Are you a craftaholic with a craft room overflowing with supplies? Do you spend more time searching for materials than actually crafting? You’re not alone! Many crafters struggle with storage, but with a little creativity and planning, you can transform your craft space into an organised and inspiring haven. It doesn’t need to be a whole room, any space with good lighting that’s comfortable will do the job.
Repurpose and Recycle
Before you buy new storage containers, look around your home. Many everyday items can be repurposed for craft storage. Ideas include:
- Glass Jars: Perfect for storing buttons, beads, sequins, and other small items. Label them clearly for easy identification.
- Tin Cans: Decorate empty tin cans with paint, fabric, or washi tape and use them to store pencils and pens, or crochet hooks and needles.
- Shoe Boxes: Cover shoe boxes with decorative paper or fabric and use them to store larger items like yarn, fabric scraps, or tools. They’re also handy as small project (knitted socks?) boxes in the house.
- Egg Cartons: Ideal for storing small items like beads, buttons, or findings.
- Plastic Containers: Clear plastic containers are perfect for storing craft supplies that need to be protected from dust or moisture.
Wall-Mounted Storage
Maximise vertical space with wall-mounted storage solutions:
- Pegboards: Incredibly versatile, pegboards can hold a variety of tools, supplies, and even small containers. They don’t stand out much from the wall so are also ideal if you want chairs or tables close to them.
- Floating Shelves: Provide extra surface area for displaying your favourite crafting supplies or storing larger items. They look neat and are available in range of finishes so they’ll look as good in the living room as they do in a dedicated craft room
- Magnetic Strips: Perfect for storing metal tools like scissors, tweezers, or needles.
- Hanging Organisers: Use over-the-door organisers or hanging fabric organisers to store yarns, ribbons, or other long items including circular knitting needles.
Drawer Organisation
Whether you’re using an actual chest of drawers or putting those plastic drawer towers to good use, you can keep them organised with these simple ideas:
- Drawer Dividers: Use drawer dividers to separate different types of supplies, such as buttons, beads, or embellishments.
- Small Containers: Use small containers or boxes within drawers to keep items neatly organised and easily accessible.
- Label Everything: Clearly label all containers and drawers to easily locate items without too much rummaging.
Other Storage Ideas
Invest in some storage solutions designed specifically for crafters:
- Rolling Carts: Provide mobile storage for your most frequently used supplies.
- Craft Storage Boxes: These boxes are designed to store a variety of craft supplies, often with dividers or compartments.
- Cardboard Boxes: The humble but sturdy cardboard packing box has multiple uses, plus they’re stackable so easy to store items you may not need every time you’re feeling creative. Paint them or decorate with fabric for a little personalisation.
- Yarn Storage Solutions: Consider yarn bowls, yarn holders, or yarn organisers to keep your yarn tangle-free and organised.
Purge Without Culling
When you’re a total craftaholic, one craft hobby is never enough. Your interests may range from woodworking to metalwork, sewing to spinning, or painting or weaving. You know how it is. And all these different interests need their own set of equipment which rarely comes cheap.
Plus, they tend to run in cycles, with today’s passion giving way to something different in a month or two.
Instead of keeping all that space-hogging equipment at home, why not look into a logical alternative? You can rent a self storage locker for a few items, or a proper storage unit if yours is a larger collection.
Regularly Tidy Up
Having put some thought and effort into how to keep all your craft supplies organised, make it a mission to keep it that way. Put everything back where it belongs when you’re done for the day, wash the brushes, empty the water jars, put pens and pencils back in their container and generally clean up your crafting clutter.
When you come back tomorrow you can pick right up where you left off without having to clear a space or hunt for a needed tool. Perfect if you like to snatch some crafting time out of an already busy day.
Happy crafting!
