Scarf dramas

The “little black dress” has revolutionised my scarf storage.

IT was the scarfalanche that did it. My lifetime collection of scarves suddenly decided to vacate their long-time abode and came cascading off the dressing room door, landing in a soft heap on the floor, like a fallen rainbow.

While there were no casualties in this soft woolly-silky slump, I gazed in horror at the huge pile, calculating the inordinate amount of time it would take to repatriate them.

Unable to face the daunting task of draping 50 or so scarves back over the top of the door along with the inevitable decisions about which to keep and which to part with, I just left them on the floor.

When I got home from work, strangely enough, they were still there.

If the truth be known, there had been many warnings of a full-on scarfalanche over the years but I had ignored them. These small-scale escapes were manageable and besides, I had no where else to store my collection so I had turned a blind eye to the few that slithered to the floor.

But the time had come to find a permanent storage solution for my neck-wear. Over the years, I had tried multiple hangers, dressing table drawers, hanging cubbyholes and hooks but there were just too many scarves for these to work.

The answer presented itself to me during one of my frenzied pre-Christmas shopping expeditions. I came across “the little black dress”, a clever contraption in the shape of a little black dress with a series of holes through which to feed the scarves.

I was ridiculously excited to get it home and try it out but decided to be patient. I wrapped it up and put it under the Christmas tree as a gift to myself.

The most useful presentIt was by far the most useful present I received, so much so I ended up buying another one so I now have space for all my scarves and have only had to part with a couple of moth-eaten, tatty old ones.

The little black dresses hang one each side of the dressing room door and are easy to access.

I also found smaller butterfly-shaped scarf hangers for my two daughters who have only managed to amass 10 or so scarves each in their young lives. They later told me they didn’t know how they had managed so long without such essential items.

Feeling inspired, I’m now on the hunt for clever storage solutions for belts, shoes, hats and other paraphernalia that take up space in my dressing room.

Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas and we will include them on this page.