Finally Organize Your Craft Supplies in 5 Easy Steps

If you’re like me, you may feel swamped with craft supplies – yarn taking up several drawers, twelve different brands of pens that you don’t use, and stencils that you never found a use for. Problem is: clutter keeps us from working efficiently.

So today, let’s get started cutting the clutter. It’s time to organize your craft supplies.

1. Gather All Your Craft Supplies

Before you start to organize your craft supplies, you must get all your craft supplies together. If you’re lucky, you have one room with all your supplies. All you have to do is pull everything out and put it all together. If supplies are somewhat organized, try to keep them that way when you congregate them all.

But, you may not have everything together in one room. That’s ok. This is a job you can certainly have your kids (or other family members) help you with. Have a little scavenger hunt to find and organize your craft supplies:

• Office
• Tabletops
• Desktops throughout your house
• Supplies drawers

Once you have all your supplies together, you’ve finished one of the largest steps! But, there is still a lot to do to organize your craft supplies.

2. Get Rid of Craft Supplies You Don’t Want or Use

List some of your top favorite craft activities. The craft supplies you use for those activities are the only ones that you should consider keeping. If you have any craft supplies that don’t apply to your recent craft activities, think critically – do you really need them? Since it’s your craft room, you’ll be the one who decides what to keep and what to toss, but it may be helpful to bring in a friend (or mom) to help you assess the situation and organize your craft supplies.

When cutting down on the clutter, you’ll first want to start with the easy and obvious things. Throw out any trash, such as scraps, useless containers, pencil shavings, and dried paints. If there is anything that you can’t use any more, don’t keep it.

If you no longer do a craft, or haven’t done it in years, then you might want to consider getting rid of those supplies. You can give them to a friend, a neighbor, a local homeschool group, a nursing home’s craft program, donate them to a charity or church, or just throw them away if they are not usable.

Question how many varieties you have of one thing. Do you really need pens from 20 different brands? Many times, all that variety isn’t necessary for the crafts you do – you can consider it clutter.

Stop clutter at the source. That would be making a decision before you leave the craft store or enter your home. When you want something from the craft store, consider a few things:

• Where will you store the craft supplies? (Will they just add more clutter?)
• What project will you use them for?
• When will you use them? If “someday” is an answer, then you should rethink the purchase.
• Do you have anything similar that could perform the same purpose?

Remember to be realistic. That’s the best way to cut clutter and organize your craft supplies once and for all.

3. Sort Supplies Into Smaller Groups

When you’re organizing the supplies you want to keep, sorting them all into smaller groups is a crucial step. I suggest that you sort by activity and item type. Drawing and writing utensils should go together. Stencils and rulers should group with each other. Yarn, cloth, and threads should be in a group also. After decluttering, you may not have a ton of duplicates. But you’ll find that sorting by item type is very beneficial.

Of course, sorting by activity is great also. Think about the main crafting activities you do. Maybe you like painting, sewing, and carving. Those would be three categories you’d want to organize your supplies into. For painting, your palettes, brushes, paints, canvases, and other tools should group together. Same thing for sewing and carving. For every activity that you enjoy, there will be many supplies involved. Group them together, then organize by item type, and you’ll be good to go for sorting your supplies!

4. Find Where to Store Your Supplies

You may find this to be the most fun part of the process. When finding a place to store your supplies, you can use your creativity and skills to design and create. Here are some ideas:

You’ll want furniture for storing some items. Take a look at your space. Do you have room for shelves and drawers? If so, buy or repurpose a couple. I suggest vertical shelving – they’re a great use of space. Get a desk with a glass top and a few drawers. The glass top makes for easy cleaning, and the drawers are just great to have. Of course, you should get a comfortable chair that you can sit in for hours. But don’t do too much yet! You’ll want some alternative forms of storage.

Need a lot more storage? Have an old dresser from your grandma in the garage? No? Well, you may be able to find an inexpensive dresser or even a night stand at your local Salvation Army or other thrift store. Give it a fun, vibrant, crafty makeover and use it to organize your craft supplies in tidy drawers using boxes (see previous point) to keep craft items separated and organized. Stick your new “craft dresser” in a room, closet, laundry room or even the garage.

Alternative forms of storage? Yes! That is where your creativity comes in. Here are some ideas:

• Use mason jars. For handheld tools and utensils, mason jars will keep them tidy and easy to find. (Note: mounting them on the wall is a great idea)
• Wash out and reuse butter containers, jelly jars, pizza sauce glass jars, shoe boxes, cereal boxes, oatmeal boxes and other reusable objects from around the kitchen. Recover them if you want to make them look prettier. It’s a great way to save money and the environment.
• Use unconventional objects like ice cube trays, hardware tool chests, cookie tins, old cups, old Tupperware , old drinking glasses, old bowls, old paper towel rolls (to wrangle loose thread), etc.
• Cubbies and boxes. For large supplies, like canvases and balls of yarn, you’ll find these helpful.
• Wall organizers. These are great ways to take advantage of space. A few are below.
• Peg boards. Hang some tools and baskets on peg boards so you can take advantage of your wall space. Peg boards are great because you can move things around to different pegs to maximize space.
• Plastic wall organizers. You may find these online or at a store. Specially-shaped pockets can make for great vertical storage.
• Cloth wall organizers. Sew on some pockets to blankets or cloths, and then hang them on the wall. You can make custom pockets for odd-shaped tools.
• Tote bags. Do you craft on the go? Have a bag with basic craft necessities. You’ll be able to craft anywhere without frantically searching for your supplies.

Remember: when finding and making storage for your supplies, be creative. You’re making your space your own, so put in some thoughtful effort as you organize your craft supplies!

5. Organize More and Label

Now it’s time to fill up your storage and label everything!

You’ve already sorted everything, so keep groups together when you fill your storage. Sort everything into its own little spot where it will belong. Your most basic and most necessary supplies should be closest to you for ease of access.

Any drawers, cubbies, pockets, boxes, and jars should be properly named. That means labeling your storage. When your storage is labeled, you can access what you need without searching everywhere. Use a label-making machine for this. You could also use tape, tags or paper for more creative labels.

Did you like this article about how to organize your craft supplies? Peruse others on Plan and Organize. With a wide range of articles, you’ll be entertained for hours!

 

Sources:

https://www.wikihow.com/Organize-Craft-Supplies

https://www.diys.com/making-your-own-crafts-and-hobbies-room

https://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/craft-room/quick-clever-ideas-for-organizing-crafts-supplies/

https://www.designsponge.com/2013/01/past-present-uten-silo-diy-wall-organizer.html