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How To Organize Children’s Craft Supplies

When you have (or are yourself) a creative person, you find craft materials everywhere. Everything can be made into something; even discarded items can be re-purposed as a children’s craft! But when you start collecting materials, organization can become a problem. How do you keep from being overrun with craft supplies?

Know What You Have

In order to organize supplies, you need to know what you have. Pull everything out into one large place. If you run across items that you can’t remember why you saved, dispose of them. Duplicates? Get rid of some. Cull ruthlessly. You can only keep the supplies that you have room for.

Next, group like things together. For example, paintbrushes and paint pots; play dough and cookie cutters; paper and scissors. This will give you an idea of how to store them.

Store the grouped items in storage containers. This will allow supplies to be taken out when they are needed, and prevent everything from your craft area being dragged out when one item is sought. I will never forget the day I found the entire contents of the craft bin strewn across the kitchen floor as my daughter looked for her blue modeling clay.

Storage Options

There are many creative ways to store craft supplies. Keep them fairly small, so little hands can use them, but easy to access.

• Dishpans. A favorite of mine for storing paper is dishpans. Pads of paper, coloring books, crayons all file nicely into a dollar store pan.
• Over the door racks. If you have a closet door that can handle a rack, these work well to corral supplies. I ordered mine from Miles Kimball, but they are available from Amazon(aff) as well.
• Magazine boxes work well to hold workbooks and some paper. I have found that some of my construction paper does not fit in a standard magazine box, though. The come in many materials. I find that the plastic ones(aff) hold up best.
• Pencil boxes, such as the Spacemaker School Boxes(aff), are good to hold loose items. I find that they work well to keep beads and stickers under controls, as well as controlling writing instruments.
• Zipper bags. While not as good for unstructured storage areas, zipper bags are great at keeping like items together.

Limit What You Save

When I first organized the craft supplies, I was amused to find almost two dozen toilet paper rolls. One or two would have been sufficient. Likewise, I found a bag full of discarded wrappings and ribbon.

It is very easy to put items in the craft bin, thinking that it might be of some use. However, if you really have no idea what you could use it for, don’t save it. This will limit what goes into the craft area, and will help keep it within its bounds.

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Photo by moline

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