Organizing Children's Art Supplies

When one of my best friends moved to Vegas a few months back she asked me for some ideas on how to organize all of her kid's art supplies in their new house.  I snapped these pictures of our art supplies for her - visuals are always nice.  I thought I would share these photos today for anyone else looking for ideas.  First of all I have to say that my house has very VERY limited storage space.  Does that stop me from buying art supplies?  Of course not, I am obsessed!

When I organized my art supplies there were a few things that were important to me.  I knew that clear containers would be a must so that my kids and I could easily find what we were looking for.  I also wanted them to be very accessible so I put them in our play room on the built in bookshelves.  I used to have all of our art supplies in my kitchen cupboards because we get into them quite often.  However, that just wasn't working since I ran out of space for things that belong in the kitchen.  The play room seemed like the best spot, and that is where my kids are most of the time anyway.  We have built-in bookshelves along one of the walls and I use the top 2 shelves across the wall for the art supplies that I do not want my kids getting into themselves.  That way I do not walk into the playroom and find a million little sequins and buttons all over the floor.  I also keep some art supplies lower that they can have free access to.

 These glass containers with the chrome lids are from IKEA's kitchen department.  I LOVE them.  These ones are big enough to store my different play dough tools.

These art containers with the colorful lids below were bought from Pottery Barn Kids.

  

The large container with the textured rollers and paint brushes is from Target.  Like I said I love clear containers and this one is cute and affordable.

My new favorite container for storing art supplies are these ones below from Lakeshore Learning.  They are only a few dollars each which is great since I have about 20 of them!

I keep many of my tiny things like googly eyes, buttons, sequins, jewels.... in canning jars with lids.

I pull out my children's art books pretty often so I keep them accessible in these cute organizers from IKEA.

I also like IRIS brand containers like this one my play dough is in.  They look nice and clean.

I keep most of my children's paint in this treasure chest on a shelf in the play room.  I need to upgrade to gallon sized paints though and I have no idea where I will store them.

One of my favorite new products is this art caddy from Pottery Barn Kids.  It sits out on our kitchen table or counters to encourage my kids to draw.  Sure enough it gets used everyday.  It also just looks better than having a mess of pencils and markers all the time.  I can't seem to find the link for it on their site but I am going to keep looking!

I do not consider myself an expert organizer by any means.  If you have any organizing tips for me send them my way!