Can we talk organization/storage/art supplies

amyjoy18

DD is constantly drawing, tracing, coloring, cutting, gluing, sticking, painting, stamping and glittering.  Her art supplies and artwork are getting out of control.  How do you organize or at the very least prevent it all from taking over your house?  My other main concern is keeping those supplies away from DS who is in denial that the walls are not his canvas. 

As a side funny...at DD's 5 year old doctor visit the pedi asked what she liked to do and DD told her art.  The doctor then asked where she did her art, like if she had her own table or anything.  DD told her that she does art in her closet.  Which drew a, "Really....tell me about that from the doctor."

egpitt22

Our supplies are just kept in a 3 drawer cart; I have coloring books in one, stickers/random supplies (pipe cleaners, etc) in another one, and just random stuff along with construction paper and notebooks in the bottom drawer.  I keep their crayons and markers in separate bins that are about the size of shoeboxes, I got them from target.  those sit on top of the cart.  I keep the scissors and glue in the kitchen out of their reach, and they know to just ask for them. 

If we had more space in the play room, I'd love to get something like this:

MrsAmers

I, too, am raising an artist. There is a piece of furniture in our dining room with 6 drawers (it was in my childhood bedroom). All six drawers are full of art supplies, plus there are several bins on top with supplies as well. After Christmas, I went through and removed two grocery bags of “extra” art supplies and put them in the basement. I will either use them to resupply the drawers or donate them if the drawers never seem to get empty.

When T was younger, I kept the scissors and glue high enough that H could reach them and T could not. He didn’t color on the walls, so I didn’t have to implement any additional security. But I would have put child proof locks on the drawers if needed.

I have two bins on the bay window. One labeled “Finished artwork” and one labeled “Unfinished artwork”. The idea is that it is a place for work to go when we straighten up. In practice, the “unfinished” pieces never get pulled back out to be finished. But at least the bins give me a good place to put things and when they get full I empty them. We also put artwork brought home from school in these bins.

We have a kid-sized table and chairs from IKEA in the dining room, as well as a folding easel. In theory, all artwork is supposed to be done in those two places, but often it is done on the dining room table as well. (The IKEA table is getting a bit small for H.) Which is okay as long as nothing gets on my table cloth. At the very least, all artwork and supplies stay in the dining room.

Luckystar2

We have a 3 drawer plastic thing from target. Has paper and coloring books in it. I have a fabric tote bin that has crafty things (beads, etc) that sits on top along with a circular plastic basket that has bottles of paints. This is all just in the hallway area near the kitchen.

In the kitchen, there is a nice cupboard on the opposite side of our peninsula. It's small but is perfect for dd's stuff. One shelf has play doh(although it's rarely used anymore). Then I have small plastic bins for markers, crayons, stickers, water colors/paintbrushes. Scissors and glue in here too. Since the cupboard is low enough dd can access everything.

In the kitchen she has a small table/chair set that she sometimes uses. She usually has too much junk on it! So a lot of times she just sits at the peninsula/counter to do stuff.

lala5507

Our coffee table has drawers so 2 of the drawers are dedicated to crayons, coloring books and stickers.  We have an easel in the play room with chalk and a dry erase side.  All other art supplies are in a bin in the basement.   Our 3 year old still can't be trusted alone with art supplies, so we can't really have it self-serve at this point.  I agree, I would love to get that desk that egpitt22 posted but we don't have the room. 

 

lishie

We have an entire closet in our playroom that is filled with shelves containing bins that hold paper, coloring books, crayons, markers, paints, etc. It looks so much more organized than it did when it was just a hodge podge of stuff in that closet.

AmandaJLewis

we have a mess in the bins of her playroom easel of her art supplies, so I am not winning any awards for organization there. But I am ruthless in what gets kept. nearly everything from school is recycled and I only keep what we can display on the fridge or closet door. Unless she wants to hang something in her room it goes into the recycles. it has to be significant to get kept long term.

4EvR&4AlWz

We use the ikea Expedit system. The white skubb baskets go inside and inside the basket are the plastic shoebox things like Emmy said organized by type: crayons, markers, glitter glue, chalk, paint, finger paint, playdoh and then I have 1 skubb box of paper and another of coloring books

smynings_bride

We are trying to figure out what to get too for our budding artist.  In terms of what completed art we keep, I only keep if it has hand or foot prints, except for some random drawings of the family that are cute.  We get 2-3 pieces of art sent home from school every day and I cannot keep up with it any other way.