Over the short life of this blog, I’ve talked a lot about art supply organization. Along with many of the child-related organization issues we have here in our home, this seems to be one of those topics I have to revisit often.
All 3 of our kiddos love to create, color, glue, glitter, cut, paint and more. That means I am cleaning up a lot of art work remnants, buying new supplies to replenish what has been used, and it seems i’m always searching for simple, cute and inexpensive ways to keep the supplies organized. Yet also keeping the system easy for the kids to help mom with clean-up.
Our kids do most of their creating while I am in the kitchen making meals. It’s a good way to keep them occupied while I am busy. A few weeks ago I shared our art room here at the rental house. The kids spend a lot of time in this room coloring, playing games and assembling puzzles. But when it comes to the messy art, I reserve that for the kitchen table…Where I can keep a close eye and rest assured they aren’t creating a wall mural out of permanent ink. 🙂
There are built-in cabinets next to our kitchen table so I figured this would be a great space to stow away the art supplies we use in the kitchen…
Since I was planning on storing them away in the upper cabinets with glass doors, I wanted the organizers to be pretty. And as I always try to aim for, keep the organizers on a budget as well…
No shocker that I found most everything i needed in the $1 section at target. Actually, I’d been hoarding away a few $1 organizers for a while now, just waiting for the perfect project to pop up.
Last week, I pulled out all of our messy art supplies and my supply of organizers. Then I thought over my plan of action…
On friday night the kids helped me sort it all out and we put everything away neatly behind cabinet doors…
What exactly is organized in these 2 cabinets? here’s a closer look. There are pretty $1 tins ($1 from target) full of color wonder markers, washable markers (large and small), and scissors…
A shallow drawer organizer (from target – $1) used to hold stickers…
deeper bins ($1 from target) hold flash cards, note pads, paint by number sets and dot-a-lot markers…
Magazine files ($1 from target) hold colorful sheets of construction paper…
I also used an old art caddy for stencils, glue, rulers, and short colored pencils. The caddy was purchased from target several years ago. The short pencils are contained inside a plastic drinking cup and then placed into the compartment – this makes for easy grabbing…
For the smaller items I used one of my favorite $1 home depot compartment organizers…
I’ve shared my love of these beauties a lot over the last few months – and I know many of you have struggled to find them in your local home depot. I put out an e-mail to the company asking for more info. If you are lucky enough to find them at your home depot, these come as a set of 4 for just $4!
I used the organizer to contain mini-erasers, large erasers, pencil sharpeners, and a few supplies we use for math games…
The final item inside the cabinets are these DIY pottery barn kids knock off caddies I made last year. They are holding our supply of pencils, highlighters, mechanical erasers, large colored pencils, tall markers and colored pens…
These DIY caddies are the only item that cost more than $1. They have been hiding away in the office closet, so now I can show them off a bit and give them a reason to be more useful.
I added one item on the counter below the cabinet. Just another $1 target drawer organizer to hold some of our school work or art…
Now when grandma visits this week, she can take a look at our latest creations…Our homework assignments/tests that have received a perfect score…
Just kidding. This bin is actually intended to be a cat napping spot…
Within 30 minutes of this bin of papers debuting on the counter, Charlie discovered his newest napping spot. He slept like that for about an hour…And then later that night I found him really curled up inside the bin…
Someone’s comfortable!
Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, over the years I have re-organized our art supply to fit the current need. My intention of sharing this latest version is to encourage you that organization does not have to cost you a lot of money. For a few dollars (not hundreds) you can purchase items that are pretty and simple, yet keep it all contained.
I know – the $1 section at target is so dangerous! Every time I go the ladies that work up front are restocking and I have to stop to see what's going on 🙂
Hope you can locate the tins for your new craft room. I'd love to see your craft room!!! Share pics! 🙂
Love the dollar section at Target. I'll have to look for those chevron tins. They would be perfect in my new craft room. Too funny about the cat.
I know – the $1 section at target is so dangerous! Every time I go the ladies that work up front are restocking and I have to stop to see what's going on 🙂
Hope you can locate the tins for your new craft room. I'd love to see your craft room!!! Share pics! 🙂
Sam
I got those chevron tins too! LOVE them!
I love them too! Cute and handy and only $1! 🙂
These tools are so useful to store the items.
buy art supplies online
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