Crayons and paper and scissors . . . Oh my!
If kid craft clutter is making your house look like Nightmare in Munchkin Land.
If you find your house slippers are covered in ruby red glitter.
If you hope there's no place like YOUR home, then.
Perhaps what you need is an organizing Wizard? Okay . . . enough of the Wizard of Oz parody!
Seriously though, every kid should be encouraged to be creative and enjoy arts and crafts. Despite the obvious benefits of keeping your kids entertained, childhood development experts agree that there is an actual benefit to children participating in arts and crafts. The benefits include: muscular development, general health and overall intelligence.
Extensive research has shown that children, who receive art lessons while they are still very young, grow up to be far more creative and imaginative as adults.
I guess this means you need to know how to draw a box before you can think outside it?
It's not true that a messy area is the sign of a creative mind. In fact, research proves that living in chaos and clutter can actually hinder creativity, not help it.
Here are my tips for a well organized kid crafts area:
- Have a special place for crafts (if space permits)
- Have a place to store the different kinds of art and craft supplies
- Make the supplies available and easy to get to
- Make it easy for the kids (and you) to see what they have
- Make it age-appropriate and safe
- Make it easy to clean up
- Make sure the kids have clear rules about clean up when they are done
I don't recommend letting kids craft in their bedroom because of the obvious mess as well as the potential lack of safety supervision. If you don't have sufficient space in your home to set aside a special craft corner, then make your craft supplies mobile so you can carry them around. The kitchen table is a great space to craft.
You can spend a lot of money on specialty products to store art and craft supplies. If you have the money to purchase these, great! However, if you're on a tight budget, you can use less expensive items or re-purpose things in your home.
Need some ideas?
- Use empty, clean vegetable or coffee cans and spray paint them in your favorite colors. You can personalize them by painting the kids' names on certain cans and labeling them for pens, crayons, etc.
- Old canning jars make handy storage for yarn, string, stickers, buttons and other loose craft supplies.
- Look around your house for small containers (plastic containers, baby food jars, etc.) for craft storage
- You can even use the cardboard paper towel roll for storing ribbon and lace. Get creative!
The best rules for storing kid crafts are:
- Make it fun
- Make it colorful
- Make it accessible (easy to get out and put back)
Using a little creativity and imagination, you and your kids can enjoy fun, peaceful times together building memories while creating and still maintain a decent amount of order and cleanliness.
Kid Crafts - How to Tame Craft Clutter