Children’s arts and craft supplies can be a tricky thing to organize, because there are so many different types of supplies, they come in a wide range of sizes, you may not want your child to have access to all of them at once and they can be messy or fragile (think glitter and tissue paper). So how to you manage them? Here are some of my best organizing tips for art supplies:
1. Find one spot in the house to house them, preferably near where your children use them. A pantry or closet with varying levels is great, because you can store the supplies that your children are allowed to access anytime on a shelf at their eye level. Meanwhile, you can store the supplies they can use only with adult supervision on a high shelf out of their reach, but still within the same closet or pantry.
2. My son loves storing his markers, crayons, pencils, scissors and glue stick in a compartmentalized carrying case from Storables. (10” x 13” Infinite Divider Box, $12.95) The dividers in the case are movable, so he can make a big section for colored pencils and a small section for his erasers. Best of all, he can easily take all his supplies with him on vacation or just carry them from room to room.
3. Consider getting another carrying case to organize buttons, pom poms, pipe cleaners, craft sticks and other craft supplies.
4. I like to store colored paper upright in magazine file boxes, so children can instantly see all of the colors available and grab the sheet they want without lifting 30 sheets off the top.
5. You might like to use a translucent accordion folder with multiple pockets to hold stickers, stencils, fabric scraps and other flat items for craft projects.
6. All of the craft items I don’t want him to use without my supervision (e.g. white glue, glitter, paint) are stored in a plastic tub.
Once you have a place for all of the art supplies, be sure to leave enough time to clean up after the art project is finished. With these steps, you will find that art and craft time can be more fun for the kids and a lot less hassle for you!
Meticulously stacked crayons image (Jenga, anyone?) courtesy of Suddenly Susan.
