If you have children, chances are you have art supplies floating around your home. Formerly, I kept things like crayons, markers, coloring books, etc. on a shelf up high to avoid messes. It recently occurred to me that my preschool age child should be able to access some of these goodies to busy herself while I’m unpacking.
May I introduce to you (imaginary drum roll) the Art Cart. Container Store cart organized with supplies. It was a quick project after a trip to The Container Store and the Dollar Store for all my needs. First, I set to work sorting and grouping items I thought were age appropriate and wanted to include in my project (ie nothing terribly messy or damaging to the furniture).
After I took inventory of our arts/craft supplies, I was off to snag this Silver 3-Tier Siena Rolling Cart from The Container Store. You could get the larger size if you have tons of art supplies and need the extra room, but the smaller one was a good fit for our purposes.
I also grabbed a couple packs of plastic containers from the Dollar Store to corral the loose supplies. Then I arranged everything into cart, easy-peasy! The cart assembly took the most time, and even that was simple and didn’t require any tools. Truly an easy organizing project!
The top shelf holds coloring books, miscellaneous craft packets, small notebooks, watercolor paints, markers, glue sticks, tape, and googly eyes. The second shelf holds a bucket of crayons, a small construction paper pad, puff balls, and glues. The bottom shelf contains foam stickers, a bin of regular stickers, colorful ribbon, and our favorite Melissa and Doug stamp collection.
FYI, this Melissa & Doug stamp set is perfect for young children. The stamp tools are designed for little hands, the ink is washable, and everything is stored in one of their trademark wooden boxes. I love using a cart for art supplies, it’s easy to wheel around wherever we want to spread out. I also love that the compartmentalized bins allow us to set out individual supplies on the table next to her project.
That about wraps it up, folks. I’ll leave you with a shot of our Art Cart in action. When we’re done, everything gets packed up and wheeled into the closet. Easy clean-up and out-of-sight!
UPDATE: I’ve updated and upgraded our Art Cart for several reasons, mainly because our supply stash was growing over the course of birthdays and Christmas gifts.
