Reclaim Your Dining Table

Most people I know who do some sort of crafting, including me, can't resist spreading everything out on the dining room or kitchen table to work.

It's great—lots of space, lots of visibility. The only problem is that when it comes time to eat, you don't really want to disturb your project in process. So you gently move things aside to carve out a space for the food and plates.

But then you start another project, and yet another.

Eventually, there's no place for your plates at all.

After years of battling craft clutter, I finally decided to take charge of the matter and get organized into one area of the house. Believe me, it's the best thing that any hobbyist can do—make a craft corner to call your own. It may seem like a daunting task, and you might feel overwhelmed and tempted to just forget it. But take a deep breath and move forward one step at a time. Here is a way to get started:

Find a Spot

You don't need a lot of space—just a wall for shelving and a place for a work table. Consider a desk with drawers for storage, especially if your interests center around photos and scrapbooking. If sewing is your thing, you will need a place to put your sewing machine.

You may be able to rearrange your family room or study, or perhaps even take a portion of a guest room or bedroom to accommodate your plan. But wherever you decide to settle, be sure to have ample lighting and access to electrical outlets.

Gather Up All Your Stuff

Clean off all your tables and pick up all your stuff throughout the house, and move it to the new spot. Don't worry about sorting or organizing at this point. The important thing is to collect it all into one area. After gathering up all the yarn (still in bags, mind you) stashed around my house, I found I had enough to stock a small outlet store!

Start Sorting

Once you get everything into one place, start going through it and organize it into piles. If you dabble in multiple media, sort by craft—put all the beading supplies together, all the yarn, all the quilting materials, all the painting or woodcraft supplies, and so on.

If you specialize in one type of craft, say knitting or crocheting, then try sorting all your yarn in a convenient way, such as by color, texture, composition, or manufacturer.

Containers, Containers, and More Containers

Visibility is important. You need to see what you have so you can find things easily when you want to work on a project and not go out and buy more.

Consider open storage like cube shelving units or bookcases, milk crates, mesh baskets, and clear jars to keep things together and still allow you to see what you have. For small items like beads, use hardware storage cases and sandwich bags (which you can then store in boxes).

For ribbons and threads, you can use dowels of different sizes. Plastic storage bins come in very handy and can be stacked. Small plastic bins are excellent for storing paints, which you can organize by color.

Trays also are useful in keeping things together, especially if you are working on projects with a lot of components. For paper-based hobbies like scrapbooking or origami, you can use stackable letter trays available at office supply stores.

While there are entire stores that specialize just in organizational tools and carry all kinds of shelving and containers to meet your needs, you can also check out dollar stores, yard sales, and even your own basement or garage for potential containers.

It's fun to search out interesting-looking trays, candy dishes, and hat boxes at antique shops and rummage sales. Shopping for containers can be a hobby in itself.

If you like snacks, buy healthy ones like pretzels or popcorn that come in big plastic jars. These are excellent for recycling into craft containers. So are cookie tins. They're not only colorful and durable, but come in different sizes—and who doesn't like cookies!

Tins are great for storing rubber stamps and ink pads. If you don't want the extra calories, however, you can buy new plastic jars and cookie tins at kitchen or craft stores.

Label Things

Even if your containers are see-through, it's still a good idea to label what's in them. A small label maker is a good investment and something you can always use. But if buying another piece of equipment isn't appealing, you can purchase file folder or mailing labels at an office supply store and handwrite your labels. If you're not sure how you are going to organize things in the containers, use sticky notes temporarily.

Put It All Together

Once you have organized and labeled everything, you can put it away. Be sure to keep materials for each craft or project together on the same shelf or in the same drawer. You don't want to go hunting for things when you are ready to work. Put all your tools in a toolbox and keep it in a handy place, perhaps on top of your work table.

Put the containers up on shelves or in drawers, as it's crucial to leave yourself open table space to work. Although it's easy to leave things around and clutter up your work area, get into the habit of putting things away when you are done working on your project. After all, having no place to work is what caused you to go searching out the dining room table in the first place.