Help me organize

Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive February 2007: Help me organize

I need to find a good way to organize my kids' craft stuff and coloring and art and all that stuff.

We have tons of coloring books and activity books, construction paper, drawing paper, crayons, markers, colored pencils, scissors, glue, etc. etc. Right now i have the coloring books and papers in a rubbermaid rectangular holder. the other stuff is in other various containers. It's a mess and it drives me nuts. I need something to keep the stuff in that is easy and convenient for the kids to find what they want and to put it back.

Any ideas?

By Yjja123 on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - 06:28 pm:

I keep paper in a rubbermaid container. I keep crayons, markers, glues, etc in one of those hand held cleaning bins. They just grab it and go.
http://www.cleanreport.com/catlist.cfm?subid=91
Kinda like the little joey carrier. I bought mine at Target.

By Trina~moderator on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - 07:09 pm:

We have drawers similar to this. There are different depths, widths and sizes available. I bought them at Wal-Mart. Each drawer is easy to remove and carry to a table/work area and return at clean up time.

By Reds9298 on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - 08:53 pm:

I use a shoe organizer on the inside of my coat closet door. I just lack space for more plastic boxes so I had to come up with something else. Glues are in one pocket, paintbrushes in another, paint in another, and some misc craft items are also separated (ribbon, cotton balls, art smocks,scissors,etc.) I do use gallon ice cream buckets for some storage - 2 for playdough items and 1 for stamps and ink. I use a hanging Rubbermaid gift bag organizer for coloring books and paper. Like I said, I just don't have the room (that's easily accessible) for more plastic boxes of supplies, so I came up with hanging things. Since their shoe holders, they're clear and easy to see what you need. Anything I don't want her to have access to goes nearer to the top (like scissors).

Here's the rubbermaid organizer I use that hangs. I also use it for actual gift bags in another closet and it has save me a ton of space and is more organized. I bought them at Lowe's for $4.95ea. around Christmas time. They will stand also, and I used masking tape to label the outsides of each one (coloring books, Christmas bags, misc. bags, etc.) I'm thinking of getting another one to hold paper scraps in my scrapbooking area.

http://www.rubbermaid.com/rubbermaid/product/product.jhtml?prodId=HPProd100272

By Tink on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - 11:57 pm:

We use a kitchen utensil caddy (it's on a lazy susan and has small divided compartments) that holds the kids' markers, pencils, and scissors. They have a plastic shoebox for tape, glue sticks, pencil sharpeners, etc. All the papers and coloring books go into a rubbermaid drawer unit like Trina posted. I'm interested in the gift bag organizer that Deanna posted about, though. Paints, play-doh and my oldest's knitting and embroidery supplies are in a kitchen cabinet, where they have less access.