I use rubber bands to hold similar parts together. All brackets and small parts are in a zippered storage bag. I keep the walls and floors in the dollhouse kit box because they are too large to fit anywhere else but all other, smaller pieces, I put in another box for better access to them. I put all of the shingles in a bag. I cut out the dollhouse kit box photo for reference.
Sanding down these parts is a long process. Sand all edges to remove splinters and rough parts so that the edges will lay flush when glued together. You do not have to sand until you get a super smooth finish. It is not necessary and because the parts are so small, you might sand them down too much, losing shape and details. Use a medium grit sandpaper because a rougher choice will snag these delicate pieces. A sanding block will work fine but I find that wrapping sandpaper around strip wood, works even better by giving you more control. You can use a discarded wood piece from your kit for strip wood. The strip wood gets into window openings and inside railings for a better finish. Even for large parts like floors and walls, you can hold the strip wood at a much better angle, compared to the sanding block, for easier sanding.
I used the eraser side of a pencil to punch out the slots from walls and floors.
Because of the nature of this wood, you might get some crumbling or breaking while sanding. This is normal. There's nothing wrong with the kit. Just make repairs as you go along with tacky glue and binder clip clamps. I had to repair several window frames that crumbled on me as I sanded them. The back piece of the dollhouse came broken in two areas as well and I also glued it back together. Repairing wood is very easy. Just glue, clamp and wait for it to dry before continuing to sand. Remember, the whole dollhouse has to be glued together anyways, so having to repair some parts is no big deal.
This kit includes siding and shingles, which is a good thing because it's an extra expense you do not need to make. You also do not have to do the calculations of how much material you will need or wait for material to arrive, halting the assembly process. In this case, everything you need is right in the kit. The shingles and siding are birch veneer, which is the recommended material for tab and slot dollhouses. The only downside is that they come in sheets, so you will have to separate each individual strip and shingle. Because birch veneer is thin and delicate, this can be an issue if the wood is not in good shape because of improper storage. I have had dollhouse kits where I have had to discard the siding and shingles because they were too damaged to be used. Luckily, the siding and shingles in this kit were in good condition.
You do not need to sand the edges of the siding pieces. You will split them if you try. Leave them as is and their exposed edges will be sanded once they are glued onto the dollhouse. The best way to separate these siding sheets is to fold each strip one way, then flip the sheet and fold each strip in the opposite direction and the siding strips tend to fall right off.
Separating the shingles is a little more time consuming. Thankfully the shingles of this kit were nearly all falling apart from their sheets. Shingles can be carefully snapped off their sheets but it can be labor intensive. A lot of the shingles will split or the cuts did not go all the way through, making them impossible to remove without damage. For this reason, I usually just order shingles instead of using the ones that come with the kit but this time I couldn't justify the extra expense. You will have to make the decision of using the kit shingles or ordering them separately, depending on the quality of the shingle sheets in your kit.
When you order birch veneer shingles and siding, they do not come in sheets so no separation is necessary. They only come in sheets in dollhouse kits.
