Organising your arts and crafts materials

Arts and crafts with your children, a bit of DIY, the odd semi-professional creation, what a lot of materials to be stored away! How can you organise your arts and crafts materials in a way that’s both logical and, if possible, pleasing to the eye? You can find out all you need to know in this article.

Essential step: sorting out

Begin by sorting things out properly. Remember that you must be able to find any item in less than 50 seconds, without having to move everything around. And, of course, you shouldn’t store anything on the floor.

You should throw out pots of dry paint, markers that don’t work any more, pieces of sticky back plastic that are too small to be used and so on. Only keep what’s actually usable and in good condition.

The basic materials

In almost every case you’ll need shelves that are adjustable in height. Of course, some items and tools are very long, others are heavy and others are fragile but cumbersome; you’ll have to adjust the height of your shelves so that you can easily reach what you put on them, whilst optimising the available space.

To make your storage space look attractive, restrict yourself to a single colour; I propose white, which always looks clean, and you’ll never grow tired of it.

I suggest buying a labeller; by putting labels on the storage boxes you’ll immediately know what’s inside them, and this will help you to put things away after an arts and crafts session with your children, for example.

You need storage boxes that close to keep out dust, the children and the cat, but also open storage containers that are easy to get into for the things you use often.

Divide and rule

Arrange the materials together by type of activity: items you use for painting, items you use to do large projects, items you use for sewing, etc.

Arrange the items together by usage within each of these categories. For example, brushes, pallets and paint pots. And string, toilet rolls and paper clips.

When you’ve finished arranging these groups you’ll get a better idea of the sizes of the storage containers you’ll need. This will also enable you to see if have stored the same type of item in several different places.

Organising each category

You should store everything heavy (patchwork, tools, clay, etc.) in plastic boxes with lids on the bottom shelves. Advantages: the items will be protected from dust and difficult to open by curious little hands and, finally, the contents won’t fallout, preventing clutter. Choose storage boxes from the Infinity range which are easy to carry and which fit perfectly on any kind of shelf. They’re nestable and stackable. Essentials boxes also have lids and are transparent. Don’t forget to put adhesive labels on the boxes (children love using the labeller).

Store all lighter items on the top shelves. For example, cardboard or anything on rolls. For other items you rarely use and want to store high up, you’ll find Essentials useful again; as they’re transparent, they allow you to see what’s inside them.

Place what you use most often at a height between knee and shoulder. Choose the Infinity range again for these items, because it has pencil pots or cups which fit perfectly into the larger boxes. It’s up to you whether you give your children free access to these materials, in which case you should place them at their height, or you may prefer to supervise their work, in which case the height you store them at is less important.

Finally, I suggest you remove anything you don’t use regularly from your worktop. Just keep the items you use all the time (scissors, glue, tape, markers, and so on) in the Infinity cups and baskets.

Create even more space

Don’t think twice about putting up a shelf on the wall above your desk and installing backup illumination, like a spotlight.

To make more room, you can also:

• Hang a honeycomb panel on the wall, having previously painted it in a colour you like: it’s amazing how many things can be hung on it.
• You can also use the Curver drawer unit with its transparent drawers.

Finally, don’t forget to put a bin in your arts and crafts area; it will always come in handy!