Paper covered storage boxes

My girls lucked in that our new house has an extra room that we turned into a craft room for them. It’s so nice to have a dedicated space for all their crafting supplies. In Toronto our place was all about multi purpose rooms - the advantage of leaving the city is more space - so we no longer have a dinning room/art room but one of each. We feel spoiled

That being said it means the art room doesn’t get cleaned as often since the table doesn’t need to be cleared for dinner every night. But the room is right at the front of our house - one of the first things you see when you walk in so I want it to look as organized as possible. The shelving is from Ikea, we have shelving on both sides of the room so everything can have it’s place and it’s much easier to find.

But one of the problems was the counter that turned into a dumping ground. I tried to help it out by putting baskets out so the kids could put school work and currently finished artwork in them but they just didn’t work - they were too small so the clutter just grew all over.

My solution was to make bigger boxes, one that would actually fit large size paper and their books from school.

We have 2 empty beer can boxes that were the perfect size. I covered them with pretty wrapping paper and voilà the kids have their own “in” boxes for all their paperwork.

They now each have their own box that they put any currently created artwork and most importantly they empty their school bag into it at the end of the day. This way we always can find their library books, readers and agendas and for the next day.

I have also taken their current artwork that was all over the counter and taken photos of them with the Artkive app so I can save the memory but not all the paper. We have a wall in their playroom that I tape up their artwork so we can admire it. The rule we have is once it falls then it’s time to throw it out (unless it’s a really special piece and then I save in a box for them)

The counter still gets cluttered but it’s not as bad since there is spots to put stuff. So now you can easily transform any box with a bit of pretty paper so help you get organized.