A Little Bit of Spring Cleaning

I share my craftroom with my husband. Ok, ok, it is really our office because we both work from home but I like to call it my craft room and by the looks of things it pretty much is!

After looking around and talking to friends I found some good pointers on how to tame the mess. So here are some fun craft room organizing ideas and tips I found. We'll see what ideas I decide to use and how I can make it my own!

CONSOLIDATE When crafting some people stick to crafting in their craft room or area. Others are spreaders. I, personally, am a spreader. So now is the time to gather up the bits and pieces from projects and bringing them back to where they belong.

DECLUTTER Crafters are infamous for having a lot of supplies. Sort through your supplies and decide what you need and what you don't need. You can donate unwanted items to Goodwill, friends, or I've even posted listings under 'free' on craigslist giving supplies to local charity organizations and classrooms.

SORT After decluttering, sort your items by type so you know what your working with. For example putting all your fabrics together or paper in one place.

STORING Now that you know more or less what you have, it's time to find a place to store it all. There are tons of different ideas for storing! You can use plastic bins, metal boxes or cans, baskets, file folders, Ziploc bags, baby jars, whatever you can think of!

Here are some of my favorite storing ideas. My favorites are usually the ones where you don't have to go out and buy a ton of stuff because let's be honest, anyone can go out and buy an amazing craft room but how many people can really afford it??? Not me, that's for sure!

Use baby food jars for buttons or other small items. Don't you LOVE that background?Ribbon wrapped around baggage tags
Soup cans found here to store pens, brushes, scissors...ORGANIZE CONTAINERS Now all you have to do is figure out where to put all the containers. When deciding where to put your supplies remember to put what you use most often nearest to you, making it more accessible. You can put less frequently used items in a closet or cabinet.

I thought the use of these shoe/toy storage containers were very clever!!!


Other tips I found along the way:

Have a place to put new items when you get them, that way when you have time to put it away or use it you can

Consider using shelving or using the walls to more effectively use your space. I found this wall organizer and fell in love!
If you like to work on your crafts somewhere besides the craft room, buy a rolling storage cart. Then you can take your items where you need them while still maintaining your organization.

Take five to 10 minutes at the end of every day to put all the craft items you’ve used back in their proper places.

Leave only your current project out on the table or desk, putting the materials in a tabletop organizer, such as the ones they make for office desks. If you think there’s a chance it could get damaged, stash it too away in a drawer or cabinet.

Since I like to work on, oh, lets say fifty, projects at a time, I like to put my unfinished project in a shopping bag or Ziploc bag with the supplies I'm using making it easy to pull out and work on it when I can.

Good luck cleaning and organizing, I sure know I'm going to need it!!!!