Organizing Art Supplies

Our homeschool places an emphasis on creativity. This means there’s a plethora of art supplies for our children, and for this mama. Some of the children have their own art supplies, and other supplies belong to the family. This is how we currently organize art supplies as a part of our homemaking skills.

Restoration Era on the History of Liberty Timeline

Providential History

What does organizing art supplies have to do with the Restoration Era on a history timeline? It has to do with restoring order. This begins with our thinking (internal), and putting it into practice (external).

God is a God of order, and we practice reflecting that attribute in our home. This is an important part of character training. When we choose to live in an orderly fashion, these good habits carry into other areas of our lives (i.e. studying, working, home economics, etc.). Additionally, it has to do with Christian self-government—governing ourselves under God as we honor His Principle of Orderliness vs. the opposite Principle of Chaos. Organizing our art supplies is just one way of practicing orderliness in our home.

Organizing By Kinds

As our family has grown so have the art supplies we’ve accumulated. The following is a list of the kinds of are supplies we tend to have on hand:

• Acrylic paints (liquid, pens)
• Chalk pastels
• Crayons
• Gesso
• Glue (hot glue, glue sticks,
• Markers (alcohol-based, water-based, permanent, washable)
• Masking fluid
• Masking tape
• Oil pastels
• Light tables
• Paint brushes (acrylic, watercolor)
• Paint mediums
• Paper (acrylic, mixed-media, scrapbooking, watercolor)
• Pen (ink, paint, permanent, washable)
• Pencils
• Scissors
• Watercolors (cakes, creams, liquids, pencils, markers)

Tools for Organizing Art Supplies

We use pencil containers for many of our children’s and family’s art supplies. They’re easy to stack, and we can see through them. We like seeing through through the containers vs. dealing with labels. That said, we don’t bother with stacking markers on markers, crayons on crayons, etc. But we do keep kinds in containers with their kinds. By the way, sorting is also a math skill.

A book shelf is dedicated to pads of art paper. Student-grade art paper sits adjacently to the profession-grade art paper.

We have two zones for art supplies. One is for the family and the other is for my work. Having these two zones establishes boundaries about who uses which art supplies, and keeps things orderly as well.

The Family Zone

In general, we keep family art supplies in the main area where we do our lessons. This is logical and allows for easy access to the supplies. For these supplies, we use a white cabinet. The top portion holds the containers of supplies. The bottom portion contains a basket of watercolor pallets, and a bag of family paintbrushes. Containers of homemade play dough made their way in this space as well.

My Work Zone

We store the more professional-grade and personal art supplies in a separate room. For easy access, we use stackable acrylic wine bottle holders that cost about $1.25 each. Super budget-friendly, practical, and they display the art pens beautifully. Plus, it’s a great way to utilize the vertical space between the bookcases and shelves above, which also store some art supplies.

A stand-up art desk, in my personal creative work space, features some pretty jars containing particular paintbrushes and pens. My husband built shelves to go under it. These shelves contain art supplies, as well as a variety of boxes containing special paint brushes and other materials.

My husband also built a special shelf unit that stores and displays a variety of jars for water. This collection consists of jars ranging from fifty cents to about three dollars. Most are on the lower cost end, and have been collected over several years (garage sales offer some real beauties). It’s one of my favorite features.

Every family’s budget is different. And budgets can vary by seasons of life. With creativity, savings, patience, and practice, pleasant and practical organization tools can prevent overwhelm and chaos.