Wash Tubs , Play Dough Containers & Shoe Hangers - a Few Clever Craft Storage Tools

by Traci Anderson | More from this Blogger

31 Jan 2007 12:32 AM

I have always been an avid crafter. I love to paint, create with clay, draw and build. Needless to say, I have a pretty chaotic craft room, or as my husband not-so-politely calls it...a "crap" room.

My craft room became even more cluttered when my daughter turned three. She definitely got my crafty...(and slightly disorganized) genes. Suddenly my already crazy craft room was also filled with preschooler essentials like coloring books, crayons, beads, buttons, tissue paper, and left over toilet paper rolls.

In an attempt to regain order, I came up with a few creative ways to store all of the stuff we were continuing to accumulate. Here are three quick ideas;

Vinyl Shoe Hangers Aren't Just for Shoes: Since I am not much of a shoe-collector I had two unused clear shoe holders hanging in my closet. I decided to stuff the clear vertical pockets with paint brushes, paper, stickers, extra markers, tissue papers, chenille sticks, scissors, colored pencils, and other craft items. I hung the shoe bag on the lower rack of my pantry within reach of my preschooler. Now, whenever my daughter gets the urge to create a chenille stick spider or a toilet paper roll musical instrument, she can grab the supplies on her own.

Dish Tubs Can Help You Create Inexpensive Craft "Stations": Dish tubs are the perfect size to store coloring books, play dough tools and other odds-and ends. Even better, they are extremely inexpensive (about $2.00 each). We used the tubs to create "craft stations" in my kitchen pantry. We keep all of the play dough, rollers and other tools in the play dough tub. In the paint tub, we have watercolor paints, brushes, acrylic paints and miscellaneous pieces of wood. The collage and scrapbooking tub is filled with stickers, coloring books, an extra scissors, glue sticks, leftover magazines and duplicate photos. Now, we simply pull out a tub of related crafting tools for each type of project we want to work on.

Don't Throw Away Those Color Coded Play Dough Containers: If you have preschoolers, you are probably knee-deep in play dough. Since my kids haven't quite learned to put the lids on tight enough, I usually just have lumps of colorful rocks in cute yellow containers.

Play dough containers make wonderful "go-cups" for snacks. If you are really organized you could actually pre-sort your snacks using the colored lids. For example, blue lids = crackers, red lids = Cheerios, orange lids = gold fish, purple lids = fruit snacks. The containers fit perfectly in purses, backpacks and vehicle drink holders too. You can also use these containers to store smaller craft items like beads, macaroni, google eyes and other odds and ends.

Do you have any clever and crafty uses for everyday products? Post them in the comments section.

In the meantime, enjoy these related articles...

Key Chain Crafts for Kids The Lasting Power of Play Dough Make Your Own Gift Tags

Traci Anderson is a Home Biz Blogger. Read more of her blogs here

Learn more about Traci Anderson

Traci is a work-at-home-mom (WAHM) from beautiful Big Sky Country (Montana). She spends most of her time trying to keep up with two extremely energetic (but hysterical) Irish twins.

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