How the blazes do I organise all of the kids' arts and crafts crap?

[MaggieFS]

HELP! The house is being overrun. Pens, pencils, glitter glue, gel pens, googley eyes, Pom poms, pipe cleaners, glue, scissors, rulers, felt, the list feels endless.

I need to find a way to store it neatly - compartments or something - but in a unit (for want of a better word) which I can lift in its entirety in and out of a cupboard.

Any bright ideas?

We had a few big plastic crates

Paints / glue / stamps / painting shirts etc
Paper / card / felt (in plastic ziplock bags if you really want to organise)
Pens / pencils / colouring books
Smaller crate with the little bits in - used lots of small Tupperware pots.

Stored in various cupboards including kallax box units.

Fold out storage compartment bags? The kind tradies or make up artists use. There is usually lots of little draws.
We kept all the little things- googly eyes, stickers etc in a tackle box and them put that in the bottom of a big fold out sewing basket thing that belonged to my nan- it was great, so many drawers and pockets

I think if you Google "multi compartment art box" you will see something that would suit for a chunk of it? There are a lot of options in different shapes depending on how much of each thing you want. The most likely option to me looks like a "cantilever carry caddy"

Then I would get a flat box for all paper, card etc (or I use an A to Z A4 expanding file).

I don't necessarily think you'll get it down to one single unit but it might be viable to get it down to 2 or 3.

I've realised I'm imagining a small cupboard, primarily because my house is annoying and impractical and doesn't have any big cupboards really!

If it's a Big Cupboard could you put wheels on a trofast unit and put that in the bottom of the cupboard to be wheeled out when art materials are required?

These trolleys hold loads and are dead handy to roll out when crafting. We have jars for pencils and paintbrushes and little boxes for bits and. I s in the trolley. We also have one which comes with compartments on the side. https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/mint-green-three-tier-storage-trolley/6368961000.html

IKEA plastic crates. lots of them with labels for the different types of craft. shove in a cupboard. only allow one or two out at a time.

Also saw this when I was finding the link which looks handy:

https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/matte-white-rolling-organiser-9-drawers/6511761000.html

Buy a plastic toolbox

IKEA trolley. Larger one.

A toolbox might work well?
If you get boxes, photograph them organised and print out and laminate the photo with a caption saying "this is what I look like tidy" so your children can all maintain whatever system you put in place.
Also, just get rid kf loads of it. You could donate lots of it to a domestic abuse women's shelter or refugee charity, there's lovely options out there.

Something like this, but I'm sure you can find cheaper. Look at Ikea.

https://www.costcuttersuk.com/monarch-mobile-classroom-storage-unit-with-4-quad-trays.html

Reduce the volume. You only need so many pens/felts/crayons etc

Ours is in a massive under bed storage box. I realised I was the only person who cared if things were separated into compartments so I gave up and now just throw it all in together.

Ikea kallax units. Get rid of all the toy boxes and just fill these up.

These are great for crap . I have 3

www.hobbycraft.co.uk/pink-metallic-caddy-33cm-x-20cm-x-15cm/6526171000.html

I just bought a big massive box and shoved it all in there. Out of sight, out of mind.

Big box - something like the toy box/lidded bench type of thing.

Then sealable boxes/tubs inside that - pound shop lock & lock containers. Paints, brushes, glues, cutting and sticking bits, scraps, playdo, crayons, chalks, pencils, pastels, sponges, cutters, etc, etc, all in their own tubs.

Paper and a plastic table/floor cover go down one side on on top, everything gets scooped up into the boxes, sealed and put away in seconds, everything can be found easily without everything over the carpet or the house. Poster paint bottles stood neatly where they weren't about to be knocked over.

Got me through two kids, both of whom went on to do Art degrees of one sort or another in the end, without too much mess - they even took out the newspapers and cover first AND PUT THEM DOWN before starting their own projects when I wasn't directly supervising them.

It all just went 'in the Art Box'.

We use an under bed storage box from Ikea. As a PP says, DC don't care about compartments so we just put it all together and they rootle through.

I had one of those multi coloured stacking trolleys - 'Really useful' brand I think it was

I got a couple of sets of cheap plastic drawers. Could keep it vaguely sorted.

Stick it in the big square file that gets emptied every day.

Thank you all. It would be to go in a normal cupboard rather than than anything tall, so something more like the tool box type things rather than any trolley.

It's interesting to read others thinking they may be the only people who care about things being separated. I'd like to think that's not the case, but that could well be true and I'd get annoyed at always being the one to tidy everything up.

Perhaps in the first instance I'll just do one giant box of doom, and see how we get on, before I spend money on other beautiful boxes.

We’ve got an ikea trofast with 4 drawers and use takeaway containers for smaller stuff inside it. Works well!

I have 2 deep pull out drawers under the TV. In the top drawer I have everything separated in plastic or paper boxes (old takeaway or shoe boxes) separating crayons, markers etc. I have a couple of tall cylinders for writing pencils, pens, and some smaller ones for erasers, sharpeners etc. Most are recycling items. It gets messy and I make them tidy up every now and again. The lower drawer has paints, glues, glitter etc and paper. Paints are standing up in a basket, brushes in a jam jar. It's quite organised now and easily put away. I think its worth investing a little bit of time in organising well, you save so much time on tidying up

It’s not the storage. It’s the system for arts and crafts.

Continually cleaning up is a bit crazy. Just have a day a week, or set hours or whatever, where the arts and crafts come out and then put away again.

And bin the glitter. 😅