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Organizing Kid's Craft Supplies.

Published 01.15.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (1)

Mitzi emailed asking for a way to store her kid's art supplies.

The crayons, markers, dry erase markers, chalk, glue, glitter glue, scissors, stir sticks, finger paint, paint brushes - it is taking over my laundry room. The only thing I can come up with is to get a HUGE tackle box and sort it out. I have all the papers and books in drawers but that isn't working for the markers and stuff. Plus, I have to have a way to keep the markers up out of the 2 year olds reach but where the 4-year can get it. Go figure.

I am a little overwhelmed at this query and I'm having flashbacks to my days as the mother of a 2 and 4 year old. I wasn't particularly good at parenting when my kids were that young and I wasn't very good at organizing kid's craft supplies either. These two traits may be related.

I enjoy doing craft-ish projects with my kids, and I love all the possibilities a nice organized set of craft supplies represents. It's a lot like the possibility of a brand new box of crayons. So I've collected some inspiration for Mitzi, hopefully something will work.

Organizing Kid's Craft Supplies

We have a couple of the boxes in the Fira collection from Ikea, some holding paper, markers, pipe cleaners, ribbon. I have each drawer labeled (I have P-Touch Disease), but I've seen the fronts of these compartments painted with chalkboard paint squares for labeling. Cute.

Organizing Kid's Craft Supplies

If Mitzi had the space for this set up, I don't think she'd be asking for advice. However there are some good sources of inspiration, like these boxes for storing different supplies without having to look at the clutter.

Organizing Kid's Craft Supplies

I also love the look of art supplies stored in colorful metal buckets, like these from Pottery Barn Kids. However that's a little pricey for a, you know, bucket. A reader sent me a link to this resource for colorful metal buckets at much lower than Pottery Barn Prices.

Organizing Kid's Craft Supplies

Martha Stewart has some great ideas for a small-ish craft set of shelves. I'm not sure a fabric curtain would keep a two year old out of the markers, but I do love the use of a small space to hold a lot. I like the nice looking boxes and lazy susan for various supplies. Like Mitzi suggested, Martha also shows a couple of tackle boxes holding other supplies.

Organizing Kid's Craft Supplies

Courtney at Two Straight Lines showed her small craft cabinet over the summer. I think it's lovely.

Organizing Kid's Craft Supplies

This over the door shoe organizer as craft supply holder is a pretty space saving option.

Here's my simple advice for organizing your kid's art supplies:

Keep like items together and use labels so it's easy to put things back where they belong.
Buy only what you need. A pack of 500 sheets of paper is probably a good buy, especially if your kid loves drawing. However, the 200 pack of foam flowers is cheaper than the smaller package but are you really ever going to use them all? If you do, where are you going to store them until they're gone?
Finally, never, ever let your kids paint.

Good luck Mitzi!

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Comments (1):

AmberLee said:

I hadn't run into the Fira collection from IKEA. It is sooo affordable, thanks for the tip!

I did a post this week about organizing kids art supplies on GiversLog.com, and one of my favorite tricks is using canvas tote bags to organize supplies. It allows me to give the kids just a few supplies at a time, which keeps things new and exciting, and keeps the mess down.

Posted on March 31, 2009 18:48



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This column is no longer activel adding new content. It was written by Melissa Summers who can be found at her personal weblog suburbanbliss.net.

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