Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

Tagged: Daily school supply storage, Organizing art supplies, Organizing craft supplies, Organizing supplies

This topic has 12 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 9 months ago by caedmyn.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

Author
Posts
September 6, 2014 at 5:15 pm
kellywright006
Participant
Hi Everyone,
I know we are all in the same boat with many different drawing and coloring supplies, glue, scissors, rulers…..ect?
Can we please talk about suggestions on how to display it for easy access (and hopefully returning it to it’s proper place)?
ANd for all of you TOGTHER mamma’s out there, could you please post a picture? (Can you even DO that on the forum?) This is one (of the many) not figured out areas, I could use some inspiration in!
Thanks! 🙂
September 6, 2014 at 6:16 pm
Sue
Participant
I don’t have pics, but a few years ago, my daughter’s missionettes class made Mother’s Day gifts, and she covered 3 plastic (empty) frozen juice concentrate cans (about 2.5 inches across & 3.5 inches high) with fancy duct tape, and then they ran a solid color duct tape piece around the middle of all 3 (side by side). She took a permanent marker and wrote “pencils,” “colored pencils,” and “markers” on them to show what should go in each can. It sits on either her art desk, which is next to the computer for school, or on a shelf in our school supply & book cabinet during breaks.
Not super-fancy, but cute & not too expensive. I’ve also seen people cover sturdy shoeboxes from toddler’s or young children’s shoes with pretty, heavy paper and print out cute tags to label the boxes, then put them on shelves to use as nice bins. We also used to purchase those plastic pencil boxes with the hinged lids when they were dirt cheap during back-to-school sales and plastic shoeboxes with lids at the dollar store. You can make those look nicer by applying labels that you or a crafty designer friend has printed out from your computer.
Also, rather than post lots of links, I would suggest searching “organize crafts supplies” on Pinterest to see lots more ideas for containing school and craft items. Although, personally, I think that having some open containers for the most often used items (markers, crayons) on one easily accessible shelf would make everyone (even the youngest) more inclined to put the things back right after use. Somehow, a lid sometimes doesn’t shout, “Throw those pesky crayons back in here…NOW!”
September 6, 2014 at 7:34 pm
crazy4boys
Participant
I store mine in pencil boxes with labels on the ends so they can quickly see what’s inside. I also have 2 baskets for things we use a lot…pencils, scissors, etc. Those have several plastic cups inside so they ‘hold’ the items up. I just used random cups from the gas station, restaurants, dollar store, whatever I had around.
September 6, 2014 at 8:40 pm
joannarammell
Participant
have links to a few pics
but can’t insert them
will if get it figured out
jo
September 6, 2014 at 10:19 pm
Karen
Participant
Welll, I’ve tried a couple ways of organizing. For a year or two, when each of my children had their own desks, they each had their own “school box” with crayons, glue, pencils, etc. in there. That didn’t work too well.
Last year and this year, all the markers are togethr in an open container – out where they can get them. Same with pencils, rulers (and protractors and bookmarks), and a pen cup. All out in the open so they can get them easily and hopefully put them away easily.
The crayons, colored pencils, scissors, etc. are each in a container (those cheap hinged ones that Sue was talking about) on a shelf. Those are the things that don’t get put away. I think Sue’s right – somehow, a lid makes it impossibe to put them away!
And, storing them stacked on a shelf further prohibits the “putting away”. So I need to change that. But I don’t know to what!

