Keeping Your Craft Supplies Organized - Arts & Crafts 101

There's nothing more annoying than going to look for a craft supply and not being able to find it. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to keep your supplies organized and ready for use.

I have lived in some pretty small places, and had to live out of boxes. It can get pretty annoying when you're a crafter and you need to be able to get to supplies so you can work. However, there are some simple steps you can take to keep your craft materials organized and easy to get to.

1: Keep your supplies organized by use. For instance, keep all your painting supplies in one box, beading supplies in another, tools in another. Even if all you have are cardboard boxes, you can label each one and keep similar supplies together to minimize your need to dig for the thing you're looking for.

2: If possible, keep all your supplies in one room. Try not to have your craft supplies scattered all over the house. If you keep everything in one room you'll have easier access. If you must keep supplies in more than one room due to space restraints, try to at least keel them in just one section of each room, and not all over the place.

3: Always put things back in their place, and make sure others do too. Once you have somewhat of a system set up fro storing your craft supplies, always make sure to put things back in their place, and if you let other people use your tools and materials, make sure they put things back too. It doesn't do much good to have an organization system and then leave tools and supplies all over the house or toss them back randomly.

4: When storing supplies in containers, try to use clear ones so you can see what's inside. If you can't get clear containers, be sure to label all opaque ones so that you'll know what's inside them without needing to open each one and look through.

5: Over time, start buying large storage units. Wal-Mart and other mega-stores sell multi-drawer storage units, some of which are stackable. As money allows, start buying containers to store your supplies. Each drawer should be dedicated to a particular type of supplies. For instance, I have one here where the top drawer is patterns and instructions, drawer 2 is thread and ribbon, drawer 3 is miscellaneous bits, drawer 4 is tools, drawer 5 is beads and beading rigs, drawer 6 is more beads and drawer 7 is crochet supplies. This way I always know what drawer has what supplies, and I can get to them fast and easily. If you have a lot of supplies, you can dedicate each unit to a type of supplies, like one for painting materials and one for jewelry crafting materials.

If you follow these simple steps, it'll become much easier to get to the supplies you need, when you need them. The less time you waste looking for the tools you need, the more time you can spend actually doing something with them.