Storage for craft items isn’t always easy – especially for creative souls with a fertile imagination who can’t help but learn new skills and acquire new tools or materials. Being able to find the thing you need as soon as you need it is a crafters or artists’ dream, so we’ve gathered together a few storage ideas that should cover a whole range of crafts.
- Jar and Bottle Organisers: Save your jars and bottles from shop-bought sauces, pickles and condiments as they make great, often decorative, storage containers. You can use them for all kinds of small items like buttons, beads, stitch markers, pens, brushes or a million other small crafty items. Use them just as they are, or customise with glass paints, stickers or fabric trimmings. You could also use tins or cans as well as jars and bottles.
- Pegboard Wall: Hanging a pegboard on a wall in your craft room or studio creates versatile storage for tools, supplies, and materials. Add hooks, baskets, and shelves to customise the layout and keep everything organised and within reach. Experiment with different sizes of pegboard, even filling an entire wall. Paint them up for a coordinated look that matches the décor across the rest of the room.
- Shoe Organiser for Supplies: Hang an over-the-door shoe organiser on the back of a door to store and organise all kinds of craft supplies. It’s great for rolls of decorative papers, circular needles, pens and markers, ribbons, scissors or templates and patterns. Those with clear pockets make it easy to see what’s inside, while the compartments keep items separated and easily accessible. It’s also quite portable so you can move it to a different door for convenience wherever you’re crafting.
- Selective Storage: If you’ve got unlimited storage space, there’s no problem keeping all your equipment and gear at home, but lots of us don’t have that luxury. When you’re trying to figure out your storage needs, consider self storage as one of your options. Moving seasonal crafts, or equipment you’re not using or don’t use often, into self storage means you don’t need to restrict what equipment you can or can’t keep.
- PVC Pipe Storage: Use PVC pipes to create custom storage solutions for rolls of wrapping paper, vinyl, fabric, or ribbon. Cut the PVC pipes to the desired length and mount them horizontally on a wall or inside a closet. Slide the rolls of paper onto the pipes for easy access and organisation. Pipes are available in DIY stores in lots of different diameters, and they’re also handy for things like knitting needles, both straight and fixed circular.
- Drawer Organisers: Repurpose cardboard boxes, small baskets, or dividers to create custom drawer organisers for your craft supplies. Arrange them inside drawers so you can separate and categorise items such as pens, markers, paintbrushes, and tools. If you don’t fancy crafting your own drawer dividers, there are plenty of styles available commercially. A simple cutlery organiser works well.
- Hanging Fabric Storage: If sewing is your thing, try creating a fabric organiser comprising pockets similar to an advent calendar. They look great as wall hangings when they’re attached to a curtain pole (or tension rod if they’re not too heavy), and are perfect for bespoke solutions to yarn storage, sewing notions, fabric scraps or other lightweight items.
- Repurposed Furniture: Upcycle old furniture pieces such as bookshelves, dressers, or cabinets into storage solutions for craft supplies. Add shelves, dividers, or drawers as needed to customise the storage space for your specific craft. Give the new piece a customised paint job to reflect your style and add a dash of inspiration. Repurposed furnishings are also ideal to use in a self storage unit to help keep stored items neat and tidy.
- Pallet Shelves: If woodwork’s your passion, upcycle wooden pallets into rustic shelves for storage and display. Sand down the pallets and add shelves or compartments as needed using additional length of wood or boxes. Use it either freestanding or mounted on a wall to create vertical storage space for containers, baskets, and decorative items.
- Cork Board Organisers: Cover a humble cork board with fabric or decorative paper to give it a quick upcycle, then hang it on a wall in your craft room or studio. Use push pins or hooks to hang tools, supplies, and inspiration photos or sketches. It’s an easily accessible way of creating a mood board that you can quickly change and add ideas to.
Once you find a solution for one problem you often find answers to other problems too. We all struggle to find time for hobbies and passions these days, so just being able to get started the moment inspiration strikes is pure gold. Organised craft storage is the path to those golden moments, so it’s worth a bit of creative effort to get things sorted out.
10 Smart Storage Ideas for Crafty Creatives