4 Steps to Conquering the Crafts

February 14, 2012

As the gods of love and hallmark smile upon us, I’m sure your day will consist of frolicking to and fro delivering and receiving affirmations of devotion. After you’ve finished handing out all your home-made V-day love notes, you’ll no doubt want to put your craft supplies away in a tidy and organized fashion. Here, my red roses, is how:

Step 1. Gather together all your craft supplies.

Step 2: Group like with like so that you can see what you’ve really got; glue with glue, paint with paint, and on.

Step 3: Sort through each category and evaluate whether the items are worth keeping. The first things to go are damaged goods. This includes paints and glues that are dried up, papers or stickers that are crumpled or wrinkled, fabrics, ribbons or thread that are faded or discolored.

Crafting supplies are an exception to the general rule of organizing because spare scraps are still sometimes legal Keeps. Even with that being said, there is still a line at which three inches of mohair yarn is just, well, three inches of mohair yarn. Stray project remains can sometimes be reused, but often are project specific, and don’t score well in versatility. When dealing with such supplies, be careful not to get sucked too far into the “but I could use it someday” trap. Ask yourself, “Will I really use this in a future project?” “How many different projects could it be used for?” Be honest with your answers, and feel great about tossing whatever fails the test.

Step 4: Assign a home. You’ll want to take into consideration how many craft supplies you have, how serious a crafter you are, and how much space you have to work with. The main goal regardless should be to make your supplies easy to get to and easy to find. That way you’ll know what you have, and actually use what you’ve got. So now, the real estate:

Pegboards are a great solution for craft supplies because they are customizable, take up minimal space, and make everything very visible.

You can achieve similar results with a cupboard or small shelves.

If sewing is your thing, then a peg rack is your best bet.

And if stickers are your bag of tricks, then try a file system of some type. A recipe box can work well to keep stickers sorted by occasion and type.

Paper scraps are especially difficult to keep neat. An optimal solution is a binder or portfolio. You can sort by size, by color, by pattern, etc.

Finally, tackle boxes are another great way to keep track of small, loose items.

Hopefully these ideas will help you tame your craft collection once and for all. The better ordered your supplies, the better your crafts will turn out. Unless, you know, you’re just really sucky at crafts, in which case I guess you’re out of luck either way.

Image credits: unknown, acreativemint.typepad.com, Country Livingbhg.com, alkemie.blogspot.com, bhg.com x5, HGTV.com

2 Comments

  1. meggabytes on February 14, 2012 at 9:09 am

    GENIUS. I’m taking these tips and putting some more TLC into my craft closet this weekend!

    • livesimplybyannie on February 14, 2012 at 10:21 am

      Glad you saw this on your own. I was going to bring it to your attention if not 😉

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2 Comments

  1. meggabytes on February 14, 2012 at 9:09 am

    GENIUS. I’m taking these tips and putting some more TLC into my craft closet this weekend!

    • livesimplybyannie on February 14, 2012 at 10:21 am

      Glad you saw this on your own. I was going to bring it to your attention if not 😉

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