One Shelf, Five Collections: How I Organized My Crochet Plushies for a Craft Market

I have a lot of crochet plushies.

They're colorful, they're fun, and thankfully, people seem to like them. But as my inventory grew, I started to feel like I was putting too much into too little space.

At markets, most of my plushies were displayed on 5ft tables. And while a table can hold a surprising number of plushies, there was one thing I was starting to notice: my collections were getting lost.

I might have a group of bears, a group of turtles, a bunch of dragons, or a collection of little splooting animals, but when everything was sitting together on one or two tables, it was hard to visually separate them. Customers saw a lot of plushies. They didn't necessarily see the collections.

I could have added another table, but that would have taken up another big chunk of the limited floor space inside my 10×10 tent. What I really needed was a shelf.

I had a few requirements. It needed to be lightweight, so I could do all of my own setup and breakdown, it needed to be easy to transport because everything had to fit in my Subaru Crosstrek, and it needed to be simple to set up at a market. The last thing I wanted was another piece of equipment that required tools or added to my setup time.

Then I found this one.

There are plenty of display shelves out there, but this particular one checked all my boxes. It's lightweight, folds in half for transportation, takes less than 2 minutes to set up, and gives me five levels of display space for my collections.

And, of course, it's pink. That wasn't the most important feature, but it is one of my favorites.

What is the most important feature?

It folds. I don't mean that it folds down to make it shorter. It actually folds longways, so the nearly 28-inch-wide shelf becomes only about 14 inches wide. That makes a big difference when I'm carrying it around. I'm not a tall person, so trying to carry a 28-inch-wide shelf isn't exactly convenient. Fold it in half, though, and I can tuck it right under my arm and carry it to the car without a problem.

It also makes transporting it much easier. Once it's folded, I stand it up on its side in the back of my car and slide it right in. It does extend just a little bit between the two front seats,

but not enough to get in the way.

And when I get to the market, I don't have to put anything together. I just unfold it, swing the top section over, latch it into place, and I'm done. For me, that's exactly what I want from market equipment: something that's easy for me to carry, easy to transport, and quick and easy to set up.

Yes, those are the important features of this shelf, but they're not what I really love about it. What I love is that it gives me five separate display areas for my collections.

As you can see in the photo above, I put the Turtle Brothers on the top, my bears on the second shelf, then two shelves of splooting animals, and my colorful turtles on the bottom.

I love seeing them displayed separately like this because they actually look like collections. I was not the only one who noticed, either. One little girl walked into my booth, pointed down, and said, “Oh, look at all the turtles!”

That made me smile. Instead of seeing a table full of colorful crochet, she was seeing the group as a whole. That's exactly what I wanted the shelf to do. I no longer have to point out that they're a full collection. The way they're displayed does that for me.

As someone who loves creating groups of related plushies, I know this shelf is going to be one of my favorite parts of my market setup. I wish I had found it sooner.

A Little DIY Modification

Now, you may be looking at that photo and wondering, what is that on the back of her shelf?

Well, after using it a few times, I discovered one small thing I needed to add. Since the shelves are open in the back, some of my lighter plushies were getting pushed too far backward and falling out, and others didn't sit up on their own and needed something to lean against. So, I bought a piece of white foam board, cut it to fit, and attached it to the back with Velcro tabs. The Velcro makes it easy to attach during setup and easy to remove when I break everything down.

I can also adjust where I place that board if I need a taller backrest on the top shelf for taller plushies, such as my Charlie Brown doll. He's big and surprisingly heavy and needs that extra support.

Not everyone would need this little add-on, but for my peace of mind, and for my plushies' safety, it works beautifully. It was the best $5 I ever spent.

What started as a search for "somewhere to put more plushies" turned out to be so much more.

And I'll never get tired of hearing, "Look at all the turtles!"

So, before you go out and buy another market table, ask yourself: Is it really more table space I need, or would I be better off adding some vertical display space for my special collections? If it's the latter, this is the one I use and recommend.

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Want to See More?

If you're curious about some of the other display pieces I rely on for markets, you'll find them in My Maker Toolkit.

If you'd like to see more crochet plushies, such as the ones featured in this post, you can explore my Plushie Collections page.