Today I’m sharing a very simple solution for anyone with a coloring addict at home. And those struggling to keep the crayons organized.

I know, you might be thinking, “Really? Crayons? Can’t we just throw them in a bucket or put them back into the box?”. Well, anyone with a coloring addict knows it’s not that simple. First of all, do you know of anyone that can easily get those crayons back into the original box?

I found a very simple and inexpensive solution that works for our little budding artist and thought I’d share today.

Over the course of my blogging life (it’s short!) I’ve shared 2 ways we have organized the crayons. First, I tossed them into this caddy from the target $1 spot…

Then I tweaked it when the kids got tired of digging into the compartment holding the smaller crayons. I added plastic cups to help the crayons stand up…

**blessings to any of you that stuck with me through my early blogging days – what is up with those dark photos??!

Neither of those solutions worked for us for several reasons.

1. Our 6 year old colors all. The. Time. I think these caddies and cups are great if you have a little one that colors occasionally. But if you have a color-addict, like we do, who spends at least 90 minutes per day coloring (I’m not exaggerating) – this system will get old.

2. He had to dig, sometimes dump, to get to the color he wanted. That is what was happening here at our house – a lot of crayon dumping.

3. The cups didn’t make for easy clean up for the guy. It pretty much fell on mommy to sort and put them back into the cups at the end of the day.

Here is how the crayon caddy looked most days…

 

 

May not look too bad, but it annoys me. I knew I had to figure out a better container for the crayons….So gang, we had an organization mystery on our hands.

Yes, in the words for fred, daphne and velma – “jinkies, we had a mystery to solve!”.

Why exactly am i talking in scooby-doo language, you ask? Because our 6 year old is not only our coloring-addict….He is also obsessed with the funny brown doggy. We are currently seeking out a “scooby-doo anonymous” support group.

🙂

Want to see just how much coloring and scooby we are talking about? This is only a small sampling of the art we see in about 3 days time….

 

I had to lay it out on the floor to give you a good idea. He can really turn out some coloring product, friends. He’s a machine!

And each piece is either signed by him or the recipient is noted. One for mom…

One for dad…

 

Even charlie enjoys the art work, but probably just likes the idea of this new flooring…

What do we do with all of this art work? Because he doesn’t want his work in the recycling bin, I tuck it away neatly inside an oversized scooby coloring page folder…

 

Back to the crayon issue.

When I was at target yesterday, I spotted these little gems…

 

What I love about them is their shallow profile…

 

Yet still larger and wider than the caddy we had been using…

Essentially, I was looking for something shallow enough to hold a typical amount of crayons, a container that made it easy for him to grab what he wanted without digging, and one that wasn’t complicated to toss the crayons back in.

And this one fit the bill.

Speaking of bill…That’s all it cost. 1 single dollar bill…

Thank you, target!

Here’s our new crayon basket…

 

 

Sitting right along side those precious scooby coloring books…

Our son put the new basket to work yesterday and churned out 7 more beautiful pieces of scooby art. When he was done and I  walked into the art room, all of the crayons were IN the basket! I’d say that is a small success.

All because I was a meddling organization kid.

🙂

If you have a coloring-addict in your own home, run to target and grab one of these containers. Besides crayons, there are many other ways to utilize these!