Organizing Children's Art Supplies

Do your children have an excessive amount of art supplies?  Mine do.  We previously stored everything in a plastic rolling cart with drawers.  I think I bought that at Target.  It was working just fine, but it was a bit flimsy and definitely didn't have enough space to accommodate all of their stuff.  So, during a trip to IKEA back in April, I bought the Alex 9-drawer unit.  At first we just threw everything in there, but I knew eventually I would want to give each drawer a purpose.  Well I just accomplished that a few weeks ago!  The first step was to label the drawers.  I bought silver Martha Stewart bookplates from Staples and put one on each drawer.  Please do not mind our ugly kitchen floor in these pictures.  I have hated it since moving in 2 years ago, but it still has yet to be updated.  

After emptying out all of the drawers, I organized everything into piles and worked out my categories.  I ended up with crayons (markers ended up in here as well), glue, paint, stickers, tattoos, arts and crafts, coloring books (x2), and activity books.

I used washi tape to cover the white slips that came with the bookplates.  I contemplated using my labeler to label them, but I was out of the clear tape and would have preferred that.  So I just hand wrote on the washi tape with a Sharpie.  

Once that was done, all that was left to do was fill up the drawers!  I am super happy with this and hope that it will help the children keep their art supplies organized and in somewhat decent condition!  We are currently keeping this drawer unit in the corner of our eat-in area in the kitchen.  The kids do most of their arts and crafts at that table, so while it's not the most attractive spot, for now it is the most convenient.

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