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Last updated on September 13th, 2023 at 03:51 pm
I don’t like crafts and I have no talent for art, so, naturally, I have a child who loves crafts and is an artist. Growing up, there was no need to organize art & craft supplies other than crayons, markers, and colored pencils. But now that I have a little artist, I’ve had to come up with space-saving, practical solutions for organizing art & craft supplies for a small space.
In this post, I’ll show you how to organize art & craft supplies when you live in a small space by using my own home as an example.
Create art & craft zones
Since our house is small, I’ve designated different areas as art & craft zones. We have zones in our kitchen, homeschool room, and home office.
Homeschool Zone:
Art & craft tools that are used frequently either for school or play are stored in our homeschool room. The right side of our homeschool cabinet is dedicated to art & craft supplies, from the top down. We also make use of the top of our homeschool table.
Kitchen Zone:
Paints & painting tools are stored in the kitchen away from carpeted areas. In this zone, I designated a drawer where my artist can easily set up her painting station at the kitchen table.
Home Office Zone:
Less frequently used craft supplies, or craft supplies that require supervision are stored in our home office. All of these supplies are stacked in one fabric bin.
How to store art & craft supplies
The key to organizing any area is to contain similar items together. To accomplish this, there are many, many options!
Art Supply Caddy – I don’t typically like visual storage, but an art supply caddy has been practical as we homeschool. It sits on top of our homeschool table for quick access to pencils, erasers, glue, scissors, markers, etc. Ours doesn’t have a lazy Susan bottom, but that would be much more practical!
Acrylic Jars – Years ago, I found these acrylic jars at HomeGoods for storing crayons and colored pencils. It’s easy for my daughter to move these jars to wherever she decides to color. Plus, I don’t have to worry about anything shattering.
Shoebox totes – I’ve talked before about how handy these shoebox totes are. These are the same ones I’ve had for years, repurposed again to store beads & stamps.
Totes – I have many of these totes for storing toys but they’re also practical for storing Play-doh and bags of Kinetic Sand. (These totes are some of my favorites for organizing!)
Ziplock bags – While I’ve seen pictures on Pinterest of beautiful craft rooms with jars full of craft supplies, jars take up a lot of space. To maximize storage space, I store all of our extra craft supplies in a single fabric bin, and group craft items in separate zip-lock bags. When my daughter wants to use them, she either takes them out of the bags or we dump them into bowls. Not only does this save space, but it also saves us a lot of money on organizing products!
Plastic food storage containers – Glass jars are prettier. But for the sake of all things practical, little kids may accidentally shatter a glass jar. Plastic food storage containers are much more practical, budget-friendly, and quick. (No moving items from a bag into a container for use.)
Deciding how to organize art & crafts in a small space
In an ideal world, all the art & craft supplies would be all in one area or room. This isn’t always practical based on home layouts. Instead, make decisions based on what is practical for your home.
For example:
- Do I need to keep certain art & craft supplies out of little hands when they’re unsupervised? Choose out-of-reach areas for these supplies.
- Do I have some supplies that are hard to clean out of the carpet? Designate hard floor areas for these crafts or purchase a drop cloth to cover the floor during craft time.
- Does my home have enough space for large storage containers or do I need to condense items into a few drawers or bins? Consider using zip-lock bags or low pencil boxes for storing supplies.
- Is there one room in particular that is best suited for the purpose of making works of art? In this case, choose furniture that will help you store all the art & craft supplies in one space.
Fostering creativity
Organizing art & craft supplies in a small space can seem like a daunting task, especially if you’re not into crafts or art. But with a little creativity and practicality, it can be achieved by:
- creating designated art & craft zones,
- utilizing various storage containers such as shoebox totes and plastic food storage containers, and
- considering what is practical for your home.
Your home can be well-organized and functional while still fostering your little artist’s creativity and imagination.
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