How do you store your BJD, clothes, and accessories?

For dolls and accessories that you don't have out on display how do store them? Do you have a special storage for them? What kind of things do you use to protect them?

 

I store my dolls back in their original boxes. I only have MSD, so the boxes don't take up that much room compared to people with SD boxes.

• For the floating heads, I wrap each back in bubble wrap and then put a mask on the face regardless of face up status because I want to protect any noses from being damaged.
• For other resin parts (shoes, head pieces, etc.) I wrap each back in bubble wrap, then in a hobby sized zip lock
• For each clothes, they are laid as flat as possible then go into their zip locks
• Wigs go back into their hair net with the cardboard around it to keep it from losing shape. I also bag these.

My collection is still small, so I am sure I won't be able to be as meticulous as I continue. But I borrowed from my husband's modeling hobby and will get an accordion file to store multiple pieces of an outfit.

 

I bought an ‘Our Generation’ wardrobe and it’s really fantastic. Not everything will fit in it so I also have a couple of plastic bins for the overflow. I try to keep my favorite pieces in the wardrobe and change it up every couple of months to cycle through all the stuff I have.

 

I keep my doll clothes and shoes in plastic boxes, something like socks, legwarmers and underwear in a wooden box. They don't take up a lot of space and it fits in a lot. I keep something like necklaces and bracelets also in a small wooden box, my dolls are all on my shelf. I have to see them otherwise I would propably never do something with them.

 

My collection is super small. I only have 2 dolls but 3 more are on their way to me so I prepare everything! I'm also moving out soon, I think often about how I can store them in this small apartment. I hope I can find some nice ideas here!

For my floating heads, I have a box were christmas ornament are usually stored in. I wrap them up in bubble wrap and place them in it! This is super easy to store and stack.

For parts, wigs, and clothes I have a seethrough box with sections that I bought at Ikea. Everything is separated and can't destroy other things.

 

I keep my dolls in their original box. But for the doll clothes and accessories, I keep them in a plastic ziplock bag and a plastic box.

For a plastic box, if it was something that easy to broke, I will place a sponge or bubble wrap under before.

 

I have a large-ish collection (40 dolls) which are all on display in various artistic settings throughout my home...and I have an even larger collection of clothing, wigs, and accessories for them! So of course I need good storage. What I’ve done is purchase nice old furniture cabinets (the kind that were made for those fat-backed TVs of yesteryear) at thrift stores for a song. I decorate the large open TV part for my doll displays, and utilize the lower portions (which often come with drawers, shelves and doors) for storage solutions. They look lovely, being real furniture, and work great for my collection.

 

I have a drawer and a box where I keep accessories and props I'm not using, although since I've switched to a fantasy setting for nearly all of my dolls I have less of those. Clothes go in a dresser, with a different scale in each drawer.

All dolls I plan to keep long term are kept on display, on a high shelf out of direct sunlight. The ones in the back row are standing with the help of doll stands; the front row are sitting or kneeling. If a doll is incomplete, it stays in the front row for easier access.

 

I have a medium collection with three 70cm boys, seven SD and one MSD. I keep the dolls out, but store the boxes and clothes/accessories. The boxes are neatly stacked on the top shelf of the closet in the guest bedroom. Each doll has their own shoebox size storage tub with their name on it for clothes and accessories. These tubs fit neatly in the chest of drawers in the guest room. I also have a larger tub of spare wigs in the closet in there. The dolls sit on the chest or on a doll bed or couch. Spare eyes, s-hooks and other tiny parts are in an organizer in a craft cabinet with my faceup supplies.

 

In a bag lol

 

Dolls are all out because there's no point in having them if they're shut away in boxes.

Some are on open shelves Mostly in the livingroom, some on my bedside unit), some are in a glass-fronted cabinet in the livingroom (it's messy with gaps and the occasional slumped doll at the moment), some are where I plonked them down when I last finished playing with them. One is sat beside me as I type, glaring at me for not finishing the neckline on the dress I'm making for her (the reason she's sat there), and not restyling the wig she's wearing (it's lost all its curl). Another is perched atop a fashion-doll-wardrobe-trunk in the spare bedroom where I sat her after I changed her into a newly arrived outfit. She needs to go back to the cabinet... at some point.

Accessories : The furniture not in use at the moment is crammed in wherever it will fit. The top of a cupboard, a shelf of a storage unit etc. Smaller stuff is in boxes on the same shelving unit. Clothes and shoes are in plastic stacking boxes, sorted by doll size and gender (occasionally a box for a specific doll is he/she has enough stuff of their own to warrant it), wigs are also sorted by size, smaller ones in more plastic boxes, the SD sized ones in a box divided into individual wig-sized compartments. Other bits and pieces (jewellery. games, books, umberellas etc) are in boxes too. Most of these plastic boxes are on a shelving/storage unit in the spare bedroom, tightly tetris-stacked so they'll all fit in the limited space. Overspill is stacked wherever space could be found (on top of a bookcase, in a corner etc).


