How to Organize a Craft Room

Every crafter knows that a cluttered craft room can spell disaster for just about any project. Once the mess takes over, you suddenly find yourself without any available workspace for finishing projects, and your favorite crafting tools seem to have disappeared underneath intimidating piles. Eliminate the clutter and keep only what you need to complete all those half-finished projects.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Trash bags
• Paper grocery bags
• Feather duster
• Small and large baskets
• Small and large clear plastic containers with lids
• Drawer organizers
• Cardboard rectangles, about 8 by 10 inches
• Bookends (optional)
• Vacuum
• Computer
• Printer
• Small labels

1. Gather up all of the items stored in and around your craft room and place everything on a table for sorting.

2. Sort every item into piles based on type of craft, such as sewing, scrapbooking or knitting.

3. Designate two new areas near your sorting table: one for trash and another for donations.

4. Review your piles and decide if there are any crafts that you no longer enjoy. Throw away anything in those craft piles that cannot be donated and place everything else in the donation area. However if an item isn't functional any longer, it goes in the trash.

5. Review the remaining piles of crafts, throwing away anything unusable and donating duplicate or unnecessary items.

6. Place everything in your trash pile in the trash bags, and then immediately take them out to your garbage can.

7. Take everything in your donation pile and place it in the paper grocery bags. Immediately load them into your car.

8. Clean your craft area by dusting off flat surfaces and vacuuming the inside of drawers.

9. Organize your fabric by color, and then neatly fold each fabric over a cardboard rectangle for stability and size uniformity. Place the folded fabric in baskets or prop it up a shelf with bookends.

10. Place unfinished projects, organized by craft type, into small and large baskets. Place the baskets on low level shelves near your work area for easy access.

11. Place commonly used tools in drawer organizers, organizing each drawer by type of craft. Large tools, such as a sewing machine, can be placed on top of your work area or stored in a closet.

12. Place your remaining craft supplies into clear plastic bins, organized by type of craft.

13. Type up and print labels and then stick them on the outside of the bins.

14. Place the bins on higher shelves, with the least-used items on the highest shelf or in a closet.

15. Take the items you plan to donate to a local secondhand store or donation center.

Tips & Warnings

• Organize your craft room on trash night. When you throw away everything in your trash pile it will be gone forever by the next morning, and you won’t be tempted to bring any of it back in the house.

[keleia1]

on 9/30/2009 Wonderful ideas. Thank you for sharing!

[SFaloon]

on 7/14/2008 Excellent ideas.