by Laura Falin posted in Life & Home

Most of the crafts I share on my blog and this one are pretty simple. They don't involve supplies that are too weird or expensive or hard-to-find. We're not trying to do anything complicated. We're trying to get our kids to explore color or have fun with paint or figure out an awesome paper airplane, and if we're lucky we get some quiet, calmer time in the house, too (well, unless you're doing the airplanes. That can get rambunctious. In a good way.)
So I have a core set of crafty supplies we use over and over. They're in a spot where the kids can get to them, so when I hear the inevitable cry of summer -- "Mooooom! I'm booooooored!" I can direct them to the craft cart. It doesn't always stop the complaining, but it helps.
Some tips on organizing your own craft area:

put things where you use them -- for the longest time, I had our art supplies in a cupboard in another room. We didn't use them as much, and when we did, it took longer to put everything back. Think about where you want kids coloring and painting and stringing beads (in our case: the kitchen table), and put everything there. Make your space work for you, even if it's unusual. Maybe move pots and pans out of a low cupboard and replace them with craft stuff. I moved a cute little plant stand to make room for our cart in the corner of the kitchen.

use what you have for storage -- spice jars work great for beads, or pom-poms, or other small items. Mason jars are ...