Thread: costume storagae

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dont know if any one else out there has the same problem I do........
I do a yard haunt I collect thrift clothes throughout the year..those clothes make the best zombies. When it comes to certain props or my scareactors costumes make the well best costumes for certain props.. vampires, pirates, undertakers, etc.. the problem is over the course of now 3 years I have accumulated quite a number of costumes.. I have a closet in my basement which was perfect when I had 10 costumes...where do you keep all the costumes and organized????????
Most of my thrift store clothes I keep in the large rubbermade for those real ppl wont use.. but the costumes for my actors I need those a little more organized.

Have you thought of buying a wardrobe. I had to buy one when I didn't have a closet at all. Now that I have a house I use it for my costumes. Or maybe you could find one of those racks that stores use, I'm sure they'll hold a lot. I'm not to sure where to get one.

http://www.packing.com/do/cart

The above link should take you to a page of cardboard boxes for wardrobe packing/traveling/quick access use. We use this type of box system all the time when touring shows.
$10 for the large box, with the metal hanger bar across the top, all clothes are easy to organize, see and access, and simply close the top and pack her up to take back to garage, storage, etc.
Hope this is of use. There a quite a few types of wardrobe boxes out there, search around.

Mike C.

I had the same problem. All the costumes were in one big tote. What a mess!!

I know what I'm about to suggest is not the proper way to store fabric if your into preservation. (not an issue for me, just costumes in my book) But I went and bought a box of 1 gallon ziploc and a box of 3 gal ziploc bags. Each costume gets placed in a bag, labeled on the outside with a marker.

It wouldn't work for you during the season, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyways. It's worked pretty well for me so far. All the various pieces for a costume stay together. I was even considering printing pictures of the costumes onto labels, then stick on the bag but I figured that might be going a little overboard?

We have collected a few costumes also. We bought one of those piece together hanging storage racks with plastic zipped cover from Target. It is pretty flimsy, we bought it about 2 weeks ago. It has serious lean and is now propped up by boxes. I don't reccomend it. I am going to build one out of 2x4, clothes rod, and put casters on it. We also will use those vacuum bags to store some stuff. My lady organizes it a bit so we know what is in each bag. Then hang them for actors when it comes time to play.

Jackie that is basically what I have started to do. My wife got a large footlocker from her dad. I did the ziplock thing and put everything in the footlocke, now the footlocker is full, leaving me to hang for this year...when I buy new costumes, and I will, I always do.

Originally Posted by scorpio

...when I buy new costumes, and I will, I always do.

LOL Me too. Every year I get a new one for myself & the hubby. We can't be the same thing twice!!

Ya, I really didn't save any space doing the baggie thing, but at least I can find things easier. I tend to use old costumes on props or loan things out to friends.

Ok, talk about obsessed... We turned one third of our 3-car garage into my wife's craft shop including a large closet, which is now FULL of costumes from over the years. This is in addition to the 10' x 10' storage unit we rent year-around for the coffins & corpses & cages & maze walls & a dozen or so RubberMaid containers full of small props & a dozen or so black plastic lawn bags full of fabric. The only non-Halloween stuff in there are the two 7-1/2' tall tiki statues and the two 7-1/2' tall cacti. We built a rack for the 4 coffins (2 open toe-pincers, 1 lidded toe-pincer, and one insulated casket) to save space. They just slide in & out (like in a morgue).

Before we built the craft room & closet, we had one of those rolling clothes racks made out of metal tubing painted white, with an old sheet over it to keep the dust off. That worked great, until we out-grew it.