Industrial strength arts and craft organizer

January 14, 2023 11:29 AM

Got any links for a pretty good sized arts and crafts organizer? Amazon, Michaels, Target, Walmart, Joanns, Costco, wherever. I need it to hold and manage paintbrushes and small paint sets, pencils, crayons, paper, baubles, buttons, odds and ends, cardstock, glue, staplers, paper cutting tools, scissors, the works.

It would be cool if it opened up in a creative way but mostly I just want to have something to hold all the arts and crafts stuff I’ve accumulated. $200 tops, and would rather stay in the $100 range. If you own it and its supercool but over 200, show me anyway.

posted by cashman to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (12 answers total)

I have two Ikea ALEX drawers. I have them set up with an 8 foot countertop on top to serve as my big desk of everything, but even just the drawers themselves are great for my art supply addiction. For the organizers inside the drawers I've just got the ultra cheapie containers from the dollar store. It works really well for me. I really love my desk setup and it's basically the only thing in my house that's organized and stays organized.
posted by phunniemee at 11:54 AM on January 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

I have the same thing as phunniemee as my office desk, but for our craft room we used a mix of smaller stacking drawers plus a shelf with open baskets -- because three shallow drawers and one deep drawer on each side couldn't never tame our supplies & tools.

So if you build a desk like that, either hang a shelf above it or give it a vertical plane that you can hang more stuff on.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:05 PM on January 14, 2023

I find my creativity enhanced by a space without a lot of stuff visible, so I like to encapsulate things inside boxes. I've gotten a number of these wooden boxes (similar item at JoAnn Fabrics, you can also look at Target) and they're pretty good. I also have a labeler, so I can put very easy-to-read labels saying what's inside each box (I make three labels per box, one for the top, front, and side, so I can stack them in any orientation and still read a label).

I've also had success buying an old dresser and putting stuff inside the drawers. I love this solution.

However, if you want to be seduced by a giant organizing cabinet with many many cubbies, and don't mind white particle board-type furniture (I think you can see I'm not into this thing and I think it's a trap, but I'm trying to be open-minded here), there's the DreamBox.
posted by amtho at 12:20 PM on January 14, 2023

I have a couple of Ikea Helmers for various crafting supplies. They're metal and while the drawers don't glide as smoothly as Alex you can completely remove them. They also do ok with a lot of weight and were super popular for ppls giant nail polish collections yrs ago.

If you like the dreambox idea there are a lot of hacks for making versions w/ikea pieces on youtube.
posted by oneear at 1:12 PM on January 14, 2023

Go on FB Marketplace and search “cabinet” and “drawers” and “ikea” and see what comes up. Most Ikea stuff can be found secondhand for about half price. The best desks of my life have been the same as described above - two small ikea drawer units with a tabletop or even an old door laid overtop.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 1:14 PM on January 14, 2023

I use chrome industrial shelf units (sadly from Uline, before I knew they were terrible, but here's something similar from Wayfair). The shelves are adjustable. I store supplies mostly in clear, stackable Samla plastic boxes from Ikea with removable labels that don't leave adhesive behind. Definitely doable with a $200 budget.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 2:49 PM on January 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Ikea ALEX drawers in my experience so badly with storing heavy paper and/or frequent use. Metal is what you want for intense use in a cabinet, something made for an office. I keep my smaller bits in various plastic or metal toolboxes from the hardware store, much cheaper than the equivalent from a craft store.

Pick up a small easy label maker and keep it in the top drawer or next to the supplies - having labels makes a big stash usable.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:35 PM on January 14, 2023

In case you are looking for something that is portable, I have a big tackle box that has held all kinds of jewelry supplies for years. It was probably under $50 in the 1990s and is a little bigger than one cubic foot. It has a top that opens up and will fit papers. The front opens up to a zillion tiny drawers. It is brown and tan, but they probably have better colors now.
posted by soelo at 5:54 PM on January 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

Look at hardware stores, as well, for tool chests. They may not fit your price range, but they tend to have a lot of shallow drawers that make it easier to find individual items.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:58 PM on January 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

Tool chests, toolboxes, tool bags, whatever your largest item is, find something to hold that, then there's room for everything else.

Here's a toolbag, 16 inches, open top, tons of pockets around it so you can fit almost any sort of brush, pen, etc. and other tools, while Inside you can use one part for all your paper, cardboard, and other media, and have some sort of container or stackable stuff for your paint and whatnot. They have a whole family of such that goes up to 20 inches, and you can get even bigger ones in hardware or home improvement stores.

If you actually mean some sort of a shelf, same idea. Harbor Freight. :)
posted by kschang at 6:10 AM on January 15, 2023

You can search for paper sorters, file sorters, or literature sorters, which are a unit of open shelves that are just the width of a sheet of paper. It's very space-efficient, if you don't mind the look. (I grabbed a discarded one at work and use it by my workbench. So much storage.)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:59 AM on January 15, 2023

Response by poster: Thank you everyone! Got some deciding to do
posted by cashman at 4:08 PM on January 17, 2023