Little Girls Dress Up Clothes Trunk – Is Cute Or Practical The Better Choice?

Dress Up StorageDress up clothes can pile up. Literally and figuratively.  Having a good collection of dress up clothes and accessories can make for SUCH a fun play time, but it can also make for SUCH a messy room. If this is the case, and the pile, the MESS, is starting to get to you, it may be time for you to bring in a little girls dress up clothes trunk.

So, what type to get? Cute and Girly? Practical, Heavy-duty and Multipurpose? Or somewhere in the middle? Let’s dig in a bit and look at some of the pros and cons of both styles. I’ll also show you a few ideas and some good finds.

Cute and Girly

If you have a real “girly girl”, she might really love the idea of a girly dress up box for all of the dress up clothes for little girls that she has collected.  Something with a theme like princesses, or flowers and butterflies… or something with carved frills and whatnot.  Something that screams “little girl”.

There are pros and cons to getting a “cute” little girls dress up clothes trunk. Here are a few of each, as well as two really “cute” dress up boxes I found at Amazon.com.

(As an Amazon Associate I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you. Full Disclosure.)

Cute Dress Up Trunks: Pros

  • It’s Cute. Pretty. Beautiful, even. (Duh, right? Of course those are pros to a little girl.)
  • It calls out to a child “come and see what beautiful things are inside me!!!”  Which means “Play Time”!
  • It fits nicely into her pink or purple bedroom decoration scheme, if that’s where you’re going to keep it.
  • If she has a favorite character theme, you can likely find a fairly inexpensive toy box with that character on it that will work nicely for a fair bit of her dress up collection.

Cute Dress Up Trunks: Cons

  • It has a “shelf life”. Often times “cute and girly” fits just a certain age, and the piece won’t be loved for a long time.  (If that’s not a big con for you, if you’re the type who likes to change up the décor or playroom furniture more often, no problem then!)
  • It’s hard to find a BIG dress up trunk that’s cute and girly.  (Depends what you’re looking for, again, this might not be a Con.)
  • If you have a boy as well as a girl who share the room where the dress up trunk is, he may need his own boy-ish representation… you probably won’t find him being overly excited about storing his boys dress up clothes in it!  Along those same lines, if you want to keep the room décor gender neutral, or if the room doubles as a family room where YOU relax at night, sometimes it’s nice not to look at large, childishly decorated items… but maybe that’s just me. 😉

Practical, Heavy-duty and Multipurpose

So you can go the “cute” direction, or you can go the “practical” direction.  Sturdy, multipurpose, heavy duty quality for some heavy duty storage.

Perhaps this is a better route for you? Maybe. Or Maybe not.  Here are some pros and cons to some more practical little girls dress up trunks, as well as two nice “practical” options.

 

dress up clothes trunk
Click HERE to see more details on this large Cherry Wooden Toy Box
Cedar Hope Chest
Click HERE to see more details about this solid Cedar Wooden Hope Chest (pictured in Oak Finish).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practical Dress Up Trunks: Pros

  • It will last her for many years. It is something that can eventually turn into a nice piece of furniture in her room, storing things other than dress up clothes once she grows out of it. It can become a dorm room trunk… or maybe even a traditional “hope chest” (not sure if anyone still does that now, but a lovely, well-built wooden chest is always nice for storage, regardless of the reason).
  • It can withstand some serious play, meaning that if your little girl is a bit of a monkey (like mine), her jumping on it and standing on it to display her lovely outfits at the best angle won’t make a dent in it… and you won’t have to worry about her toppling it over.  Her OR her brother… or her and her friends… all standing on it at the same time. Which is what they do for some reason, isn’t it??
  • Usually the sturdy and practical dress up trunks are big. They can fit a LOT of dress up clothes. Which is good if your child has a lot of dress up gear.

Practical Dress Up Trunks: Cons

  • You get what you pay for, meaning, you get a lot but you’ll pay a lot. Nothing too crazy, unless you’re going for hand carved cedar or something, but the good trunks aren’t cheap.
  • It’s harder to find sturdy dress up trunks that have that childish fantasy aspect in their design.
  • Sometimes the lids can be heavy, or the latches tricky for little ones.  (If you do go this route, be sure to find one then that has soft-close hinges, and whose maker considers small fingers in his/her design process.)

Can you find one that is both Cute AND Practical?

Yes. You CAN find some very cute but also solidly built and practical dress up trunks out there. It does take some looking around, but I do think you can be satisfied on both accounts. It all depends on what strikes your (or your little girl’s) fancy, what suits the room where you’ll be keeping it, how much dress up gear you have to fit in it, and your price range.

Here are a few ideas of both girly and practical trunks that caught MY eye!

Pink Storage Trunk

Kidkraft Toy Box – available on Amazon.com  in a variety of colours. It has a 4.7/5 star rating from nearly 10,000 reviewers.

This box has a safety hinge on the lid that keeps fingers from getting pinched, and is made of very sturdy pressed wood. It is heavy duty enough that it doubles as a bench for additional seats, or if you have “energetic” kids who climb on things, it will hold them. 😉     It’s 30.6 x 18.2 x 19.6 inches, and weighs about 40lbs when empty. So it’s a serious piece that will hold a fair bit, and be quite useful.

