School of Decorating

Decorate with Confidence and Create a Home You Love

  • Free Class
  • Videos
  • Blog
    • How to Decorate
    • Simple DIY Projects
    • Life Tips
    • Success Stories
    • Our Home Tour
  • Classes
  • About
  • Contact

What’s In the Arts and Craft Bins?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, on purchases made after following an affiliate link. See my full disclosure here.

July 20, 2011 By Jackie

I bet you are just dying to know what we keep in all those bins in the arts and crafts storage center!  Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but I know I am curious nosey like that…so I thought I would share.  First let me note that we did not purchase anything specifically to fill up the bins.  To fill them up we:

  1. Relocated supplies the kids already owned into one central place (before we had crayons in the pantry, markers in the cupboard, chalk in the garage, etc.)
  2. I donated items from my own craft stash (scrap paper, leftover project supplies, unopened supplies I bought and never used)
  3. My mom went through her stash and made significant donations (she had craft supplies leftover from when I was a kid…almost vintage pom poms and pipe cleaners)
Let me break the whole storage center into sections and show you what is in each.
In the lower green bins, we keep the “safe” items.  These are items I don’t mind if the kids play with or grab on their own.  They are not dangerous and do not have the potential to make a huge mess.  Here are the lower bins:

 

Kids Craft Storage
The blank envelops and notecards are great for quick notes to Grandparents or making birthday cards for friends.  The stencil drawer has all kinds of fun for learning to draw shapes.  These all came from my personal stash of stencils (and now I just borrow them from the kids).  The stickers are a collection of leftovers from scrap-booking, party favors, and prizes.  They are good for a quick quiet time activity.

 

kids craft storageKids can use up a lot of paper.  We put all the colored paper we could find in this bin.  In a separate bin I added all the smaller pieces and paper scraps.  This continually gets refilled by scraps from my own paper projects.  The bound sketchbook and grid paper are great to grab on the go.

 

kids craft storage
This first bin has large cardboard sheets (from packaging, backs of notepads), plastic grids (I learned how to cross-stitch on these as a kid), and food containers (that I am sure might turn into really cool bongos on a rainy day).  The wood bits are a lot of fun.  Between my mom and I we had everything from mini clothespins to mini baskets, and wooden shapes.  The yarn and ribbon get used a lot.  You never know when you will need a bit of “string” for a project.  My mom donates her leftover yarn scraps from knitting and crocheting.  I add leftover ribbon when I am done with it.

 

kids craft storage
Newspapers and magazines are great to keep on hand for collages and letter hunts.  Cardboard tubes and egg cartons are easy to come by on a weekly basis.  We keep the ones that are in good shape.  The peat pots and paper mache ball ornament were leftovers from other projects.  One day the nanny helped the kids make a train with mini serial boxes and attached the bottoms of two peat pots to make the smoke stack for the front of the train.  I am pretty sure the googly eyes, pom poms, and pipe cleaners are vintage.  My mom found these in her basement, probably leftover from craft projects when I was little.

 

In the upper bins I keep all of the dangerous or messy items.  These are up high and require an adult to take out for the kids to use.  This really helps keep from getting crayon drawings all over the wall.  These bins are also smaller and perfectly sized for holding containing smaller items like hundreds of crayons.  Here are the contents of the upper bins:

 

Kids Art Supply Storage

 

Finally, above the upper shelf I added more storage for additional odds and ends that did not fit in the bins.  For example, you can see the paint bin is stuffed with no room for brushes.  No problem I corralled the brushes in an easy to grab bucket on the top shelf.  Here is whats on the top shelf and what’s inside those small tupperware containers:

 

Kids art and craft storage
Kids craft supplies

 

I hope this view into how I organized my kids craft and art supplies while inspire you to make an arts and crafts storage center of your own.  It is fun for the kids to have their own “stuff” to use and for it to be easily accessible and still easy for me to clean up.
Also, check out the newest addition to the storage center: flash card organizers.
Previous Post
Striped Half Bathroom
Next Post
Color in the Cupboard

Comments

  1. Bek says

    August 3, 2011 at 11:32 pm

    Brilliant!

  2. Kelly says

    February 9, 2012 at 3:30 pm

    I think this is great. I have been looking for ways to organize our small homeschool room, and this is my favorite idea.

  3. Angela R. says

    February 29, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    Love this! Thanks for sharing! I’m a 4K teacher at Christian school and have been trying to figure out how to have a small free-art center. I think this is it! Thank you!!

  4. Dale says

    May 30, 2012 at 1:27 pm

    LOVE IT! great job.

  5. Sharalee says

    January 21, 2015 at 9:46 pm

    I am wondering if you can help me out with the inner measurements of these drawers? Trying to plan and hoping to make some Smart Store inserts from The Container Store work with these, but can’t find the inner dimensions of the drawers!

  6. Shellini says

    March 12, 2015 at 1:30 pm

    Thank you! Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for to organize my kids supplies. I wanted something sturdy and not flimsy. A trip to ikea it is and it’s perfect. Thank you so much! Very helpful. Right now I am using older strange bins for this but things are falling out of the bins onto the floor. Not good!

  7. Clearice says

    April 27, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    This is so perfect for the space I have, thank you for the inspiration. I already have all the items in my Shopping List on IKEA. Quick Question, where did you get the wire bins?

    Thanks!!

    • Jackie says

      April 29, 2015 at 8:08 pm

      Clearice, The wire wall bins are from the closet section at The Container Store. I think they were meant to hold shoes?!

Hi, I'm Jackie. I believe you are the best person to decorate your home and I'm here to help.

I teach online decorating classes to help you create your dream home. Click on the images below to learn more about each class.

Take an Online Decorating Class

Best for beginners!

12 Class Bundle!

Get a free copy of my book
Free Decorating


Start reading now...

Follow Me Here

Categories

  • How to Decorate
  • Simple DIY Projects
  • Life Tips
  • Success Stories
  • Our Home Tour
I believe you are the best person to decorate your home. You just need a dash of courage and a dose of decorating know-how. That's why I created School of Decorating.

I know how frustrating it is to feel like failure at home. I also know how amazing it feels when decorating finally makes sense and your home reflects you. I want to share what I've learned so you can create a home you love without years of trial and error.

Get a free copy of my best-selling book Free Decorating

  • How to Decorate
  • Simple DIY Projects
  • Life Tips
  • Success Stories
  • Our Home Tour

© 2018 School of Decorating
 · Terms of Use 
· Privacy Policy
 · Disclaimer




This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.

Necessary Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.