The Organized Homeschool Challenge: Art and Craft Supplies

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My husband challenged me to get our home and school organized, and share it on this blog. He knows I wouldn’t let you guys down, and I LOVE a good challenge, so I’ll be tackling all our worst Homeschool messes, and hopefully will have a nice clean house right in time for the new school year!

Join the conversation on Facebook and send me pictures of your organizing messes and solutions! We’re in this together, and I would love to support you as we all get organized! You can also follow along with our Pinterest Cleaning and Organizing Board for lots of inspiration and cool tips to get your home ready for school in no time.

Last week, we straightened up the Kid’s books, and hopefully yours are looking nice and orderly now! This week, we’re taking on another trouble spot- the Art and Craft supplies. I included things like pencils, crayons, and those day-to-day mess making art supplies too, so it was a HUGE challenge for me.

Remember how it looked last week?

Arts and Crafts

Cringe worthy, right? And to be honest, this is only half of the mess!

Check it out now!

The Organized Art and Craft Closet

This project took us a lot of time, I won’t lie. I put all the kids to work sorting the mess into piles- even my little one was able to stack pencils, pens, markers and crayons in a pile together. Once we had done that, I scavenged our home for containers. At this point, I realized I had more in those stacks then I had room to store, so we tested all the markers, and threw away any that were dried out. We pulled out broken pencils and other items that had turned to junk. I also unpacked all the markers and pencils that were still in their original (read: excessive) packaging so they would be smaller and easier to store.

The next task was determining which containers were the right size for the job. My plastic paint can containers are the perfect height for pencils, and also are big enough to hold the stacks of crayons I have. The top is a wide enough opening to allow little hands to dig for their favorite color. It was a match made in heaven, so that was easy!

I found square pencil holders, but I wanted to make them more sturdy and easily portable. I used strong double stick tape to attach them to a very small cookie sheet I had no practical use for. The awesome thing about this set up is that I could fit the rulers down the center.

Little Glass Jars and Baby Food Jars held the tiny odds and ends, like page labels, paper clips, rubber bands and chalk.

I used banker boxes to sort the glue, felt, markers, and other goodies.

Everything ended up with a place:

How to organize all those art supplies

Cookie Trays to hold school supplies

The Process (So You Can Get Organized Too!)

1. Round up the mess
2. Enlist help of all kiddos, and sort items into piles

3. Find containers

4. Weed out wore out, broken or unneeded supplies

5. Decide what items go in which container

6. Store Like items, and items used together, together

7. Keep materials used frequently in reach

8. Enjoy an organized supply cabinet!

Next Week:

I’m tackling my unused and unneeded curriculum. I have some materials that will be used later in the year, or next year, or (because I have a used curriculum addition) in 3 years. I have materials I’m wanting to pass on to Mr. Man, and materials I really don’t want in my house. They have piled up, and I really need to dig in! Wish me luck!

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2 Comments

  1. I did same awhile ago! However, I sorted my pencil colors according to color and those that didn’t have many like colors I still kept them together similar to the color chart. I went as far as putting a rubber band around them. They are all in a basket so I can easily transport them. Hardest part is when the grands come over and color but they know they have to sort them when they are done or they aren’t allowed to use them!! LOL!! I’m a mean grandma!! They are getting older (8, 10 and 16) so they have learned to be more responsible. Besides I change the work every time they come!

  2. I love the tray you made – might have to try that because what we have know doesn’t work that great. Enjoyed seeing your organization! AND CONGRATS because I know how hard it is to do!

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