Storing Craft Supplies!

As Greyson grows so does all of his “stuff”. There are toys all over, he has taken over three drawers in our dining room hutch (play dough, and two craft drawers) he has Do-A-Dot markers on his easel in his bedroom, etc,etc,etc…
A part of getting ready for Preschool at home was getting much more organized. I wanted a dedicated craft supply area for all of Greyson’s goodies.
I decided to turn part of our unused kitchen pantry into a craft closet.
We have two small(ish) pantry’s, and the one below is underneath our staircase.
It was ugly, but functional for snacks.

To give you a sense of just how tiny the space behind the food storage tower is here is a little rendering. It is SO SMALL back there.

Also remember that it is under the stairs so the ceiling is sloped. You cannot even kinda-sorta stand up. Greyson might be able to stand up along the back wall but not for much longer! It is small, but that does not mean it cannot be useful. The first thing I did was paint it. It needed to be crisped up a little bit. I used the same paint that we used in our entry way. It is a very light yellow. It instantly made it look so much cleaner and brighter.
After painting, I threw up three shelves. Two along the 28.5” wall and one along the 33” wall

Now came the really fun part. Sorting through all of our craft goodies, and even doing a little shopping. To really organize something you need to know what you have, and how much you have of it. I pulled out all of his crafts from all the nooks and crannies in our home; and threw them onto the dining room table.

Then I got to sorting, and searching the house for containers that would house all the supplies.
I went to AC Moore, and purchased the two small wooden crate for $2.00, and two plaques for .89. I created a sticker label for the plaques and adhered them to the small side of the crates. One holds the paint, and the other is for Do-A-Dot markers.

I did the same for our Do-A-Dot markers. I know there is glue in the crate as well. But, I happen to know a little boy who will be getting a huge assortment of Do-A-Dot markers for his 3rd birthday.

While out shopping I came across some cute little buckets for $1.00 at Wal-Mart. They are perfect for holding foam alphabet stickers, dry erase markers and an assortment of paint brushes.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words I am going to just go ahead and show the after photos with all the craft goodness organized on the shelves.

For those wondering what we have in our craft supply repertoire we have:

• Pom-Poms
• Markers
• Colored Pencils
• Leap Frog learning pencils
• Paper clips
• Googly eyes
• Dry-erase markers
• A whole basket of stickers
• scissors
• lots and lots of paper (both construction and cardstock)
• Do-A-Dot markers
• Liquid glue
• Glue sticks
• Tempura paint
• Paint brushes
• Hundreds of crayons. We have hundreds because of Greyson’s 2nd Birthday party. That and I cannot seem to pass up a box of crayons for .05.
• I also have the white container on the floor that holds egg cartons, plastic containers pretty much an assortment of items that might be used to craft with.

And since I could not just stop with the area behind the pantry, I decided to break out some pretty pantry liner and re-line the shelves, and paint the trim a crisp white.

I still need to put some paper in the front of the rolling organizer to disguise the spices. Maybe I will get to that this afternoon…. or not.
Anyway one last photo, because everyone likes a good side-by-side.

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