 

dress up trunkFootlocker / College Trunk   These trunks are, to me at least, a great idea. Cute and girly if you go with a pink or purple (or whichever color is your little girls’ favorite these days), but also look like they could easily fit in a teen’s bedroom! The style is advertised as a college trunk or footlocker, and as it can even be used as luggage, you’ll be sure your little girl will get years of use out of one of these – not just a few years as a little girl’s dress up box. Money well spent.

There are so many of these with slightly different dimensions and colors available – this link will take you to the one pictured here, available on Amazon.com that has great reviews and lots of information on its particular specs.


speechbubbleI hope you’ve found this helpful as you determine which type of dress up trunk to purchase! I’d be happy to answer any questions/give some suggestions or if you have any feedback, please let me know in the comments below!

Want a few more ideas? Here are some places to start!

Cheers,

Marlaine

12 thoughts on “Little Girls Dress Up Clothes Trunk – Is Cute Or Practical The Better Choice?

  1. Alfred James September 13, 2016 at 1:00 am

    Your website is really good, it has really high-quality content and I find this article interesting and useful, thanks for share this information.

    This is the kind of product that always have to be in every girl room, gives decoration and also is very useful, even if the people use it to save toys or clothes, it’s still a good product to mange. Thanks for share.

    • Marlaine September 13, 2016 at 1:04 am

      Thank you Alfred! My aim is to help manage dress up chaos, but also have some fun with storage ideas, so I’m glad you like it. 🙂

  2. Deedee Anderson September 13, 2016 at 1:32 am

    Great post — a dress up trunk is an absolute must at some point! There is just no other sane way to keep the clothes under control other than taking them away, and nobody wants that, right? All of the options you show are wonderful, but it’s true that you get what you pay for. We ended up opting for the compromise wooden chest, because it has a longer shelf life. I figure my girls can repaint it as their needs change, and that way it will always be useful, if not for dress up clothes.

    • Marlaine September 13, 2016 at 12:06 pm

      I agree with you… the wooden ones have more usage potential. Personally I’m not a HUGE fan of decorating our house with and “pushing” a particular theme (princess, Dora, etc.). Plus, we have a little boy as well, so the trunk also needs to be gender neutral enough to fit HIS stuff in there too! 🙂 Thanks for dropping in!

  3. Jagi September 18, 2016 at 5:44 am

    I have to say a very in depth article. When my children were younger, there was not anything like this around. We use to use laundry baskets to store everything away.

    Now I have a little granddaughter who would enjoy a dress custom trunk such as this. Do you know where I could find a paw patrol trunk. She is really into those characters right now.

    But like you said, they outgrow it fast, because back awhile ago she was really into Elsa.

    I guess I will look into buying her one as the just seeing the smile on her face would be worth it.

    • Marlaine September 19, 2016 at 5:32 pm

      Hi Jagi, Thanks for dropping by!

      My daughter is into Paw Patrol right now too… thankfully I think they are pretty cute myself so I don’t mind. 🙂 This Paw Patrol Collapsible Trunk here has great reviews and is under $20! Check it out and see what you think, maybe! I agree – the smile on her face would be worth it!

      Have a great day!

  4. Yvonne October 12, 2016 at 1:48 am

    Love these cool looking clothes trunks. What a great idea! They all look good so I’m having a hard time deciding which ones I like the most. I think for my girls, they’ll probably like the pink trunks as it also matches the color of their room. For my little boy, I think the Kidkraft toybox is perfect as there’re many colors to choose from. Thanks for sharing this post!

    • Marlaine October 12, 2016 at 4:24 pm

      Hi Yvonne, I love these trunks for looks too, but what I really love is how easy it is to clean up the dress up gear with a quick gather & toss into the bin… 😉 Thanks for commenting!

  5. Billie October 15, 2016 at 8:37 pm

    Every time I come to your site I find super cute things that makes my empty pockets so sad! I have bookmarked your page so as soon as I have some free funds I am coming back! I really like those girly dress up boxes and the pink toy chests, They would fit right in with my girls room. If you happen across any Disney Princess or Baby Minnie wall decals give me a shout!

    • Marlaine October 15, 2016 at 8:44 pm

      I SOOOO know what you mean… working on this site makes me want to buy, buy, and buy for my little kids too!! My husband just laughs when I show him the next/latest cute find. 😉
      I love the “Baby Minnie” room theme idea! How cute would that be! I haven’t seen any around, but I’ll pass it on if I do see some. Have a good evening!
      Marlaine

  6. rule2020 December 10, 2016 at 9:26 am

    I have a 3-year old kid and her mom always buys her clothes so I decided to bought her a clothes trunk because our closet is full. But her mom still keeps on buying and buying her clothes like dresses and shorts so here I am again looking for something to store my kid clothes. She likes Disney Princesses and she will be glad if I buy it for her. Good thing I found your site I have the idea where can I buy it. But, I hope my daughter can understand if I buy the wooden one because its life span is longer than those made in plastics. Well, its for my daughter. I will buy the disney design to make her happy. Such a useful article of yours. Thanks. I will surely pop back!

    • Marlaine December 12, 2016 at 11:47 pm

      Glad you found it helpful! It’s amazing how quickly kids dress up clothes seem to multiply in the house! 🙂

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