How To Declutter Kids Craft Supplies & Equipment
Today's mission is to declutter kids' craft supplies and equipment in your home, so your kids (and you) can enjoy crafting without a mess.
This mission is designed to be done during the week that we focus on the Craft Organization Challenge, which is one of the 52 Week Organized Home Challenges.
Of course, you can also do this mission whenever you feel like your kids art supplies, crafting tools or equipment, or anything they use for pursuing their hobbies starts to get out of control in your home.
A big sign that suggests it's time to tackle this mission is when you dread it when your kids want to make an art project, or want to do a craft, because it'll take a huge amount of times just to gather all the supplies together.
Another sign it's time for the mission is when you and your kids have to move around and try all kinds of supplies that are old, used up, or dried out to find anything that works.
Finally, it's time for this mission if you and your kids really do enjoy crafting of one kind or another, but you don't have much room to do the actual projects because you've got so many supplies that take up all the room!
What Types Of Craft Supplies & Equipment Are Included In This Mission?
I've purposefully made this mission very broad, and it can encompass any types of kids' art supplies, such as markers, crayons, paints, construction paper, as well as craft supplies and hobby equipment, for basically any type of hobby or craft you can think of, from glitter, yarn, pipe cleaners, pom poms, glue, fabrics, paint brushes, coloring books, thread and floss, ribbons, buttons, googly eyes, modeling clay, scissors, and more.
The sky's the limit on what your kids can use for making arts and crafts, so the sky's also the limit for what types of things this mission can include.
Look around your home. You'll know what for you is applicable today.
How To Declutter Hobby & Craft Equipment & Supplies For Kids
Today's mission, focusing on kids' arts and craft supplies, is really a continuation of yesterday's Declutter 365 mission, where I asked you to declutter your own craft supplies and equipment.
If you haven't already I encourage you to read yesterday's mission article, because the same basic principles will apply for today, and so I won't repeat it all here.
Just like all the other missions we do, I want you to first focus on your own clutter, and then once you feel comfortable and have been a good role model, you can turn to help others in your household who also have similar clutter.
That's exactly what I want you to do with your kids craft and art supplies clutter as well. Until you're willing to get rid of some of your own crafting clutter, don't expect it of anyone else in your household.
Once you're ready to do this task, make sure to involve your kids in the process, assuming they're old enough, and frankly, if they're old enough to be doing any types of arts and crafts, they're old enough to help you sort and decide what to keep versus what to get rid of, at least a little.
Why is involving them in the process important? First, treat others as you'd want to be treated. You wouldn't want someone else to come in and just start deciding what of your stuff is going to stay versus go, and they won't want that either. Respect that, and include them in the decision making process.
In addition, use this as a learning experience for your kids. The skill of decluttering is one that will serve them well throughout life, so they might as well learn how to do it now!
When you involve your kids in the process of decluttering these items, you'll also learn things about them in the process, which can strengthen and deepen your relationship. Naturally, as part of the process, you'll need to ask questions like, "do you enjoy this craft?" And you'll learn what they enjoy making and doing (that is more likely something you'll keep) versus what they find boring or repetitive (that is more likely to be clutter to get rid of).
Also, to avoid resentments, let them help make the decisions about what stays or goes. One of my favorite techniques for this is to say something like, "we have room to keep as many craft supplies as will fit in this box," (or whatever your container is), and then they can start to make the decisions about what they prioritize to keep. If it gets full, then say something like, "I'm sorry, but that's all that fits. You can fit what's in your hand into the box, but you'll have to take something else out first to make room."
You may find this mission overlaps a bit with the decluttering school supplies mission, as well as the decluttering pens and pencils missions. That's OK! I've got links to those missions below, in case you want to expand your decluttering to include those items today as well.
Photos From Declutter 365 Participants Who've Already Done This Mission
Here are quite a few photos sent in by readers who've already done this mission, to show you their results, and hopefully inspire you to tackle this task today.
First, here's a before and after photo from a reader, Melissa, who said of the before photo, "The craft/school supply cupboard needs some work." She clearly put in that work, because the after photo shows an amazing transformation!
Often kids arts and craft supplies will overlap in function with kids' school supplies, especially when they're younger. Kids will be able to use certain supplies and equipment to both do their homework and also make their own crafting masterpieces during their playtime.
Therefore, many of the ideas for decluttering and organizing these craft and school supplies will also overlap. You can get more tips and ideas for organizing school supplies here.
Here's another photo sent in by a reader, Amber, showing off the kids arts and craft storage area once it was decluttered and organized.
Lots of kids' art supplies include things like crayons and markers for drawing and coloring, just like Amber's storage area does.
You can also work on the similar Declutter 365 mission of decluttering pens and pencils here when you're working on markers, colored pencils and crayons, if they're all mixed together in your home.
Finally, here's a photo from a reader, Annabelle, who decluttered and then organized her son's craft supplies and equipment in a rolling cart.
These tiered rolling carts have so many wonderful organizing uses around your home. You can get them here:
Rolling Storage Carts {Referral Links}
Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!
Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.
The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!
Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.
Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.
In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.
If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!
You can check out lots more missions to remove kids clutter from all around your home here.
In addition, here is a round up of over 60 craft storage solutions and organizers, for many types of crafts and hobbies, to get your supplies, tools, and equipment organized and ready for you to use and enjoy (referral link). Once at my store scroll down to find this list.
Some links on this page are affiliate links, meaning that if you purchase a product through them I receive a small commission which helps me provide this information to you for free, plus support my family. My integrity and your satisfaction are very important to me so I only recommend products I would purchase myself, and that I believe would benefit you. To learn more please see my disclosure statement.
Related Pages You May Enjoy
Getting Rid Of Craft Clutter Hall Of Fame
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I would love to hear from you, sharing your thoughts, questions, or ideas about this topic, so leave me a comment below. I try to always respond back!