Do you struggle with storing all your kids arts and crafts supplies? In our house, our kids art storage was a mess I battled daily for the past three years. Both kids love getting out their art supplies and creating. While, I loved how much they enjoyed making art, I couldn’t find an organized system to store kids art supplies that was easy to use for them, and easy to maintain and visually attractive for me.
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We tried categorizing all the art supplies into different project types and putting them each into clear plastic containers. We tried consolidating all of heavy hitters into one box and pulling that out when we wanted it. We even tried keeping a small set of basics out on the counter to see if that worked.
Then we tried storing them in my office closet. I was so sure that was the solution. But it was the worst! The kids were constantly going into my office closet, pulling boxes down and everything would fall out. I am ashamed to say that I would get flustered when they wanted to craft because I knew of the imminent mess that would become my house, which led to less crafting because #crankymom.
We knew we needed a new solution for our kids art storage.
Well, everything changed this Christmas when my mother-in-law gifted us a what it was actually designed for for our kids art storage conundrum. We affectionately call it the “art cart,” but it was never designed to be that–you won’t believe what it was actually designed for!
Since we put all the art supplies in, it has been a raging success! The kids know where each and every type of art supply resides, and are able to take out an activity easily and put it away each time. They now do their art activities daily. We pared back on everything that didn’t fit, and now we have just the right amount of stuff. (See more of my home organization tips here.)
KIDS ART STORAGE
The art cart is tall and has shallow shelves which helps with organization. No longer are things getting buried in the bottom! You can see, we use it in our breakfast room. Since the kids usually eat at the kitchen island these days, we use the kitchen table for when we have sit-down dinners with company and for art projects. The cart comes on wheels so it is easy to move around. I placed inexpensive Dollar Store bins in each drawer (they ranged from $$0.33-$1.00 a piece).
Each drawer stores a different category of kids art supplies. In the top drawer we store the heavy hitters–scissors, glue, tape, markers (my kids seem to hate crayons), colored pencils and erasers, and string.
The second drawer contains messier art supplies (stamps, special mess-free markers, and watercolors). These art supply components are less often used by my kids and definitely require some adult supervision with my two-year old.
The third drawer is full of craft paper and computer paper for the kids. I placed it in an inexpensive dollar store basket to keep the pile tidy.
I store all the fun art supplies like pom poms, magnetic letters, beads, stickers, and googly eyes in the fourth drawer. Really small items like googly eyes and beads I package in re-sealable plastic bags.
The fifth drawer contains coloring books, reusable sticker pads, and magnetic play scenes. We get most of our coloring books from the Dollar Store–so easy and so cheap!
Below that drawer is the playdough drawer. I use these small playdough containers because they are half the size and half the price–they are just the right amount for my kids, and when I replace the playdough it costs half as much. We use these small playdough containers.
The bottom drawer contains all of the kids (most recent) art aka stuff that hasn’t been thrown into the garbage or saved for their art boxes yet. Bowe is my pack rat, and never wants to throw anything away, so I have to covertly dispose of some of the art as I can.
SEE ALL OF OUR FAVORITE KIDS ART SUPPLIES BELOW
And if you liked this post, check out my post on the best gifts for kids who love art.
Don’t forget this post on home organization tips for living with kids.