Organize your crayons, markers and colored pencils with these cool crafts.
Every year you buy your kids a fresh box of crayons for school. Then you pick up another box (or two!) for home because, hey cheap crayons!
Later in the year, you clean out your pantry/craft stash/junk draw and realize….holy cow…you’re up to your eyeball in crayons, colored pencils and questionable markers.
But you don’t want to throw out a perfectly decent batch of crayons. Even if the black one is down to a nubbin and the yellow one is broken.
No worries mom!
We have the same crayon storage problems, but we also have a few cool ideas on how to tame the colors.
Crayon Storage
We have more crayons than you can shake a stick at! But where do you put all of them? Here's a few ideas...
Minecraft Desk Tidy
Red Ted has a set of free Minecraft printables you can stick on cans to keep all your art supplies organized.
DIY Crayon Caddy
Let the kiddo help organize their own supplies by making a Crayon Caddy. This one was made by a mom and preschooler from cardboard tubes and a tissue box.
Plastic Canvas Pencil Crayon Holder
Now we're getting fancy! Stitch up a custom color caddy from plastic cross-stitch squares.
Perler Bead Colorful Crayon & Pencil Holder
Make a Perler bead box for each color of the rainbow (or crayon box) and glue together into a desk set.
Rainbow Crayon Holder
Get a little more snazzy with paper decorated cans. It's easy to keep your colors separated with this system -- and it looks great!
DIY Crayon Holder Carousel
Spin your crayons round and round! This daddy label several clear tumblers by color and placed them on a lazy Susan.
Simple Ways to Organize Kids Craft Supplies
Use stackable drawers full of baskets and containers to hold ALL. THE. SUPPLIES.
Art Cart
Place your crayons (and all those other materials) in baskets and load up a rolling cart from IKEA. This is great for supplies you don't mind keeping out in the open, especially if you have a play room, craft room or corner of the house where the kids keep their supply out.
Could I just Buy a Crayon Organizer?
Well of course you can! Crayola always has something cool to hold their massive collections of colors…but remember you’re buying the CRAYONS too. This post is more about rounding up all the loose crayons you already have in your house.
A Note on those Awesome Art Boxes
Mitch is quite the artist, which means he’s received several “complete art kits” for birthdays and Christmas. These kits are pretty tempting: 64 crayons, 40 markers, a boat load of paints…
But here’s something we noticed. The bigger kits are often so large when you open them up that a kid can’t reach all the colors when sitting down.
Some kits contain things you don’t want your 5 year old using just yet — oil pastels, yikes!
And what happens when you break the blue crayon…go buy a whole new box?
Nope. The best thing you can do is avoid the kits. If your child gets one as a gift, have them say thank you. Take a picture of them using it to send to grandma (or whomever set it) and then junk the box. Dump all the crayons into a nice tub or crayon caddy. Store the paints in safe place.
Then recycle the kit into a holder for paper or Hot Wheels.
