Whether you’re a skilled artisan or a craftsy-artsy wannabe, your chances of enjoying a day of creativity depend on how well organized your supplies are. The larger the collection, the more streamlined you need to be.
Organizing your craft room isn’t the grunt-work you may think it is. Before you finish playing a round of “Rock, Paper, Scissors…Shoot,” your heap will have a home of its own because your imagination is your guide.
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Getting Creative with Crafts
With the current “safer at home” situation likely to last all summer, you’ll probably want to spend some time being creative. Not only is it a great way to pass the time at home, but being creative is good for your mental health as well.
Recommended reading: The Most Important Thing You Can Do When You’re Stuck At Home
There are so many fun arts and crafts ideas to try that it may even keep you busy all summer. Crafts are also the perfect activity to keep your kids entertained. But in order for you and your family to enjoy the experience, you need the space to work. That’s just not possible in a messy craft area or disorganized craft room. I don’t know about you, but an organized craft room or workspace gets my creative juices flowing better than a chaotic mess.
Now, I understand that not everyone has a craft room to organize. But even if you only have a small craft area somewhere in your home, this article will be full of useful tips that will make organizing this space simpler.

How to Organize Your Craft Room or Area
There are four super easy steps to organizing your craft room. These are the same steps involved in organizing basically any room and the process I always follow when facing an overwhelming organizational task. By breaking it down into smaller steps, you make the task more manageable. Plus, ticking each step off your list makes you feel really good and accomplished.
So, let’s get started!
Step 1: Get Rid of Clutter
A craft room is one of those places full of miscellaneous items that can really heap up and get out of control. It ends up being the room where you put all the things that don’t have a place. Or it just quickly becomes a mess as you’re busy turning your creative visions into an artistic reality. Either way, the clutter can soon take over leaving you feeling uninspired in your own crafts room. That’s why the first step is to purge all the unwanted items – anything you don’t actually use or need. As you know, organizing clutter is not a solution, you need to get rid of the clutter and organize the essentials.
Step 2: Evaluate
Regardless, of the size or location of your craft space, to get organized you need to define the area and plan out your space. That means getting clear on what craft tools you have, the art materials you use, and anything else that needs to be organized. When you know this it’s easier to decide where everything will be stored and what organizational items you need to purchase to be able to put everything in its place. Determine what items you could group together into logical categories to keep the order. Don’t forget to leave or make space for you to actually do the crafts.
Step 3: Purchase Organizational Items
My goal with this article is to make it as budget-friendly as possible. So, these craft room organization ideas will suit you if you need to be thrifty. When it comes to organizational items, I always seem to have some extra that can be reused or re-purposed in some way and I encourage you to do the same. Before you purchase things unnecessarily, see what organizers you already have in your home that aren’t being used.
Once you know what you have available, you can decide what you need to buy. Now to stick to craft room organization ideas on a budget, I suggest getting as much as you can from Dollar Tree – this is my go-to store for most things organization. Alternatively, if I can’t find what I need at the Dollar Store, I turn to Amazon for quality items at affordable prices.
Step 4: Put everything in its Place
Now that you’ve determined where everything will go and how it will be stored, it’s time for the fun part. Putting everything back into its place. This is your craft room organization system so make sure that it works for you. Because this is how you will keep it in order when you return to the drawing board. Remember that being organized is all about putting systems in place and forming habits around these systems.

Creative Craft Room Organization Ideas
There are so many different types of arts and crafts that your craft room should have its own unique style. This means that there is an endless amount of craft room organization ideas. Let’s dive into organization methods for different types of arts and crafts:
Sewing Kit Craft Stations
If you sew, knit, or do embroidery then you probably have a huge selection of fabric swatches, ribbons, yarn, safety pins, thimbles, and thread lying around. These items can become a tangled mess and the smaller things can quickly get lost in a messy environment. So creating an organized sewing kit station for your craft room is essential. Here are some handy ideas:
- Wrap ribbons or fabric swatches around a piece of cardboard and fasten it with a ball pin. Not only does it keep them neatly together, but you can even group colors together. These can then be stored together in a clear storage box.
- Store small supplies such as thread, buttons, safety pins, and thimbles in glass or plastic containers. Even a toolbox with lots of compartments is ideal for small items from buttons to needles. This keeps these small items together and when stored on a shelf in your craft room you can easily see what’s inside.
- For quick access to your embroidery supplies keep them in a 3-ring binder with plastic sheet protectors. It’s the perfect solution to keep embroidery supplies, patterns, and prints all in one place.

