Our girls love dressing up. When you are four and two (or 30 and 32), slipping into the Land of Make-Believe brings extraordinary possibilities. Pop on a black hat, and suddenly your slippers are worn leather boots, and your wand is a chipped sword. You are a pirate, and you can “arrrrgh…” and “me harty” with the best of ’em.
But wait, it gets better….
If you take all of the clothes off of the rack (and they’re on hangers, so it’s pretty easy to stack them neatly), a blanket quickly changes the rack into a puppet theatre.
The height is perfect for standing preschoolers to act out their dramatic shorts. The rack is on wheels, so kiddos can easily move it away from the wall or wheel it into the living room when it’s performance time. It’s even wide enough to hide three bodies (a Hubby and two little ones) during an exuberant production of “Two Highly Talkative Bugs, The Teeniest Fairy Ever, and A Very Confused Frog and Shamu”.
You can see that Lucy is *just* tall enough to puppeteer in this play. But then, she’s only two-and-a-half. Her puppets are mostly just happy to be there. I figure that we have years of puppetry left with our garment-rack-turned-stage.
The ideas for a garment rack are endless. It can become part of a fort (and because they’re adjustable, the rack can be the “peak” in a fort house). It can become the background for an impromptu stage performance. Add string and a hole punch to craft time, and your rack is suddenly an art gallery. And when the kids have stopped pretending that Froggie has a sore throat and that the littlest-fairy-in-the-whole-world has virtually no attention span (which is what our latest performance focused on), then the rack is still useful! Parties, weddings, garage sales, attics: extra space to hang clothes and coats is always useful.
If you’re a blogger (and oftentimes, if you’re reading a blog, you’re also a blogger!), garment racks can be incredibly useful. Throw a neutral fabric over the rack, and you’ve got a great background for your photos. Now you don’t have to clean up all of that chaos in your kitchen. Just roll out the rack, throw a blanket over it, and bam! Toys and dirty dishes are hidden! You are a domestic goddess! With a garment rack! Hear you roar!
Okay. I’ve used enough exclamation marks for now.
Keep your eyes peeled on Craigslist, in your aunt’s house, or in the flyers. Garment racks are brimming with playroom potential!
20 comments
christa reinhart
What a great idea. I’m going to have to look for one at yard sales now. I love all the possibilities from play to storage. Thanks for sharing this tip.
Tara @ Suburble
It’s worked really well for us! And I love that it’s a multi-function object in the house (especially during parties or larger functions – I never seem to have enough room in the closet for coats!).
Thanks for stopping by!
Tara @ Surburble
Oh, hit the thrift stores and your closet before you buy anything in the store. Or search for Hallowe’en costumes on Craigslist (people are going to be dunging out their closets at this time of year too). Lots of my best finds have been used.
Shari
Great idea! Sophie doesn’t even have any dress up stuff yet… guess I should get on it 😉
amy of while wearing heels
WOW. I am impressed. I was impressed enough with it as a play clothes rack but then as a puppet theater…AND then, as a photo backdrop…BRILLIANT. And, as always, your pictures are beautiful. Are you sure you are a new blogger? Your posts and pictures read as if you have been doing this your whole life.
Tara @ Surburble
Oh, if you could see the awkwardness “behind the scenes”, you’d KNOW I’m a new blogger! A lot of my picture-taking is based on luck and reliance on fairly-cute children.
But thank you very much for your kind words! You’re one of my very loudest cheerleaders, and I appreciate it wholeheartedly.
Tara @ Surburble
I know – it is funny how each family needs to find their organizing style when it comes to those crazy un-organizables (that’s not a word!). I do admit that I have to hang up some of the costumes, but for us, it has definitely become more of an invitation to play rather than a hindrance. I think that kids’ personalities are a big part of this as well.
I considered hooks too, but I worried a bit about them being the right height (and putting hooks with anchors in the wall is kind of a permanent thing) and I also wondered about them being a bit of a hazard with them sticking out from the wall. Are there hooks that wouldn’t jam into someone if they fell against the wall?
Callista Prosser
plastic 🙂 S used to have her own coat rack sort of hooks at her height, it was plastic and the knobs were big and non pokey. Difference in personalities is bang on, don’t I know that have two GIRLS, totally different.
Mekenzie Burton Crowder
This is perfect! Playing dress up and puppet shows was the highlight of my childhood!
Tara @ Surburble
I know! I have many excellent memories of clomping around in my mother’s old high heels and “pretending”. It’s pretty awesome to see the girls do the same (though their dress-up is FAR more fancy-schmancy than mine ever was).
Tara @ Surburble
Thanks, Danni!
I will enjoy these moments of imagination and a yearning to spend time with me… however, it is good to know that it only gets better. Especially when a certain toddler has just cut a chunk out of her hair (while quietly “crafting”, as she called it).
Make-believe scissors are the only kind you can find in our house now. Sigh.
SiloHillFarm
Ooooh, yikes! My daughter cut her own hair the day before her kindergarten picture.
SiloHillFarm
What a great idea! Almost makes me wish my kids were little again….almost!
Natasha SerenityYou
I would love it if you could share this on my link party ~ Serenity Saturday
Natasha @ http://www.serenityyou.com
Tara @ Surburble
I will pop over and join the fun! Thanks for the invite, Natasha!
Callista Prosser
It’s funny how one thing can work so well for one family and horribly for another. We had a dress up closet and it was always a dress up pile of clothes on the floor, the kids (friends included) would never put the clothes back on the hanger it was always MY JOB and frankly I have enough jobs I don’t need to also hang dress up clothes haha, hangers were always too big or to small for the clothes to hang neatly and be easy enough for them to put back on, plus we have a bagillion capes and those can only be hung if already tied (ugh!) our tower of dress up bins has been a much neater thing for us. Yes all the clothes end up on the floor so they can find that exact piece but THEY are cleaning up instead of me, so I’m okay with a mountain of temporary clothes hahaa. I wanted to do hooks cause I love the idea of them being displayed and easy to grab, inspire their imaginations and what not but as you know our playroom is tiny I didn’t want to give up too much space width wise for one thing. I love that you guys do puppet shows, so cute!!
Tara @ Surburble
I got the rack at Canadian Tire (which, of course, is in Canada), but I know I’ve seen them at Target before. I have also seen them on Craigslist – I think that they’re a common “cull” when people purge a bunch of stuff from garages or closets. I have to say that this is one of my favourite investments in our playroom. It’s made a huge difference in how the girls approach dressing up.
Bethany Kline
I love this idea!! I got a BUNCH of dress up outfits from my husband’s aunt (also old halloween costumes) and we just have them in a bag somewhere, this on the other hand is brilliant!!! where did you find the rack?
Anonymous
YOU, my dear lady, are going on StumbleUpon! I love your blog! I’ve been dead set on not having kids since I turned 18, but all you bloggers might change my mind 🙂 Keep up the good work!
Tara @ Suburble
Anonymous… are you a secret admirer with your no-name?
I’m so glad that you’re enjoying the blog!
And as for the having kids bit.. I think that the best way to be sure is to hang out with some of them, and then see what you think. In my opinion, they’re pretty awesome. But then, some people like to keep pet birds in their houses. We’re all different. 🙂