It’s wonderful to see our children being creative, but it can be overwhelming to see that creativity scattered all over your living room, dining room table or playroom…delete as applicable! So what should you do if you don’t want to stifle your child’s creativity, yet want to contain the mess that goes with it? Create and organise a craft station, of course!
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| Is your child a budding artist? Use these tips to keep their craft supplies in order |
Here are just a few ideas of ways in which you can organise craft items to allow you to keep the mess under control and the creativity flowing:
Can you create a dedicated craft space?
One of the easiest ways of keeping the mess contained is to, well, contain it in one space. If you can, turn an entire space over to a craft station. This doesn’t have to be a big space; it can be as small as a desk. Or if you have a grown-up craft room of your own, is there part of it that could be given over to the children?
Other ideas for craft station space could include:
- A small table and chairs so that multiple children can craft at once.
- A corner of a playroom that’s dedicated to crafts and / or messy play.
- A dedicated arts and crafts trolley that can be wheeled to a certain area – e.g. a kitchen island – then put away after use. This handy three tiered trolley from Hobbycraft comes in 5 gorgeous shades so you can choose which colour best fits your home aesthetic . IKEA always has a great range of storage solutions too.
Once you have your dedicated area for crafts ready, you can get creative with storage to keep the mess under control.
Use different types of storage
Now it’s time for you to get creative: with your storage! Use different types of storage to hold all of your crafting supplies:
- Stackable plastic tubs are great for loose parts, such as pom poms and buttons, and also small items that form part of sets, such as small paint tubs or stamp sets, in order to keep them together.
- Magazine files can be used to store paper, card, notebooks and colouring books.
- Dedicated pen pots and trugs can be purchased to house different types of pens.
- Spaghetti pots can be used for long items such as paintbrushes and pipe cleaners.
- Ribbons and string can be hung from a rail and attached to the wall, if you have permanent space available.
- The IKEA MÅLA paper roll holder holds a roll of drawing paper, pens and wax crayons too. When your child has finished their masterpiece they can simply tear off the paper against the red cutter ready to display.
- Use a front opening photo frame like this one, to display your child's latest favourite picture on the wall whilst storing up to 49 prints behind. No more sneaking their creations to the recycling bin!
There are many different ways in which you can store craft supplies; it’s just a case of working out what works best for you and your little ones.
Label where possible
If you are using a variety of different containers and storage solutions as above, label your containers where possible. This will help little hands not only to find the items they’re looking for during their crafting sessions, but it will hopefully also help them to put items away once they’re done with them, as they’ll instantly know where each item’s home is!
The Dymo label enables you to create embossed labels with a peel off sticky backing, making it even easier to find what you are looking for.
Declutter regularly
Although it can be difficult to get rid of crafting supplies, as everything has the potential to be used in the next masterpiece, it is wise to declutter your child’s crafting space regularly.
This way, you’ll get rid of odd bits and pieces, such as card that has been cut to shreds but has been deemed too precious to be thrown away (you may decide otherwise!), paper that has been crumpled beyond use and half completed projects. It’s easy for craft spaces to become overwhelmed with items that are half used, otherwise!
These are just a few ideas to help organise a craft station. However, the beauty of organising a craft station is that you can, quite literally, get creative with it, and there will be different tips that work for different children, homes and the space you have available to you. If you have any innovative tips for organising a craft station, let me know in the comments!
