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7 Best Tips For Organizing Kids’ Crafts Supplies and Things

By Erika in Home

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

These tips and hacks will help you as you tackle organizing kids’ crafts supplies and things – and you’ll finally have a clean craft room! Even if keep all your kids’ crafts in one shelf in your office or one of the bedrooms, these tips will help you keep everything sorted so you can find them when you need them.

organize kids craft supplies pinterest image this idea now...

I’ve been organizing like a crazy woman lately. I’ve gone through organizing sprees in the past, but it usually doesn’t work for long. This time, my goal is to get my house organized in a way that actually works for my children (starting with organizing all of their toys).

The thing is, with a 2, 3, 6, and 9-year-old, I absolutely expect to have to straighten things myself, but I want my kids to be able to put things away on their own. And that means a realistic system that’s simple for them to follow. Because if it’s not simple, the system won’t work.

Be Realistic: Organizing Kids Crafts Supplies

One of my recent goals was to tackle organizing the crazy amount of kids’ crafts supplies, coloring books, crayons/markers/pencils, notebooks, special art kits, puzzles, playdough, paint books, etc. we have. It can be whole lotta stuff.

You moms know what I mean!

Previously, my attempts at organizing that stuff didn’t work. It wasn’t realistic. Maybe I was willing to open a drawer and sort through a stack of coloring books to find the one a child wanted, but that child was not.

Here are the steps I took as I organized all of their supplies – I hope these ideas help you too.

1) Use A 9-Cube Organizer

Since I had to organize our homeschool area at the beginning of the month, organizing the kids’ craft section was a natural extension of our homeschool stuff.

I opted to use a 9 cube organizer for our homeschool materials and picked up a second unit for organizing kids’ crafts supplies.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a “before” picture because stuff was all over the place before. There were coloring books in a bin on the top shelf of the downstairs closet. More coloring books and notebooks and scrap paper in plastic drawers in the barn (which is unheated and cold in the winter.) Shamefully unused Melissa & Doug puzzles stored in crates in the barn. Crayons and markers in random bins all over. And a box full of artwork that I had yet to go through sitting in the barn too.

Really.Not.Good.

I was ready to get started.

9 cube organization system for kids crafts

2) Sort And Separate Papers

Kids can have a surprising amount of paper. There’s paper to-be-used for projects (scrap paper and construction paper and notebook paper and miscellaneous things like stuff for collages) and then finished papers too.

I needed something that offered the kids easy access to all that for drawing and craft projects and a spot to put their finished art projects. I found our answer in the letter trays I bought for homeschooling.

letter trays to hold papers

This is the perfect solution for us. Aside from the one time, my husband could not find the artwork bin, even when I pointed out, “It’s labeled!” But that’s another topic…

And every 1-2 weeks, I go through the artwork bin and pull out our favorites and we get rid of the rest. Emily’s drawing below is definitely a favorite.

artwork pin with kids artwork papers

3) Use Separate Bins For Crayons & Markers

I kept organizing the crayons, markers, and pencils pretty simple. We have lots of crayons and they reside in a shoebox-size bin I bought for 99 cents at Walmart. Markers go in a white tray bin on top and colored pencils (and a few regular) sit on another white tray.

bins filled with crayons and pencils

Our homemade playdough and accessories are in a larger bin on the top shelf where Luke can’t reach it.

a bin to store playdough for kids

4) Create A Collage Bin

That sounds a lot fancier than it actually is. It’s really just a bin where I put things for the kids to cut and glue. For example, my old pug dog calendar and a ‘Precious Moments’ figurine catalog I know Emily will love to cut apart and glue into a notebook or something.

It basically holds those miscellaneous little things I previously never had a place for.

bin filled with kids craft supplies for collages

5) Stack Puzzles

Puzzles are pretty simple. There are easy puzzles for the little boys in one section. All Melissa & Doug puzzles – huge favorites of ours and a must for easy access.

stacked puzzles

There’s another section for more advanced puzzle sets…and a couple of art sets for Nathan and Emily.

organizing kids craft supplies in cubbies

6) Give Each Child Their Own Bin

Each of my children has their own special interests which I encourage. That means each one needs their own place to put special treasures and kits.

That’s where these sturdy fabric bins I bought on clearance at Lowes came in handy.

Nathan’s bin contains mostly notebooks that he uses to draw in and write notes about various scientific things he’s interested in. He also has a miscellaneous craft kit he received for Christmas and his pencil box from a public school that is very special to him.

personalized kids cubbies

Joshua doesn’t have a lot in his bin yet – so far, just a domino set, but he loves it.

personalized cubbies for kids craft supplies

Emily has quite a few things in her bin, from sticker books to a special craft project and special Hello Kitty markers.

organizational cubbies to store kids games and supplies

Luke doesn’t have a bin yet, but there is room on the bottom shelf.

There are two simple rules with the kids’ bins:

  1. No touching or taking anything from the other kids’ bins. Only your own.
  2. Put whatever you want in your bin, but once it gets full, you have to do some organizing yourself.

So far, the kids’ bins are one of my favorite parts of our craft storage area. It’s been working fabulously.

