A little girl may be sugar and spice and everything nice, but when she reaches her teens, nice is not the word to describe the clutter of clothes, accessories, stuffed animals, earrings, perfumes, and letters. The advice for space management, assigned placement, shelves, and receptacles for personal possessions is just as applicable to teenage girls as teenage boys. The differences consist of supplying longer hanging areas of closet space for dresses and skirts; more space for sweaters, sweats, T-shirts, shoes, and purses; and a specific place for jewelry, hair ribbons, and barrettes.
Your teenage daughter may not be quite willing to lock away her collection of stuffed animals acquired over the years, but you may be tired of tending to them. Something as simple as a net or rope strung from one corner to another or a pole or chain secured to the ceiling may suddenly lift those furry adorables out from underfoot.
As a teenage girl develops her individual taste -- especially in jewelry -- the accessories she has today may or may not please her sense of style tomorrow. To handle the great quantities of accessories and jewelry, a drawer organizer and accessory board provide storage space and promote neatness. Inside the dresser drawer itself, try installing many small boxes. Each small box should contain only one piece of jewelry or a group of similar pieces. A good organizing method for these items is to keep each category of items separate and each color within each category separate. Put these small boxes on a piece of cardboard or inside a larger, shallow box (such as the top of a shoe box). This creates a layer that is easily removed so that the layer underneath is then accessible.
One of the greatest ways to provide shelving in a teenage girl's room -- especially as a display for a doll collection -- is to install a row of Lucite shelves along the upper perimeter of her bedroom. The shelves themselves are transparent and coordinate with any decor. The dolls are then placed in a location that is otherwise unused.
Any system for a teenager, boy or girl, should have the ability to change, because teenagers change from one year to the next in their interests, style, associations, and preferences. Keep this in mind and provide flexibility with as many portable, nonfixed, nonstructured items as you can. All things are possible with a bit of forethought and a view to long-range developments and short-term fads. Parents and their teenage children fight over many things. A clean closet doesn't have to be one of them!
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