Nov. 6, 2014

Craft Room Cleanup

Craft Room Cleanup and storage solutions  |  intentionandgrace.com
After moving into our house last year, our spare bedroom became a catch-all for stuff I wasn’t ready to unpack, junk I didn’t know what to do with, and craft supplies. Every few months I would take an hour and clean it up the best I could, but it always seemed to get back to a state of complete madness and messiness that slowly started to consume the whole room. It was so easy to just throw things in there, shut the door, run away and hide, and not think about it for a few weeks. See below. Yuck! Before and after craft room storage cleanup Before and after craft room storage cleanup

But every time a project would come along and I’d find myself standing at the kitchen counter sewing for hours, or stretching the hot glue gun across the living room floor to reach whatever needed glueing that day, I would think to myself, “This is ridiculous. You just burned yourself twice! Get it together and clean up that awesome room over there!” So finally I did. It has been a work in progress, and still is, but it’s SO nice to have a space to work in at home now!

Because this isn’t a space I work in daily, I didn’t want to spend much money on cleaning it up; it just didn’t seem practical. So when I came across these great white storage shelves at a garage sale for $5 each, I snatched them up, knowing they would work great to help get things off my floor and organized.
Garage sale craft room storage
And boy, did they help! I’ve seen so many pictures of great craft room storage solutions like here, here, or even a great closet solution here, but finally having my own is seriously like a dream come true, as cheesy as that is. It’s one of my favorite places in our home and somewhere I can really go to be creative.
Garage Sale craft room storage
Along the way I tried to repurpose things I had around the house to make storage more convenient. These are all things you can do in a space as large as mine, or something much smaller like a hall closet.

For wrapping paper, I took an old tin planter that I was no longer using and simply stacked them inside. It works great, and I love that I can see them all at a glance so it’s easy to know which paper I want to use.
Wrapping paper storage solution
If you’ve been to the Dollar Spot at Target, you probably have a bunch of adorable little things lying around like I did. Twine, tape, stamps, small frames, etc. all got jumbled up in a drawer or box before, but I took this jewelry organizer from my closet and utilized all the little pockets. This allows me to see each item individually without rummaging through a box or drawer to find it. I think that I actually use these items much more efficiently now that they are displayed this way, because I don’t forget that I have them!

It’s not pictured well here, but beside this display, I have a door shoe hanger that I used in college. It has much larger pockets that I use for things like feathers, straws, tulle, etc. that are larger. These pocketed systems are seriously great, and I bet many of you have them lying around in your house too. If not, I see them at places like Marshalls or TJ Maxx all the time for less than $10.
Knick nack storage solution ideas
For ribbons I took a layered pant hanger from our closet. It is designed to hold several pairs of pants at once, but because it opens at one end, I was able to pop the bar off and slide ribbon on instead. Now I simply pull some out to the length desired and cut. So easy!
Ribbon craft room storage solution
This is one of my favorite (and prettiest) storage solutions by We R Memory Keepers. I pretty much use Washi on everything—gifts, mail, packaging, or labels—I can just grab a piece of my favorite shade at any time. Plus it spins. It’s just the coolest.
Amazing Washi Tape storage solution Amazing Washi Tape storage solution
I have always wanted to display thread in a beautiful rainbow of colors like this pretty picture, but since I couldn’t find something in my budget as beautiful, I simply got this raw thread spool at JoAnns fabric and spray painted it white. It was under $10 with my weekly coupon, and I just used some paint I had lying around from other projects. It’s nice to see all the colors I have at a glance, because each time I started a new project in the past, I would grab some thread to match, unsure if I already had some at home (which is why I have four navy spools).
DIY thread storage
One of my favorite pieces in the craft room is this great IKEA STALL shoe storage container. If you don’t have one, I highly recommend it! We used it at our previous house for shoes, but now it is repurposed to hold all my spare fabric. I just roll it up and drop it in there and I can easily see what colors I have by pulling a drawer open. So great!
IKEA shoe rack for fabric storage
I think it turned out very functional and useful, and I love that I no longer have to sew while standing.
Overall craft room and office storage solutions IMG_9024

I did add a couple extra pieces to my desk to give it that girly, glam feel I wanted. My favorite one is probably this amazing acrylic tray from Tiny Prints. I had been searching for one for months, but they were either not the right style, didn’t have handles (which was a deal breaker for me), or were some weird color that wouldn’t work in my space. I was thrilled to find that Tiny Prints offered customizable options, but instead of choosing a single photo for my design, I created something myself and uploaded that to be printed. I was able to get exactly what I wanted and couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

If you don’t have the design tools like I have available, places like Veer, Shutterstock, or iStock all offer downloadable patterns and images that give you a greater variety of options than most custom companies offer on their on.

DIY striped cork board Custom Tray design from Tiny Prints

My big splurge was this acrylic chair from Amazon, but I treated myself because, how can you resist its beauty, right? Plus it’s actually super comfortable, and I feel better about life when I sit in it, if we’re going to be honest. ;)

Acrylic Chair knock off Acrylic Chair knock off

Please share some of your storage solutions with me. What is your favorite craft solution?

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