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Is doing an art project your worst nightmare? Are supplies thrown around the house, making it difficult to even collect the right supplies? Do you dream of a stand-alone solution?
Having some creative art supplies available at all times can keep that little one busy, allow the budding artist to flourish or the advanced artist to perfect his art. Read on to learn more about the art station system that worked for our family (and add your own suggestions in the comments below!).
How to organize a family art station
I’ve tried a million and one systems over the years, but this is the one that challenges my kids’ ability to spread art supplies all over the house in a minute! We keep this art station nearby for creative projects at the kitchen table, or when we do something artistic in our homeschool day.
Family organization is still a work in progress, but this system also works for our wide range of ages. Give it a try and let me know what you think! What has worked? What would you change?
Step 1: Get a 10 drawer rolling cart
This is the biggest expense for this project, but also the most important. You need a good quality 10 drawer rolling cart. Don’t skimp on it! This cart will be rolled and used often, so we want something that will hold up.
I still use the souvenir cart we bought at Michael’s craft stores years ago (bought with a coupon of course) and it still holds up well! You can order a similar version on Amazon here.
Step 2: Choose containers
The Cart is the perfect filing system for art supplies, but we need a few more tools to bring it all together. Since I wanted this art cart to be a colorful and inviting space, I used clear, divided containers to add another layer of organization to the cart. To add our color feature and make the most of the small space we use, you will need two these divided containers.
In these containers I can hold over 100 markers / colored pencils / colored pencils or gel pens. Thanks to the dividers, you can even sort them by rainbow, which makes it even more visually appealing. They also have handles – perfect for little hands.
The other containers that I recommend are these little bins. They’re adorable I know, but they also serve a great purpose! You will need a set to divide your media drawer allowing each item to be in an exact place in the drawer.
If there is a designated home, the chances of the kids putting it back where they go increase dramatically!
Advice: Make sure you have your basket before ordering to verify the correct fit.
Step 3: Gather the art supplies
It’s time to collect some art supplies! Chances are you have tons of them in the house already! We gathered the children together and asked them to find all the art supplies in the house. We all want markers, crayons, crayons, water paints, pom poms, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, erasers, rulers…. all.
We used the dining room table as a sorting station and separated them into piles and under piles according to this list:
- Writing utensils – subdivided into markers, colored pencils, colored pencils, gel pens, pens / pencils and others
- Tools – subdivided into cutting tools, adhesives, stencils and more
- Paper – subdivided by paper type
- Books / Kits – subdivided into coloring books, drawing books, stand-alone kits and others
- All Things Sticky – subdivided into stickers, decorative tape, jewelry, googly eyes, foam shapes and more
- Painting supplies – subdivided by acrylic, watercolors, brushes
- Everything else – subdivided by article
Important step: Go through and throw away all unusable items. Markers without cover, small pencil tips or colored pencils, torn stickers, coloring books without usable pages, etc.
Now we are building our Joy Creativity Station!
Step 4: Build your system
Our goal is for each item to have its own home, making it easy for children to use, enjoy, and store. May I have a hallelujah!
Preparation of writing utensils
Start by placing all of your writing utensils in the two separate containers. Depending on how many of each subcategory you have, you can approach this in different ways.
- If you have a large number of markers, put them all in a divided container, sorting them by color.
- If you only have a handful of each subcategory, you can create one subcategory per section.
- Or you can sort strictly by color.
Advice: For younger kids, sort the colors first so they don’t have to wonder which section it is in. The subcategories are meaningful to us, but younger people don’t always understand the difference between a gel pen and a writing pen!
Now place these beautiful colored bins on top of the rolling cart.
Fill the drawers
Then we’ll start placing the rest of our supplies in the drawers.
Advice: If you have more supplies these drawers will fit into those drawers, I suggest purging or creating a rear bin. A rear storage bin is simply a plastic or fabric storage crate / bin that is used to store any extra art supplies in a more remote location. Once every few months, you can check your art station and top up from this rear storage bin. Stock storage allows you to take advantage of all the great deals you find throughout the year without having to know your immediate needs. It also helps kids use the old one before seeing the new.
Label the drawers as follows:
- Tools
- Paper
- Ideas
- Tights
- Technique Mixte
- To paint
- Masterpieces
- Ask first
Drawer 1: Tools– This includes all items such as scissors, hole punches / paper, stencils, large erasers, rulers and glue sticks
Drawer 2: paper– This is where you will store art paper for children to use. You can have a variety of them, or I suggest sticking with a loose media paper that works across the board, or for budding artists, card stock works great, is inexpensive, and easy to find.
Drawer 3: Ideas-This drawer is a spark of the imagination. There should be a wide variety of guided activities in this draw for kids to create and explore. Think about things like Completing this Image, Destroy Journal type prompts, step by step drawing tutorials, color by number, just add pages of water paint, and more. Have 3-5 options for each type of activity and store the rest in the back bin stock. Too many options can be overwhelming and we want to keep it fresh and new by updating / rotating the items in this drawer every 6-8 weeks.
Drawer 4: Self-adhesive tapes / stickers / supplies– This one is pretty self-explanatory, it will have washi tapes, stickers, sticky back foam shapes, googly eyes and anything already tacky that can be added to their art. Use these baby bins in this drawer to make sure it doesn’t get a messy mess.
Drawer 5: Mixed media supplies– Sort all those crafting supplies and put them in their own homes. Think pony beads, popsicle sticks, pom poms, pipe cleaners, feathers, pieces of string or thread, whatever is nifty. Give them each their own baby tray or space in the drawer. To note: Some families may need 2 mixed drawers. Also for advanced artists, this drawer will be very different. It can include Indian inks, ink pads, pastels, graphite, wooden objects, etc.
Drawer 6: Paints and brushes– This one is pretty self-explanatory! If you buy your paints wholesale or have a wide variety of different brands, it can be helpful to put them all in the same containers, something similar. Use these baby bins for your brushes here too. Advice: If you have younger children, mark “Ask first drawer” as shown below.
Drawer 7: Storage of masterpieces– This is where all finished and ongoing masterpieces go after creation. Occasionally schedule a moment to sit down and browse through this drawer with your artist. Send the masterpieces to friends and family, or use one of the these ideas to keep them and display them for the family appreciate!
Drawer 8: Ask first– This drawer is for nifty stuff that tends to be a bit messy. I like to use the bottom drawer for these items because kids tend to not see anything outside of their direct line of sight. This is the only drawer in all the cart they need to ask an adult before using it. Depending on the age of your children, this drawer may hold water-based paints, glitter, glitter glue, slime making supplies, or any other variety of supplies that they should only use with supervision.
As you may have noticed, this leaves you with two drawers for the backstock / overflow or other areas you need for your family. Here are some other options:
- You may want 2 paper drawers, one for plain papers and one for printed and colored papers.
- If you have 2 or 3 children who often use the same station, have a Masterpiece drawer for each of them.
Of course, flexibility is important in any system. As children grow older their needs may change, so adjust this system as needed!
There you have it, your beautiful art cart ready for your artists!
May your family have many creative endeavors together!
Do you have an art station in your house? What are you doing to organize the art supplies?
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