7) Organize Coloring Books and Paint Books

We’ve always had a lot of coloring books. And the kids love to use them so I want to keep them available.

Previously, I’d tried to separate each child’s coloring books – Emily had her princess and Hello Kitty, while Joshua liked Blue’s Clues and Curious George, etc. But then, Luke wanted Blue’s Clues too and Nathan didn’t care about Transformers anymore and it just was too confusing.

So I designated one bin to be the coloring book bin. All the books are in there. Most of them are fair game for everyone to share nicely. There are a couple that are for an individual child – for example, Hello Kitty is Emily’s, and the Thomas the Tank Engine book Joshua got for his birthday is his. But, the kids’ know that now that it’s all organized in one place and it’s worked quite well.

storing kids coloring books in a blue cube

Paint books are another thing. We still have quite a few paint books, which is surprising because they were/are a huge hit with my brood. Why? I wasn’t storing them in a place where the kids could find them!

So now they can with our paint books bin.

There is one middle cube still empty. That will be where Luke’s bin will eventually go.

storing paint books for kids

So that’s how I organized the kids craft supplies and stuff. We’ve had this for almost a month now and this system really does work.

It works because it’s so simple. The kids love it because they know where to find stuff. And where to put it when they’re done. Even three-year-old Joshua knows.

An added bonus for me? I’m not constantly fielding requests for more expensive computer paper! The kids know right where to find their paper.

To me, that’s what organizing is all about.

And I love it. 🙂

More Home Organization Articles

As you keep cleaning and organizing your home, here are some more tips for other rooms.

  • How To Organize A Bathroom Vanity
  • Tips For Organizing Small Kitchen Drawers
  • How To Organize Kids’ Toys

Pin the image below to save these ideas for later.

organize kids craft supplies pinterest image

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    Filed Under: Home, Organizing Tips Published on January 20, 2021

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    About Erika

    Erika Bragdon is a flower essence practitioner and a second-generation homeschooling mom with 3 kids at home and 1 in college. She enjoys her chickens, goats, and gardening on a small farm in New Hampshire, and is passionate about sharing flower essences and more ways to renew body, mind, and soul with moms.

    Comments

    1. Janine Huldie says

      January 22, 2013 at 7:17 pm

      Awesome and truly love how you organized all this stuff. Not only is it functional, but truly very eye catching. Thanks for sharing and think it came out great!! 🙂

      Reply
      • Erika says

        January 22, 2013 at 8:02 pm

        Thank Janine! I am just so excited because it actually works! Oh wait I already said that – haha! 🙂

        Reply
    2. Michelle Pelletier says

      January 23, 2013 at 11:04 am

      At first I thought you were using a huge amount of space for just crafting supplies but then I immediately realized we have a ton of that stuff too! Great job! We need an overhaul bad and I would be embarrassed to post a before picture!! Haha.

      Reply
      • Erika says

        January 24, 2013 at 7:47 am

        Notice I didn’t post a ‘before’ picture either! 🙂

        Reply
    3. Jane Ritz says

      January 28, 2013 at 8:24 pm

      I love your organization system. Would you like to come and help me organize the materials from teaching that I have and couldn’t part with-Many, many books. I think I may give your system a try.

      Reply
    4. Amber says

      March 14, 2013 at 9:59 am

      Juast wanted to say thanks for the orgaizing ideas, we just moved and i did alotnof cleaning out before but now finding a place for stuff in new house is my challenge. I have a great place in my sunroom for the kids (boys,4,6,9) to color and do art but my storage is lacking. I have it all on a bakers rack that needs help. Any ideas on how to use a bakers rack for art storage?

      Reply
    5. Carissa Joslyn says

      July 24, 2013 at 1:57 pm

      I really need to do something like this. i have two little boys, and their stuff is just, a mess.
      I really like using the cube organizer for crafts! wouldn’t have thought of that , at all! I have all of ours jammed into plastic bin organizer thing.

      Reply
    6. Renee Arbia says

      September 9, 2013 at 10:10 pm

      I love the bin idea. I only have one child right now but a bin for different things is a great idea!

      Reply
    7. victoria says

      July 16, 2014 at 10:04 pm

      I love your organization ideas the paper tray is so practical where do get those labels I love them ! Thanks 🙂

      Reply
      • Erika says

        August 28, 2014 at 3:30 pm

        Victoria, I’m not sure – sorry. I found them online for free awhile ago and I can’t find them anymore.

        Reply
    8. Robin Newbury says

      January 8, 2017 at 10:34 am

      Love this idea! I’m looking at the 12 cube one. Where did you get those bins?

      Reply
    9. impact digitizing says

      February 1, 2021 at 12:41 pm

      I love your organization system. Would you like to come and help me organize the materials from teaching that I have and couldn’t part with-Many, many books.

      Reply
      • Erika says

        February 1, 2021 at 1:39 pm

        It is so hard to part with books, isn’t it? 🙂

        Reply
    10. Joe says

      February 3, 2021 at 12:38 pm

      Thanks a lot for this informative post! I’m a dad of three beautiful girls and your tips really work.

      Reply

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