Home Organizing - Craft Supplies

I have been encourage that some of you are actually tackling some projects this week. Now that John is working full time from home and we currently only have 1 computer my time is limited so sorry I haven't posted this earlier. I will try to do better. So here we go:

I am blessed to actually have a craft closet. Our bedroom has 2 closets so we use the smaller one and the walk in holds my craft supplies, office supplies and extra books. I love it. But my craft stuff would fit in a hall closet or an armour or such. Here is what the first section looks like. I bought a $15 plastic/PVC shelf at walmart (back by the bathroom stuff with the shelving and organizing supplies)

I want to be as specific as possible to help you wrap your head around how I do things. As we proceed in other rooms I won't be this specific because you can get the principles from here and apply it to other spaces. Some of the boxes have a selection of random things in them but it is because I only have a few of those things and I want to save space. When this is the case I limit it to only 3-4 various types of items and label all things inside. So below is a list of what things are on this shelf by bin (or shoebox):

-glitter, strings, headbands

- glue and guns

-pipe cleaners, pom-poms, pop sticks, google eyes

- collage supplies

-clothes pins, filters, cupcake liners

-smocks

-trims and ric-rac

-tissue paper

-tape, scissors, box-cutters

-scrapbook supplies

-gift wrap supplies

-felt

-floral supplies

-markers

-colored pencils

-paint supplies

-foam kits and letters

-stickers

-extra crayons and kids markers

-misc craft supplies

-paper

-children's paint

-laminator

-hard felt squares

The above picture is a shoe bag that I keep my acrylic paints in so that I can see the colors. It is hanging on the wall beside the craft shelf.

This is above the shelf in the closet. It consist of my sewing machine cover, pillow batting, 2 baskets of fabric scraps, magazines that I keep (only a few) and some of Jake's artwork and extra canvases.

This picture is my sewing supplies. These bins include:

-Thread and bobbins, machine tools

-rotary cutting supplies

-misc sewing supplies (buttons, zippers, etc.)

-wide ribbons

-thin ribbons

-projects basket (things I am working on or that need fixing)

So there you have it - my craft supplies organized so that I can find what I need in seconds. Here are some extra tips that may help:

1. Some of my bins may require multiple bins for you. Two examples - my sister n law scrapbooks alot so she would have more than one tiny bin of supplies. My friend Shannon has an embroidery business so she has tons more fabric and ribbons. In fact, we had to divide her ribbons by color. So don't try to stuff you stuff into 1 bin. If you have a lot of one thing figure out how to sub-divide it to make you successful. Ask me specifics if you like.

2. From personal experience it works best to keep your craft supplies and the kids supplies (unless you give them free reign of them) together. Jake has a small tackle box in his room that has crayons, pencils, color wonder markers and scissors as well as a few coloring books and paper beside it. This is all I let him have easy access to at this time. So for me it works best to have it all together so when I plan a craft I can go to one place to pull what I need.

That's all for now. GOOD LUCK!! If you do it I would love to see pictures!!!!