Paint, Paintbrushes, Markers & Adhesives
For those of you with more general crafting habits, you may need space for a variety of different artsy things such as paint (all types) paintbrushes, pencils, pens, markers, adhesives, and more. There are so many clever ways for you to store these items, so why not try some of these:
- Store markers, colored pencils and pens, and paintbrushes in separate containers to avoid a disorganized mess. Individual compartments for each type of item will make things look neat and tidy. These containers or jars don’t need to be pricey; you can repurpose mason jars, and tin cans, or buy these pencil holders from Amazon.
- Stick wire bins to a piece of wood and hang it against the wall to store paint bottles. This prevents the need to dig around in boxes for paint and gives you a great opportunity to color coordinate. Ensure that the wire bins have a rim. Also, tilt them slightly upwards so that nothing falls out.
- Use plastic kitchen storage container sets like these from Amazon to store your art supplies. The tall containers work well for paintbrushes while the smaller containers are great for paint, glitter, or adhesives.

Arts & Crafts Odds & Ends
Since there is so much variety of arts and crafts items, you need space to organize all those odds and ends you’ll undoubtedly collect as you create. To prevent disorder make sure things are sorted into categories that are logical for your use and work in your craft space. Consider these clever ideas for any random items:
- Hang a pegboard to a wall in your craft room as it’s the ultimate organizational tool. Although it’s usually sold for tools, it works perfectly for art and craft supplies as well. You can decorate it to suit your space and style too. This pegboard comes with hooks and attachments in different shapes and sizes that can easily hold a range of supplies.
- A repurposed pill case is a handy container to store small items such as beads and jewelry making supplies. The individual sections keep these tiny objects ordered and easy to find.
- Use pretty baskets to store larger craft materials that don’t fit anywhere else, such as rolls of paper. Choose baskets that fit the general aesthetic of your craft room and have handles to make it easier to move around. These can be stored on shelves or under tables.

Kids Craft Room Organization Ideas
The kids are all at home this summer which means there is plenty of time to fill. Why not help them stimulate their minds by encouraging artistic endeavors? Arts and crafts are the perfect activity for kids and more preferable than all that screen time. Make sure your craft room organization ideas include a fun space for the kids to enjoy as well. There’s nothing like bonding with your little ones as you create together. Here are some terrific ideas for organizing a child’s craft area:
- Children are more likely to turn to crafts if their supplies are clearly visible and easy to access. Keep a plastic drawer organizer full of paper and use colorful tins or buckets for colored pencils, crayons, and other art supplies.
- Consider using a cubbie to store kids’ art supplies. Cubbies offer a specific space for each supply category so that your kids know that everything has a place so that they can access it and put it back with ease.
- A hanging canvas shoe organizer is also a great option for kids to easily store their art supplies in. This will keep everything neatly together in one place.
- Make a space to hang and display their artwork and creations near their craft area. One idea is to take rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points and hang the masterpiece with a clothespin. You can also let the artwork dry that way. This will instill a sense of pride in their accomplishments and encourage them to keep practicing or try new crafts.

