the doll room closed constantly to avoid dust traveling, food smells from cooking, etc, getting in there too.

I would love to display my dolls' clothes and accessories because I think it looks cute, maybe like in a mini closet in 1/4 or 1/3 scale, but I haven't found any good way to do it yet, so all their clothes are in a plastic dresser under the sewing table, each set in its own plastic ziplock or original packaging. I keep the doll photography props stacked in an open box, and those definitely need a good dusting every time I use them since they're not covered.

Honestly I only really go through their clothes bin when I want to dress them up or when I get a photoshoot idea for a particular outfit. I don't have that much for them because of the cost of doll clothes, but that might change when I start sewing more. I think it would be hard for me to get rid of or sell any of their clothes even if I had a lot, because I tend to get very hung up on that "what if I decide in the future that I want to use it, and don't have it anymore" feeling.

 

I change their poses once in a while, so they don't get as dusty as they would have if just left standing there. Clothes go in a box and into a cupboard until I feel like changing it up a bit. My room doesn't get too dusty, so I haven't had to deep clean them yet.

Speaking of wiping down dolls, would alcohol wipes affect the resin in any way? I've used them to get rid of stains, but I've also heard that it's harsh on the resin. Is that true?

I've also seen on another thread that plasticizers used in plastic bags would cause the resin to yellow faster. Does anyone have any experience with it? I keep some spare hands in their original plastic, should I switch them to a box or something?