Rethinking the Craft Area

Do you remember when I showed you how I organize my kids’ crafts? I was using the cube organizers pictured here.

Well, it was working just fine for awhile. I mentioned that it would need weekly maintenance to keep it up, but that I thought it was going to work just great. Guess what? I was wrong. It’s not working so well anymore.

Because of the deep drawers it made it very easy for my kids just to drop things in there and by the end of the day, each drawer was just a mess. It got to where they couldn’t find any pencils when it was time to do their homework. Why? Because they were all at the bottom of the cube tote. Why? Because my kids frequently decided it was easier to just drop the pencil in the tote, rather than put it back in the pencil box.

One thing I have realized over the years, is that organizing your home and getting it to work for you requires experimenting. One thing that makes my home work for me, is that I am not afraid to experiment with new ideas and techniques. If the system I have set-up starts to become a hassle, is hard to use or just flat isn’t working, then that means it is time to re-evaluate. That’s exactly what I did this weekend.

I happen to be blessed with a kitchen that has a lot of cabinets and drawers. It was the one thing that sold me on our house. I love my kitchen.

Well, the other night I was laying in bed and this idea of how to organize the kids’ crafts came to me. Yes, I often think about and dream about organizing while in bed. I know, I’m weird. The whole cube organizer just wasn’t working anymore and I also knew that it could be put to better use in my daughter’s room. (I’ll show you what my daughter did with it in her room another day.)

In my kitchen I have these four drawers near the kitchen table that were not being put to good use. I knew it was time to clean them out and that those drawers would be the perfect spot for my kids’ crafts. It only took me a few minutes to clean out the drawers and I lucked out that the containers which hold their markers, crayons, etc, fit perfectly in the top drawer. I love it when that happens! LOL.

So, I put the markers, colored pencils, pens/pencils, glue and scissors in the top drawer. They are all in containers. Here’s a picture for you:

In the second drawer I put coloring books and paper:

And in the third drawer I put stickers, glue gun and some other miscellaneous supplies:

I did all of this yesterday, so it hasn’t been put to the test yet. I’ll let you know how it’s working at the end of the week. What I like about this system is that the items are not in deep drawers or containers like they previously were. It’ll be much easier for my kids to put the craft items back where they belong and it’s also much easier for them to see what’s there. I think it’s going to work out great, but I’ve been wrong before that’s for sure!

Remember: if a system isn’t working for you, try to think about how you can change it or improve on it. If you have an organizing system that is complicated or just isn’t working, then it’ll just end up frustrating you and always staying in a state of chaos and that is no fun!