Budget-Friendly Craft Room Organization Ideas
These craft room organization ideas are budget-friendly and super innovative. Really, when it comes to organizing your craft space there is no limit to what you can do. Since it’s your place for self-expression, I urge you to have fun with it. Take these ideas and follow them exactly or use the concepts to come up with your own ideas. The goal is simply to avoid the chaos that craft rooms can accumulate and replace it with a system that inspires you to create the things you love to make.
What’s your favorite craft room organization tip?
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Comments 20
I used to sew most of my own clothes when I was younger, and I still have a supply of different colours of thread, so those jars of thread (that look a lot like some of mine) got my heart going pit-a-pat!
Aww- thread and sewing! What you just said reminds me that I learned all of my sewing skills in sixth grade. We had home-ec. ( Short for home economics.) That’s what it was called. I learned how to sew a knot, in at least three ways, a hem and more. I guess it really came in handy!
Wonderful tips, Ronni! Crafts have been a real “life saver” for many during this time of sheltering in place. When my girls were little, we had craft supplies around all the time. I love to craft, so it was a good option for us. I love the idea of putting small items in those clear, glass/plastic jars. Supplies like threat or buttons are actually quite decorative! Ribbon on a pole is also inspired – easy to use and keeps the ribbon in good shape. Bring on the crafts!
Thank you, Seana. I have my degree in teaching and so I taught preschool for a while. It was a blast and I learned so much about crafts and organizing art supplies. So much of what they do in preschool and kindergarten really works, even for adults.
Loved this blog and ideas and loved the clear storage (glass containers) for “stuff” love thinking out of the box for solutions to storage!!
I love thinking out-side of the box too. I love hanging items like ribbon and tissue paper. I also like to have nearby anything I need to grab quickly.
Wow! This is a fabulous article jam packed full of terrific suggestions. If I had a craft area in my home I would be following your step by step instructions. They are awesome!
That is such a nice compliment Diane, thank you! Crafts is definitely a fun and imaginative project.
Craft rooms have so many small items to organize. I enjoyed reading the many different styles of containers to use so it is easy to find one that best meets the needs of the item and person. I like suggesting to use straight-sided containers. It is easier to keep items upright and the bottom of the items don’t get crisscrossed and tangled. If you buy pre-made icing those containers are great to reuse. They are easy to label, can be decorated and won’t break. Thanks for all your budget ideas.
Thank you, Julie for all your great suggestions. There’s always so much to learn.
The photos in this post make me want to make something. They are just gorgeous- so colorful and bursting with creativity. Some of the happiest projects I’ve worked on have included helping clients organize their craft rooms and art studios. And each time I’ve worked in those environments, it has inspired me to create too. Growing up I took art classes and was always making things. My love of creating continued with going to art school in college. My degree was a BFA in painting. Post-college, I went back to art school to train in graphic design and eventually ended up doing computer graphics. That was prior to my organizing career. These days, it’s rare for me to take out my paints or drawing materials. Instead, my creative energy shows up through writing, photography, making videos, marketing, and organizing with my clients.
You are quite the artist! Who knew that you had all of these fabulous talents? It is true that our artistic and creative passions can flow from one platform to another. It’s so nice that you’ve continued your beautiful Creativity.
Great ideas here for organizing my drawing and watercolor supplies. I also bought a portable art storage box that has an upper section for my brushes and pencils and a lower section for my paints. Makes it easy to pack-and-go if I want to paint outdoors!
Ohhhh! That is so clever. Send a picture when you have it all set up!
Great tips! I love a well-organized craft room. Thanks for sharing. I will be sharing this with my fellow crafters. =)
Thank you! There are so many fabulous ways to organize a craft room. Let me know if you hear anything unique!
These are some great ideas, I am going to have to try some of them. I have to share my craft room with the office for now, so these posts are very timely. Plus, I wish I had these ideas when my girls were growing up. Thanks
Thank you! I’m so happy that you like the craft room ideas. It’s so common right now that rooms double up for dual purpose. There’s always a way to make it work.
My sister is a preschool teacher and she is always reorganizing her classroom! I definitely need to share these ideas with her. Thanks for the tips!
Thank you, Erica! That’s wonderful!Preschool and kindergarten have some of the best organizing ideas that are so inspirational.