Keeping art supplies organized is easy once you draw up a plan.
By Ann Springer
Parents everywhere rejoiced when washable art supplies hit the market. No longer do you have to line your kitchen table with newspaper before you can let your kids create a masterpiece.
Children love to create their own masterpieces and there are endless products on store shelves to help these budding artists. If you’re not organized, you may find that no matter how many boxes of Crayolas you purchase you still find yourself searching under couch cushions looking for half a dozen crayons when your child wants to color.
Not only does this waste time and money, it also means you’ve got art supplies loose in your house that could potentially damage furniture or walls. Here’s my plan to keep unauthorized art projects to a minimum.
1) Isolate all of the art supplies to a limited area. For older children, I recommend keeping all art supplies on a desk with shelving. The desk can double as a place to do homework as well as craft projects. For younger children I recommend a small table for them to call their own. Keep art supplies out of arms reach but make them available upon request and with supervision. This should keep glitter glue and Play-Do out of your carpet and onto the places their intended.
2) Organize the instruments. A lazy susan with sorting bins – like a repurposed kitchen tool from Pampered Chef – makes a great art caddy. It spins and has small slots for items to be sorted like crayons, markers, pencils and scissors. When you remove the items from their original boxes and pool them together the kids have everything they need at their fingertips. Another bonus to creating a caddy is it’s also portable if we’re working on a larger product and we need to relocate to the kitchen table.
3) Toss it in the trash. Placing a trash can near the desk or table is a great way to keep pencil shavings and wads of used paper off the floor. If you give them easy access to the trash they’re more inclined to use it.
