Gets worse, before it gets better - Making Piles
SO… as usual our lives take over, our schedules go hay-wire and the first to suffer is our (seemingly) nicely organized art area. Primarily it’s because it is right by where we enter the house from our attached garage, so everything we are holding as we enter gets dumped there, likewise, as we leave the house everything the kids are holding gets dumped there as well. Our intention for this area was for our older daughter Julia to have an arts and craft area to herself (emphasis on herself) where she can write in her journal, draw, color, etc. without us worrying about Stella (22 months of energy) getting in her way.
The Dreaded
We started with really thinking through what needs to be in the area – her art supplies, craft supplies, her artwork, and if there is room, a small cubby for her ‘going out and keeping busy’ items – crayons, coloring books, note pads, markers, her Leapster, etc.
What to get rid of – ahhh executive decisions!
1. Incomplete (ie. unusable) craft kits
2. Glue/markers – anything that have lost their caps and WILL DRY OUT
3. Semi-dried out play doh — ugh
4. Sentimental half done crafts or ‘Art’
We then sorted everything into piles. Our piles:
– craft items – subdivided into complete kits (ie shrinky dinks, magnet sets, etc.) and craft ‘ingredients’ – ie. eyes, puff-ball thingies, pipe cleaners, stickers, etc.
– art items – brushes, paint, fabric paint, glitter glue, finger paint
– paper differing sizes and color
– toys (yeah they got in here)
– take out/car trip arts and crafts (small boxes of crayons, small tubs of playdoh, etc.)
– one tote for our 22 month old’s stuff…
We emptied out EVERYTHING! All our little drawers and pen holders – in short, things we thought would help us keep organized but didn’t. We ended up with (believe it or not) FIVE different empty organizational containers that we didn’t need anyway.
I am embarrassed to say, it took us about two weeks to do everything, so yes, we lived in our mess for a while. With two active girls to feed, clothe, bath, read, play, etc., our time is limited and honestly letting them ‘help’ is NO help 🙂
The grand unveiling of how it all turns out is in the next post… Stay tuned!!!
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CraigslistDad 
That’s awesome that you were able to end up with extra storage containers! The art supplies are overflowing at my house too – I am continually throwing out half-filled coloring books. I found these containers (http://www.justplasticboxes.com/boxes/Craft-Storage-Containers) and was able to use multiple ones of the same size for a consistent look. How is her space holding up?