Teddy

 

My doll lives on the shelf in her own little room (sort of, the basics are there: a couch/bed with cozy blankets, a shelf for toys, a little stool and more toys). The outfits are in clear zipbags and the zipbags are in clear plastic boxes, one for summer and one for winter. For shoes and accessories I have several seethrough boxes with separations. Come to think of it, my doll has way more shoes and outfits than I. How did this happen?

 

Mostly in boxes or cubbies out of the way? I don't have a good display area for my dolls right now, so they're mostly tucked out of the way in the closet till I'm actively doing something with them.

 

This is a non-stop project for me. I modified a closet in my studio years ago, and just keep re-modifying! It's 8 feet long, 8 feet high and 2 feet deep. I built a shelf at the top that has enough space to let my big boys (up to 70cm) have inches of room above their heads, standing up. Big props are kept on that shelf. The next shelf down can handle the biggest SDs sitting down. I put a hanging rack, a shoe drawer system and a clothing drawer system in. I have pull out rolling bins on the bottom for wigs and packaging I want to keep. I am constantly revising the set-up. Many of my items sit for years without being used, so everything is packed in thick plastic bags or boxes, but they have to be breathable, so plastic bags have a hole punched in them. I am not OCD in any way...except about my BJD stuff. I am currently revising the setup. Soon it will be perfect...until I need to revise it again...

 

I'd love to see pics... especially of the revisions etc. I get why that can change... it has to adapt to you changing stuff; That just makes sense to me. But omg the size of the closet! ... I needed 6 or 8 of those when i did costuming for theatre lol

 

I keep my dolls extra clothes, eyes, wigs and accessories in their box so I don’t lose track of anything. In the future I would like to move my stuff into clear containers or tackle boxes.

 

Here's how it looks right now. I had to combine two photos because it has big sliding mirror doors on the front. The red bins on the bottom right side roll out and wigs and packaging is stored in them. The big wicker bin above them holds projects I haven't gotten to yet (I want to make shoes!). This was a clothing closet, I put the shelves in so I'd have room for big dolls to sit and stand. The big boy on the sofa is 70cm, the big boy on the top shelf is SD17. On the left side, SD girl and boy clothes are in plastic bins in the big mesh drawers on the bottom and there's a step stool so I can reach the top shelf. MSD and Yo (I only have 2 MSDs and 1 Yo) clothes are on the shelf above in plastic containers. Shoes are in clear plastic boxes in the white mesh pull out drawers on the shelf above. To the left of the shoes is a clothing rack that is hidden behind wall (second photo below). It's a towel rack that I put up at an angle so I can hide small props in drawers behind the clothes. Above that, big props, hats in 2 bins and a spare parts bin.

BJD Closet both sides by jd-bjd (wally), on Flickr

bjd closet rack by jd-bjd (wally), on Flickr

My studio is a leather studio, so things get covered with leather dust even in the closet, unless they are in some kind of container. I have spent the last 3 months cleaning out and organizing. I got rid of a ton of clothes, shoes, etc. So, this has plenty of space and is working well...for now!

This is outside of the closet and where I keep eyes, tools and faceup supplies...I like it outside of the closet. I really like toolboxes...
viper by jd-bjd (wally), on Flickr

 

So, my dolls have their own closet?? Haha

The inside of the closet is about 4ft wide and 3.5ft deep, not sure how tall (I think my ceiling is at 7ft? Anyway--)

So I have three shelves in the closet for the dolls. On the widest and center shelf, I have my dolls which range from 10cm to 70cm. Those that stand on their own do, but majority have doll stands to hold them up. On the shelf below it I have four bins, which I use to separate clothes by size (SD+, MSD, YOSD, TINY). On the shelf above it I keep my face up supplies. On the floor I keep doll boxes, a travel bag, unused doll stands, and props. I have magnets glued on the inside of the door to hold metal containers that hold eyes, jewelry, hairclips, ect.

It works for me!

 

omg i love the hanging cloths lol you have 'bin of HANGERS'! lol do you make your own clothing bags? I got two sets of them from 'tree something... i forget the name. They did not suit the Iple sized clothing well and i figured that for bags I could make with duct tape and plastic even adding zippers if needed. But hangers elude me... i'm super picky about them lol

 

I buy heavy duty zip lock bags on Amazon, 4mil thick (10"x13"). I'm a leather artist, so I have round punches of every size. I just punch a half circle at the top middle of the bag and slip a hanger through! You could easily just cut a half circle at the top though! Long skinny 4 mil bags cost a fortune, so for long coats and sets, I cut the top off of one bag and add it to the bottom of another with double sticky leather tape (which is a constant life saver with a million things!). I have tons of "Wonder Clips", they work beautifully to clip things to hangers like skirts and pants. I need one more thing, a hook up high at the top to hang the really long sets on...working on that! The hangers are supposed to be for AG dolls, and really only work for SD sizes. I only have 2 MSDs though, so I just put their clothes in a bin.