Collection Storage Inspiration

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Resources

We often see folks in our community asking for recommendations on how to store their Hazel Village collections, so we decided to make this blog post as a handy resource. Many thanks to everyone who answered our call for photos, tips and tricks! Seeing you create space for the Village in your families and your homes fills us with gratitude and joy ♥️ We hope you enjoy this collection storage inspiration!

 

BASKETS, BOXES, & BINS

 

A gif of a picnic basket with layers of Hazel Village items neatly arranged inside

Barry's picnic basket

"I love reusing the packaging to organize my storage basket. I wrap the clothing in a collectible bandana and tie it with the ribbon used to bundle the dolls, the wardrobe builder box makes a great hat box, and the canvas bags that come with certain sets are wonderful for storing small accessories!" - Barry

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a basket holding Hazel Village mini animals, sweaters, shoes, and folded quilts

Lisa's picnic basket

"The picnic basket stores sweaters, knit hats, the toadstool costume, turtle costume, shoes, socks, leggings warmers, minis, and the quilts." - Lisa

Hazel Village animals sitting in a round wall basket

Some of Lisa's Villagers tucked into a round wall basket 

You can see Lisa's main doll clothing storage system under SHELVES.

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Hazel Village doll clothing neatly folded and stacked in a small white openwork plastic storage bin

Rimi's rotating clothing bin

"I keep my HV clothing in a little bin so I can rotate their clothing, which I love to do. My grown daughters, who have their own collections, come to visit and we enjoy making new outfits for all our HV friends!" - Rimi

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Hazel Village doll clothing sorted into small clear bins and stacked on shelves inside a cupboard

Chris's stackable clear bins

"We put the tree bookcase on top of the cabinet so we can see all the villagers hanging out! In the cabinet are stackable clear bins of all the clothes and accessories." - Chris L. 

You can find Chris's tree bookcase under SHELVES.

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A high closet shelf with Hazel Village animals and dolls tucked into baskets and lined up on top

Michaela's closet storage

"Up high on the shelf of my comfortable closet, the villagers are enjoying the homes they have built from their repurposed baskets. When you tip a basket on its side, it makes for the coziest home they say." - Michaela

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Small wooden boxes holding Hazel Village doll clothing and accessories, each labeled with a drawing of the clothing item stored in them

Shann's storage boxes with picture labels

We wanted to include this system that Shann shared on the Hazelnuts Community earlier this year. Each box is dedicated to a different category of item and labeled with a drawing rather than a word – very toddler-friendly. 

Shann's collection storage setup, at child height with bandanas pinned to the wallShann's Hazel Village corner

This photo shows the full setup, complete with displayed bandanas and select doll clothing hanging on hooks and string. A Map Tapestry Play Quilt is also pinned up at child height on the adjacent wall – perfect for imaginative play!

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DRAWERS

 

Stacks of small wooden IKEA drawers with labels, holding doll clothing. Hazel Village animals sit on top.

Acacia's storage drawers

"We use the wooden storage drawers from IKEA (the MOPPE) to store our HV clothes. The drawers flip around and we attached some library catalog style pulls that can hold paper labels. The wonderful thing about using these is you can start with one and add more as your clothing collection grows!" - Acacia J.V.

Small wooden IKEA storage drawers with brass library pulls and hand written labels. One drawer is open and full of dark-colored Hazel Village doll sweaters.

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Peter Badger sitting in front of a tabletop apothecary cabinet with wooden drawers and labeled library pulls

Holly's storage drawers

Holly's doll clothing is also stored in small wooden drawers with labels tucked into library pulls. If you are looking for a unit like this one, we recommend searching for 'apothecary cabinet' on Facebook Marketplace or other secondhand furniture sources in your area. 

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Hazel Village animals sitting on top of a wooden dresser with labels on its drawers

Sophia's dresser storage

"If you have an extra dresser you aren’t using, you can put your clothes in there and your animals on top! At first, I got a bunch of storage bins for my clothes but as my collection grew, I realized I needed something different. This way, it’s more organized. Well, sort of… if you look inside the drawers, it’s not really all that organized haha. But I feel like I know where things are still so that’s all that matters!" - Sophia

Labels on dresser drawers

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open dresser drawers with hazel village doll clothing neatly organized in drawer divider boxes

Terrina's dresser drawer storage

Terrina also uses a dresser for storage, with drawer dividers to keep things tidy and a small suitcase to store bulkier items.

You can see Terrina's  animal storage under DOLLHOUSES & DISPLAY CABINETS.

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SHELVES

 

Hazel Village animals sitting on a number of wooden wall shelves which have a long dowel across the front to keep them from falling out

Kate's wall shelves

"Our house is tiny and I’m running out of room!" - Kate S.

This style of shelf is a popular choice for stuffed animal storage because you don't need to worry about anyone falling out! We're not sure where Kate acquired these particular ones, but you should be able to find something similar by searching "rail wall shelf for kids room". 

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Hazel Village animals sitting on wooden wall shelves in a room with pink painted walls

Jessica's wall shelves

Jessica's husband made these rail shelves, as well as a lovely dollhouse which you can see further down this blog post.

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Hazel Village animals arranged on three wooden floating shelves

Rimi's wall shelves 

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Meredith's wall shelves

"I have lots of shelving in my bedroom and I added floating shelves for even more space! My Villagers fit right in with the rest of my decor." - Meredith

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A ladder-style free standing shelf unit with Hazel Village animals sitting on the upper shelves, and a basket with a patchwork quilt atop it storing other items on a lower shelf

Mallory's standing shelf

We're guessing that the basket on the bottom shelf (over which Mallory has neatly tucked a patchwork quilt) probably holds extra doll clothing.

