When I originally had the idea to share some of my belly dance life hacks, I thought I’d do a quick search to see what everyone else had already blogged about – I made a huge discovery! There are many posts out there covering belly dance life hacks, but they all seem to share the same 4-5 hacks!
I didn’t want to fall into the same trap, so I compared notes to a few belly dance friends to see what I do differently and came up with the belly dance life hacks below. Hope they help you out as much as they help me.
1. Controlling your fan veils
This belly dance life hack is dedicated to all the dancers who don’t want to be needing to steam their fan veils unless they absolutely need to.
Fan veils are far more beautiful when they are kept flat and not balled up. That way they don’t get all crinkled and float nicer when we dance. But we rarely store them in a way which makes this possible!
All you need to store your fan veils nice and neatly is the tube from the center of a paper towel or foil/plastic wrap! Just put one fan veil in each end of the tube, fold the veil back along the tube and roll! Use a ribbon or hair band to stop it unrolling.
2. Keeping the family together
If you’re like me, you’ve got *ahem* a few belly dance costumes. Storing them hanging isn’t always possible if you’ve got limited space, not to mention hem drop on skirts that are stored on hangers, so what’s a belly dancer to do?
Boxes! Not just for cats, also for belly dancers! Store your costumes in boxes to help keep everything together, including accessories and jewelry. It also keeps mold at bay by not having plastic bags stop air flowing around your beauties.
BONUS TIP 1: I also keep the “stay fresh” silica gel packs from shoe boxes and (non food) packages to pop in the costume boxes to help keep my costumes fresh.
BONUS TIP 2: Put a photo of yourself in the costume on the visible side of the box. That way you know what costume is in the box!
ALTERNATIVE IDEA: If you don’t have space for boxes, even using dividers in drawers will help keep things separated.
3. Folding time with veils
If you’ve ever used a veil in the wind, you know how quickly veils can get out of control! But even when you’re trying to pack them away, they just don’t always seem to want to store easily. You put them on a hanger and they fall off, or you can’t just take off the one that you need.
Take a leaf out of the Konmarie method and get control of your pesky veils. Fold them in half and half again along the long length of the veil. Then fold that in half and then roll! Then it’s super easy to pop them in a box or bag for storing. Done.
4. A tangled web of hip scarves
Hip scarves. Every belly dancer at least one. Sometimes many more than that! But the coins, tassels and beads get tangled on everything, especially if you’re in a rush to get it on!
Keep them neat by giving them their own bag. Use the cheap organza gift bags to store them in. You could colour code them, or just go with a light colour so you can see the colour of the hip scarf inside.
For more tips and tricks, keep an eye on my blog or come and join a class with us. There’s always useful tips and tricks shared in every session.