September 7, 2014 at 12:14 am
jmac17
Participant
We use a utensil caddy. It holds all our pencils, pencil crayons, markers, gel pens, rulers, scissors, anything else long. It swivels as well. I love it, because it makes everything accessible for several children at. I don’t know where it came from, because it was a hand-me-down from my sister. You could make something similar with a lazy susan base and then several small cans/jars/containers. I might need to look into that, as we could use another.
Glue sticks, erasers, tape, stapler, and other smaller things are in a utensil tray that you would put in a drawer. This keeps them organized, but still freely accessible.
I won’t say that things are all put away all the time, but because the containers are open, it takes just a few seconds to tidy up when we need to.
On the super frugal side, one thing I have done when I have had LOTS of preschoolers in my home daycare is to use empty tissue boxes to hold things like crayons. I just cut the hole in the top a bit bigger, but still with a lip around the top, so they are stackable. Then the kids can each have their own box, but again, they are open and the items can just be tossed in at clean up time. They don’t last forever, of course, being just made from cardboard, but when one gets worn out, it’s free to replace it. This is what I still use in some of my kitchen drawers to keep bag clips, bread bags that we reuse, or other small items.
September 7, 2014 at 3:53 am
Anonymous
Inactive
We have the plastic drawers you buy at Wal-Mart in the plastic tote section. It is small enough to sit on our table everyday, only picked up if we are having company. We keep pens and pencils in one drawer. Another drawer keeps scissors, glue, erasers, and other small items. The 3rd keeps index cards, bookmarks, sticky notes, etc. You might find a 4 drawer system and keep markers and colored pencils in that one. Our markers and colored pencils are kept in a plastic shoe box with lid (also found in tote section at Wal-Mart) and taken out of cabinet when needed. Hope that gives you some ideas.
September 7, 2014 at 7:23 am
Samiis
Participant
Each boy has a workbox cart…10 drawers stacked vertical, in wheels (from back in the day when we did the workbox system). A drawer for each type of supply…one for markers, one for colors, one for paints, etc. No sharing = no silly squabbles. My fave though is from Ikea. Bygel series, orginally for kitchen,, but it’s essentially a metal rod attached to the wall. Plastic cups formed with an edge that hooks over, so they hook on, and hang from the rod….but they also lean so the bottom is against the wall, not free hanging. I keep my general,supplies in them one for Sharpies, one for dry-erase, etc. if I had more space, I’d do more of these….super cheap too!
September 7, 2014 at 3:26 pm
coralloyd
Participant
For scissors, markers, crayons, etc. I got some plastic containers for a $1 at Michaels. Then I put them inside a pretty basket on the school table. Glue and tape are in one of the baskets of our wall of Ikea Expedit shelves that hold just craft stuff. My children are little (a lot) craft crazy. So I have a pretty large basket for the different glues and tapes we own. I might have to seperate the glue from the tape here soon.
September 7, 2014 at 6:48 pm
HollyS
Participant
We use clear plastic containers for most supplies and math manipulatives. I picked them up a Family Dollar, and I like that they have attached lids (that never get lost). I have some in a bigger size as well. I also use some small stackable bins for items like CDs/DVDs and our memory index card box. I picked these up at Dollar General.
We store some supplies in a zip up pencil case (the flat kind that can go in binders). In these we keep: crayons/color pencils (depending on their age), glue stick, scissors, and a couple pencils.
September 8, 2014 at 12:47 am
joannarammell
Participant
Hi,
Here are a few pics, being worth a thousand words and all. Nothing fancy as you can see. But it works great for us. Even little bit can put things away mostly!
The shelving unit I found Spring of 2013 when we moved here at Sam’s I believe for around $100. It has wheels and easily rolls around, too. It has been a very good visual for kids. The gray bins also are easily lifted off and the crayon bin for example sat in the middle of the table!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/015yqred4efsuvj/school%20supply%20organization%20pics%20001.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2056keemz6yo9wf/school%20supply%20organization%20pics%20002.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bbfc8o99w6snghv/school%20supply%20organization%20pics%20003.JPG?dl=0

joanna

September 8, 2014 at 12:56 am
Kelly Bond
Participant
Hi!
I use mason jars and other clear jars or glasses for organizing all of our colored pencils, markers, pastels, crayons, modeling beeswax, etc. I choose the height of the jar/glass based on what will be in it. All are stored on a lazy Susan we keep out all the time on our mulitpurpose lesson/project/game table in our family room.
Each child has a pencil box with the basic pencil, pen, eraser, glue, etc.
Best wishes!
September 8, 2014 at 12:28 pm
caedmyn
Participant
I have a small plastic basket from Walmart (they sell them by the kitchen supplies). It’s maybe 5″x9″. I put empty tin cans in there and a couple of dollar tree purchases of a similar shape, and the various supplies get organized into those. That way they can take a can of markers, for example, out and use that and just put it back into the basket when they are done. I wouldn’t mind having something fancier, but this works and I probably spent $4 on it (actually I only bought the basket for a couple bucks…the dollar tree things were already lying around).