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A wooden shelf built to look like a tree, with Hazel Village animals arrange on it

Chris's tree bookcase

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A tall stack of shelves with Hazel Village animals on the back of a door, faux greenery trailing around them and gold lettering above

Dawn's door-hanging swing shelf

"Many of my villagers spend their time on a multi tiered swing that I made from wooden shelves and a few others bits and pieces that hangs on the back of my office/craftroom door." - Dawn

You can see more of Dawn's storage in DOLLHOUSES & DISPLAY CABINETS.

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Two columns of shelves hanging from the back of a pair of double doors, with four Hazel Village animals tucked on each shelf

Kelsy's door-hanging rail shelves

"The bulk of our villagers live on these shelves that I made to hang over the doors in our plushie studio! Someone in the groups made them originally although I can’t remember who now, and I highly recommend them!" - Kelsy V.

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A tall storage rack hanging on the back of a door, with Hazel Village doll clothing arranged on mini coat hangers

Lisa's door-hanging doll clothing rack

Though we are aware that it is not a shelf, we're including Lisa's creative solution in this category. She uses wooden curtain rings with attached metal clips to store and display her doll clothing collection on a door-hanging rack.

"This method wouldn’t work well with young children because the clasps would easily snag the clothes, but it works well for me because I get to see all the available clothes." - Lisa

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A small wooden wardrobe, painted blue on the outside, with Hazel Village doll clothing inside

Sydnie's mini closet cabinet

One more non-shelf tucked into this category! We think this piece, which Sydnie found at an antique mall, is perfectly used here as doll clothing storage and provides great inspiration to anyone who might want to look for something similar.

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DOLLHOUSES & DISPLAY CABINETS

 

A boxy dollhouse full of patchwork details and Hazel Village animals

Jessica's bookshelf dollhouse

Jessica's husband built this bookshelf house for their family's Villagers. We love all the patchwork details in its decor! 

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Phoebe Fawn sitting next to a small Maileg wardrobe with Hazel Village doll clothing neatly stored inside

Ron's Maileg wardrobe

"I use the large Maileg wardrobe, but as you can see it is getting very full!" - Ron

This particular wardrobe is very popular amongst Hazelnuts. In fact, it can be seen in 3 other collection photos in this blog post alone! Can you spot them all? 

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A dollhouse with wallpaper, doll furniture, tiny racks of clothing, and Hazel Village animals arranged inside

Kelsy's bookshelf dollhouse

"We found a Pottery Barn bookshelf on marketplace and gave it a Lodge makeover! We have two rooms with dowels we added for clothes, lots of 1:6 scale dressers and drawers to store flower headbands and socks. We found a very cool apothecary style drawer set and it’s perfect for tiny accessories like shoes and bow ties! We rotate out clothing each season and store overflow in cute decorative boxes in another room. A few villagers hang out in the house while me and my sons are playing with them and creating stories, and the rest of them have lovely spaces on these over the door shelves we created!" - Kelsy V.

(Kelsy's over the door shelves can be seen higher up this blog post.)

Closeup of Hazel Village doll clothing on a rod inside a dollhouse cubby

We like the way these bulky items are stored beneath the clothing rack on the floor of this closet cubby. 

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A large arched wooden display cabinet with glass doors, a Hazel Village collection arranged on its shelves.Katie's display cabinet

"I more or less keep all the clothes, accessories, and a majority of dolls in this one display cabinet. I love finding jewelry holders for furniture! Or vintage American girl doll furniture if it’s an appropriate scale. I keep most clothing tucked away in bins, and seasonal or novelty things somewhat on display in Maileg wardrobes/closets, hanging on a rack (as you can see on the top shelf), or on the villagers, of course!" - Katie J.

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A large white cupboard with interior lighting, many Hazel Village animals arranged on its shelves

Terrina's display cabinet 

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A wooden cupboard with its doors open and a lovely dollhouse setup inside. A drawer beneath is open and holds organized doll clothing.

Dawn's dollhouse cabinet

"When choosing a great way to store or display your Hazel Village collection I think the best advice I can offer is to start with something much larger than what you need now, because you will need more space as your collection grows. I choose pieces that fit into our home decor so that they are nice to look at and all your treasures can fit inside. A dresser, baskets, etc. I have had to modify several times over the years to accommodate all of my pieces and I am sure I will have to do that again soon because we are already busting at the seams.

I store all of their clothing in a full sized dresser that is in the entryway of of our home. Each drawer is organized by category and I use drawer organizers to keep everything tidy. Across the way is Lydia's cottage and in the drawer directly below are all the hats and shoes and below that are drawers of fun props and vintage pieces I use to photograph her with. And then of course there are more villagers and more clothes here and there...basically Hazel Village is taking over our house and we love it!" - Dawn & Lydia Mouse

Hazel Village doll clothes neatly organized in storage cubbies inside a drawer

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A large wooden glass front cabinet with a colorful Hazel Village collection organized on its shelves

Shannon's display cabinet

"As a collector I’ve invested not only financially but I’ve carefully curated pieces from Hazel Village I truly love. The quality of textiles and thoughtful design are things I appreciate as a consumer, so much so I want to enjoy it. I want to display and see my collection. I chose a wardrobe on marketplace and customized it with brass rods so I could hang these delicate and gorgeous pieces and relish in the delightful display. I couldn’t bear to store the majority of the collection in tubs no longer. It truly feels like I’m building something, something to appreciate and love!" - Shannon O. at The Acorn’s End

Closeup on a glass front antique wood cabinet with interior lighting and a meticulously arranged Hazel Village collection inside

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That's all for now, friends! Thank you for reading, and many thanks again to everyone who helped us put this blog post together. Take good care!

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Please feel free to email any questions to hello@hazelvillage.com!