Yesterday, we assessed our craft supplies. We have plenty of crayons, just as I had suspected. We had plenty of junk, too, which was happily sent to the trash.
One of our projects this summer is to organize our craft things, and to make a space that is more conducive to creativity. Up until now, we've just been cramming everything into a cupboard in the kitchen. But that's not working for me anymore, and we need a better system.
How do you deal with the paper situation at your house? What about your crayons and markers? Do you have a product you love or a system to share? Please?!
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I did the same thing a couple of summers ago:) We keep our craft stuff in our sun room right off the kitchen. I bought one of those plastic drawers system at Target that fits nicely inside the cupboard. I labeled each drawer (ie paints, stickers etc) I bought a huge stack of craft paper at Costco that sits on top of the shelf for easy use. I also put two bright red metal buckets out on a little table--one full of all our crayons and one full of all our markers. Happy Summer Crafting:)
ReplyDeleteWe have a craft cupboard that has bins in it that hold different supplies. That way the supplies can come out when needed, and be put away and out of sight when the children are done. Because the cupboard is used almost exclusively by our children, it is the most chaotic cupboard in our house. For that reason I usually clean it out once every three to four months. I find that reorganizing often is the best way to stay on top of things.
ReplyDeleteLove the crayon jar! Especially against the neutral background of your kitchen. I keep our crayons in a little plastic bowl. Any of them that are broken immediately go to the "melt down and make new crayons later" drawer. I keep the paper on a clipboard, which limits how much there can be.
ReplyDeletei recently bought a little system at target that works great for us -- i ha to have something apart from my treasured cupboard space because i need that for all my stuff :D i forget what it's called but it's white plastic and in the organization area of target. they have cubes you put together (we have to on top of each other with shelf inserts) and then plastic bins that go inside -- all stamps in one, all markers in one etc. then the bottom cube has a fabric square bin (also sold there with the target organizational stuff) in which all coloring books/paper go. (we have a thing with coloring books at this house) it has worked well and has a corner in my "command center" just off the kitchen, so it's out of the way but accessible. good luck and happy creating!
ReplyDeleteplease post pictures of whatever you end up doing! We too have a kitchen cupboard that is woefully full of crafty "crap".
ReplyDeleteI made this (http://pinterest.com/pin/279082508128303369/) & it is the best idea I ever came up with for organizing school supplies!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you're off to a good start with that jar of crayons! I bought four wicker lined baskets for a shelf in our living room. I use one for all the coloring books and workbooks. Another I use for smaller games, decks of cards, flash cards, etc. I use another to store finger paints, etc. I put all the crayons, markers and colored pencils in large zip lock bags. That way I can easily take them with us on the road if need be. Post some pictures of what you finally decide to do!
ReplyDeleteI recently cleaned up our craft supplies as well. I saw this idea probably on pintrest where you put your supplies in shoe holder pockets. So one pocket is for glue sticks, one for markers, another dot paints,etc. I hung it on the door of my hallway closet. This closet I can lock if I need to. I purchased my shoe holder at walmart for $10.
ReplyDeletefor crayons I made a cool little thing with a cheap cake pan, a lazy susan, and some cups from the dollar store. it sounds weird, and isn't probably as cute as your jar, but it is super handy and we love it. Here's a link to the picture on my blog: http://pretendfancy.blogspot.com/2012/04/so.html
ReplyDeletewe just epoxied the cake pan to the lazy susan! Good luck, and bytheway, I had to search your blog for your kitchen, and it is DIVINE! love your blog!
speaking of art- I am not doing classes this summer, but I want to do maybe a day or two later on where kids can come for an hour or two and have art time. I would love to have your cuties come!!
ReplyDeletethey would love to come! please let me know when you decide to do it. hope you are feeling well.
DeleteI have a drawer with a color book for each kid.. even macy and one extra for a friend. we have a crayon school box of crayons that are "good" not broken into tiny pieces. But i have a hard time just throwing away other crayons that are perfectly good, so i put them in a gallon ziplock bag, that is hidden and i bring that out in times of need of color. Markers i use a 5 gallon ice cream container, i love it. good luck.
ReplyDeletei have an ikea bookcase (a short one) with all our creating supplies. i have a bunch of those clear shoe boxes for each thing....glue, tape, markers, colored pencils, labels, stickers, etc. each shoe box is labeled. they all stack up nicely and the kids can see where everything goes. paper is stacked on those stackable paper trays.
ReplyDeletei love your red topped jar.