Spring Cleaning: Your Arts and Crafts Supplies

Spring cleaning often conjures up images of hectic scouring and dusting your home from top to bottom. But spring cleaning doesn't have to be all drudgery. There are some fun aspects to this time of year as well. Cleaning and organizing your arts and crafts room, or area where you do these hobbies, can be a fun and exciting time to go through all of your unfinished projects and come up with new projects for the rest of the year.

To get a start on your arts and crafts spring cleaning and organizing, you will first need to access the room or area where you keep your craft supplies. You will need to decide if everything works well for your usually work habits, or if any structural changes need to be made. Is your work area large enough? Do you have enough shelf space? Any major changes that need to be made should be considered before you begin the tasks of cleaning and organizing.

Next, you will need to remove all of your materials and supplies to a temporary location while you clean tables, shelves, cubbies, and any large equipment that needs cleaning. Once the major cleaning is done, it's time to reorganize your arts and crafts supplies.

You should now group together all your supplies from different categories. Put all of your paint brushes and other painting supplies in one area, your polymer clay materials in another, any sewing supplies in another, and so on. Don't put anything away yet , however. Keep a notebook handy, and write down any items you are need or are getting low on.

As you are going through your crafting supplies, you will probably come up with ideas for new projects, or find old half done creations you had forgotten about. Write these down in your notebook along with your needed supply list, so you won't forget any good ideas .

Once you have all your supplies grouped by category, you can then determine where everything should go. But before you begin to put your arts and crafts supplies back, you should look for any items that need to be cleaned, such as paint brushes, jars or anything else. You can clean items as you are putting all of your materials back into your work area.

As you go, toss any glues, paints or other materials that are no longer usable. You can also set up bins to keep together materials from any current projects you are working on, so you will have them together when you want to work on any specific project, without having to go through your supplies each time you want to work on a certain project.