How to Organize Hobby and Craft Materials

Hobbies and crafts can become more of a nuisance than a pleasure when the materials start to take over your space and make your house look more like a junkyard than a workspace of a creative genius. Each hobby comes with its own set of equipment and supplies, but they can all be organized by following a few basic principles. Here are some ways to organize hobbies to make them more productive and relaxing.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper
• Pen
• Garbage bags
• Cleaning Supplies

1. Assess what systems are in place that work. If the system works, don’t change it. If storing all of your model airplane material in the dining room works for you and doesn’t disturb your family’s dinner plans, leave it there. Or, if you’ve developed a system of organizing your sewing patterns in notebooks that never fails you, keep it that way. Just be sure that it is working for all members of your household. Keeping your scrapbooks spread out across the living room floor might be best for you, but your family might be going crazy stepping over it to get to the couch.

2. Assess what isn’t working. Make a list of tools you are missing. Perhaps you never bought a toolbox to hold all of your fishing lures and instead have them jumbled in a drawer. Think about what you spend the most time doing when you sit down to play your violin. Are you always out of rosin for your bow? Have you bought the same cleaning cloth five times because you can never find it? Did you spent the last hour you had reserved for practicing Beethoven’s Fifth looking for your tuner? This will give you an idea of what’s not working for you.

3. Organize your equipment. Start by keeping everything in one area. Make yourself a niche within your home where you keep all of your thread, needles and patterns. It may be as simple as a brown cardboard box under the bed, but keep everything you need to complete a project in the same spot. Then, when you have some time to spend with your hobby, you will only go to one place instead of searching all over your house.

4. Clean the area where you will store items. Empty everything from the space and give it a good dusting. Sort what you have into five categories: Keep, Toss, Give Away, Repair and Recycle. If there’s an item you’re unsure about letting go, ask yourself when was the last time you used it, how often you use it, and if you could borrow, rent or repurchase it if you end up needing it again. Let go of things that are duplicates, damaged, out of date or easily replaced. Once you’ve made the decision to get rid of something, do it quickly. Don’t let your “give away” stack sit around for so long you end up using it as a coffee table.

5. Group like items together. Keep all your stickers in one spot, your stamps in another. Consolidate and compress what you’ve decided to keep. Go for quality, not quantity. Use multipurpose items instead of three separate tools where possible. Alphabetize and sort items by color for easy retrieval. Most importantly, label it and put it away in its place. Set some limits on what you will allow yourself to accumulate in a certain area. If you live in a studio apartment, you aren’t going to have an entire garage’s worth of space for your fishing hobby. Decide how much space you’re willing to let it take in your life, and keep only what will fit in that space. Establish the “item in, item out” rule and for each item you bring in, ship one out.

6. Take some time once or twice a year to reassess the area to make sure it is still working and maintain it.

Tips & Warnings

• If you get stuck and can’t decide how to store your supplies, ask other people who have the same hobby. Chances are, they will have a few good ideas from which you could benefit.
• If you or anyone you know is suffering from chronic disorganization or hoarding, visit the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization at www.nsgcd.org for more information.