How to Keep your Kid’s Craft Area Neat & Tidy

Guest Blog #73, Entry #518, May 9, 2011

Your kid’s rooms and play areas should be inspiring and help your kids be creative! The challenge with craft areas is the ability to keep it fun for the kids, but still keep organization and a tidy work area for little hands!

Today, Ashlee McClung from izzyshare shares great ideas for helping your kid’s craft area stay neat and tidy. Visit izzyshare and their blog –  little izzy for a wonderful community to share children’s rooms ideas and get inspired for your own youngsters.

Help your kids keep their craft area clean and organized

Image courtesy of House to Home

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Ashlee McClung

Keep your kid’s creativity flowing with an inspiring place to make and create! Here are some tips on creating and maintaining a craft space for your little ones.

Keep it Tidy

I know this is way easier said than done. I’m guilty of using something and not putting it back where it belongs.  It doesn’t take but a couple more seconds of your time to return something to its original space. Maybe I’ll get the hang of it one day.

A clean space will be more inviting to keep your kids coming back and creating more!  Make it easy to put things back into their place like the picture illustrates below. I love the idea of using a pegboard in a craft room.

The pegboard allows you to keep your go-to items at your finger tips and also increases the chances of that item being returned to its original spot.

The pegboard is so versatile; you can set them up to best meet your needs. I also like how the pegboard keeps items off the table to allow for a large and clear work space.

Organization

I’m not exactly sure why but storage containers are one of my favorite things about organizing. Walking down an organization isle of any store instantly makes me happy! You can get really creative in this area of the organization process. You can use baskets, tubs, jars, and other everyday items for storage. I especially like the simple idea of using a muffin tin to hold crayons, markers, scissors, and other craft items.

Since my husband and I are renting an apartment until our home in Alabama sells, I have turned the top of our dogs’ kennel into my craft area.  Just to give you some creative storage ideas, here are some storage solutions I use for my own supplies.

My husband and I design prints and always have frames on hand, usually in a pile on the floor. On our last trip to IKEA we bought the silver frames you see above. We thought it would be great if we could take the box the frames were in from the store home to better store the frames. The box has little slits that help the frames stand up nice and neat. The kind people at IKEA let us take the box and now we can store the frames and keep them off the floor.

This is a coffee container that I just wrapped some scrapbook paper around.

This is what our drinking glasses came in that we purchased from Target a few months ago. I loved that it had the cardboard separation inside of it so I just wrapped some fabric around it and used tacks to hold the fabric in place.

I use old cereal boxes to hold my tissue paper.

Here are some additional storage tips:

• Keep storage containers close to the ground for kids to easily access.
• Use clear containers so it’s easy to find items.
• It’s a good idea to label so everyone knows where everything goes. For the little ones who cannot yet fully read, use pictures along with the words for them to easily decipher what goes where.
• IKEA has several affordable and great storage solutions for kids. If you don’t have an IKEA close by Target and Wal-Mart also offer great storage items at a good price.
• Don’t want to purchase storage containers? Shop around your house and I’m sure you’ll find some great storage solutions.
• Don’t forget to stop by the dollar store! I have found great storage items for my classrooms there before!

“A place for everything, everything in its place.” — Benjamin Franklin

Make it Fun

Make the craft room an inspiring and fun place! Ever wanted to use a fun or bold color but weren’t sure about using it in a common room in your house? A craft room is the perfect space to use fun colors and patterns.

I love this magnetic board. Similar to the pegboard concept I described earlier, you can arrange supplies however you would like.

What little girl wouldn’t love this pretty and pink craft room?

Check out the below craft room! This one is one of my favorites!

Not sure what direction or theme to give your craft room? Get inspiration from your kids! Use their favorite things to help design the room. Get inspired by their favorite:

• Books
• Movies
• Toys
• Places

Show it Off

Last but not least, provide a place for your children to display their work. Displaying your child’s art shows you value their work and helps builds their self-esteem. Plus having your child’s art up will allow them to view and reflect on their past work and will hopefully motivate them to keep on creating.  I’m in love with the below picture: half display wall, half chalkboard. What a great idea!

A more simple way to display art would be to use the method below. My husband and I actually bought the wire rod displayed below from IKEA to display our own art. We love it! Of course you could even just use a thick sting material and two hooks to get the similar feel.

With a little creativity and effort, you can create a wonderful space to allow your child’s inner artist to bloom. I hope you will be able to take some tips and ideas with you to enhance or create a craft space for your little one. Thanks for reading!

Meet izzyshare here. Ashlee’s other post on Stagetecture.

Ashlee McClung is a former teacher meshing her love for education and design. I graduated with an elementary education degree and taught first grade and Kindergarten for three years. While planning my classroom designs I would spend much of my time searching on the Internet for classroom ideas that mostly led to sites with pure text or links that had me all over the place. I wanted one place that was full of pictures. That’s when the idea for izzyshare began to form.

I wanted to enroll into an interior design program after high school, but instead I played it safe and went into education. You see, I am from West Virginia and I didn’t think I would be able to find a job in interior design. There isn’t exactly a booming interior design business world where I am from.  I never thought I would move out of my home state. I wanted to stay safe and sound tucked into the hills of West Virginia.  I met my husband in high school and what do you know, we end up leaving West Virginia a month after I graduated college.  We now live near one of the biggest cities in the country.

No could of, should of, would of here. izzyshare has allowed me to peruse my passion for design.  I now work full time on izzyshare, which has come a long way from its humble beginnings. izzyshare is a place for anyone who wants to find and share design ideas for kids. izzyshare has grown into a community of educators and parents who have the same love for design and know the importance of providing positive environments for children. Feel free to stop by. We would love to have you!

Ashlee McClung:

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