Great Craft Storage Ideas

As I mentioned last month, I got back into quilting at the first of the year so with that comes stacks and stacks of material and supplies. Trying to keep things in some sort of order helps me enjoy my crafting so much more. I hate spending time searching for lost items.

I did lots of reading on storage ideas this month and thought I'd share some of those with you. Since most crafting comes with lots and lots of supply requirements we could easily become overwhelmed without a plan.

It seems clear plastic storage containers in all sizes wins hands down as the most favorite method of storing anything from stacks of fabrics to small supplies. This is great for those who are visual and want "to see" their supplies. Sometimes though even with the clear boxes it may be hard to see what's inside. Here was one creative solution:

Cut very small swatches of each piece of material stored in a box and staple it to a piece of paper which is then placed in a clear document protector. This protector is then attached to the box. It's them easy to see what's really inside and you just remove the small swatch when all the material is used up.

Now that things are stored in the plastic containers what do we do with all the containers? Here are some ideas:

· Place them on shelves, (all kinds of shelves) on the wall, bookshelves, makeshift shelves inside converted closets

· Pile them one on top of the other on the floor near your workstation

These plastic boxes are great also because they're lightweight and can be carried anywhere.

Tackle boxes and tool chests (the kind with wheels) seemed to come close in behind the clear boxes as a great place to store all those hobby supplies.

Used cookies tins and old tennis shoe boxes (labeled, of course) were other ideas for storing supplies. I used old tennis shoe boxed for pictures. I either keep them in the picture envelope they come in and mark the contents and date/dates (usually I have film in the camera covering several months and different events) and then I just file them in the box. They are extremely sturdy and can be covered if you want to set them out for display. I know.....I went down a little side path.

My favorite idea with all this reading was making copies of the table of contents of your magazines and putting those in a three ring binder for quick reference. That way when you want to find a pattern or idea you wanted to try you don't have to search through all your magazines. You can go right to the magazine you need. Of course this does mean you'll need to keep those magazines in some sort of logical order so you can put your hands on them. Old laundry boxes can be cut to the same shape as those pricy magazine holders you buy at the store. Just label the boxes by magazine title and year and up on a shelf they can go. Out of the way but accessible.

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