Friday, January 20, 2012

Dress Up Play: Creating A Space

creating a space that inspires dress up play


Now that I've posted about the benefits of dress up play and given you a few ideas for a creative dress up wardrobe, I wanted to share how we organize our space.

I have found that having a designated area for his dress up items is the best way to encourage my son to use them. When he has free access to his costumes he's more apt to put them on and really enjoy them. I also try to make this area a place he'd like to spend time in.

I know that it can be hard to store and organize dress up materials, especially when you are working within a small space. It's easier to scatter and stuff them into various areas to hide them away. But seeing them is important, and can be done in a way that doesn't make you want to close the door and never look back. In our home, R has a dress up corner in his playroom. It's not particularly fancy, but I like the looks of it. Here's how I set up our space.

organize dress up clothes


We placed an accordion style coat rack low on the wall to make it easier for R to access. He can easily get what he wants from the pegs and he can easily put it all away. The rack holds his costumes, hats, and even a couple swords. It frees up valuable floor space and makes everything visible and appealing.

Beneath the hanging rack we have a small bin for his accessories. Because we are not storing all of his items in one big box, this bin is small and out of the way in this tiny space. The dress up area is the first thing you see when entering the playroom. I didn't want a large trunk to make the entryway feel crowded.

making a dress up area for kids


On the adjacent wall we have a full length mirror. R loves seeing how he looks and being silly in front of it. Next to the mirror we have pictures of R in a few of his costumes. He loves looking at pictures and videos of himself and I thought this was a good way to personalize the area.

There are lots of other ways to organize a dress up area, but this is what works for us now that we have less room to work with. I liked that it was simple, yet efficient.

But now I'd love to know, how do you organize and set up your child's dress up area? What do you like about your area? Are there any downfalls to your particular method? Feel free to share in the comments or on my Facebook page.

14 comments:

  1. What a cute dress-up space! All of our dress-ups are thrown into one big bin, and I've been wanting to re-organize...

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  2. This is great! The hanging wall rack is super because it won't tip. Our garment rack has tipped only twice, but it's lightweight enough that it could if our kids were more rough with it. Love this! :)

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  3. That looks so well organized and easy to play with. Great inspiration! Thanks:)

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  4. I know this probably sounds silly, but I have never thought about putting a mirror at the dress-up area. Great idea.

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  5. Our dress-up clothes and accessories are in a tote (no lid), which means they have to dig to find what they want, which creates a big mess. I like the idea of having it presented and easy to reach!

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  6. We have something similar--the hooks were the best part. The kids are much more likely to find what they're looking for when it's hanging up. We have two bins on the floor for accessories, and those are easy to clean up by throwing everything in the bin.

    Love your space!

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  7. We at the moment only have a few bits (J 2 and T 10 months) so haven't accomdated a lot but they are in a hamper in the lounge. Our huge problem is that we don't have a playroom and the room that we use for play is the lounge so it needs to be tidied away for adult time on an evening - our next storage challenge I feel.

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  8. They have a set up like this at my son's preschool and I love it. I am pinning this... and hopefully I'll get something like this created for my son sometime soon. Love this idea!

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  9. Very nice - simple and welcoming! I love it!

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  10. Thanks everyone! I wish we had more space, but I'm trying to make what we have work for us. I appreciate everyone's comments!

    And that's definitely not silly, Phyllis. I'm glad you like it!

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  11. Love this Joyce! I'm definitely going to incorporate something like this into my playroom re-vamp!

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  12. Thank you, Jackie! I'm so glad you liked it. I'd love to see your space when you get it done!

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  13. I love, love, love the pictures of him all dressed up! Fantastic idea.

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