The Container Store! If money is tight, almost anything they sell there has a knock off counterpart at WalMart, but I find the plastic drawer units at Walmart stick a bit. I would imagine the Container Store products work a lot better. Their entire site is an inspiration, as well as a wish list. Here's the link for their "drawers."

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Store Drawers

Akangel,
I am not an organizing expert at all and am usually a lurker here but I am also a craftaholic. I just thought I will post about a couple of things that made organizing my craft cabinet a tiny bit better - I have one of those see through shoe organizers on the closer door and they hold a ton of small thing. And a vertical cubby like shelf and each of them hold a see through shoe box for fabric scraps by color. And I took down all my fabrics and folded them as shown in the link and stacked them by color. Now, I can see all the fabric when I open the closet.

Good luck!! Organizing craft rooms are hard but fun - I have noticed that when its all organized, it means I dont have any projects going on. And when the whole place is messy, I am being productive. :) But I am somewhat regular about putting things back when I finish a project. I am looking forward to hearing about any other ideas! Now, I am motivated to clean my craft room, yay!

Mo

Here is a link that might be useful: Fabric folding

My big thing is where its all at now down stairs I can't leave anything out between 2 kids 4 cats and guests its bad... So I am overtaking the guest room!! I didn't realize what a big job its going to be!! It would be not so bad if I didn't like so many different things. I have it all pretty oraginized in cabinets downstairs they just can't go upstairs so I am having to rethink my whole organization thing!

I am also the same way the more spread out I have it the bigger the project I am working on!

1. Think about whether the flooring in the spare bedroom is going to be good for you doing your crafts work there or whether you need to change it. The ceramics painting part worries me if there's carpeting.

2. Consider Ikea's Expedit bookcase (either the 4-col version or the larger). It's divided into smaller "cubbies" to keep things organized. I think I've seen knockoff versions other places; there are some smaller ones at Target. Then I would use clear shoeboxes or large Ziplocs to hold things.

3. Consider getting either the Elfa basket system from Container Store or a knockoff version. Use two or four, depending on how much stuff you have. Then place a work surface over them. The Elfa components are metal baskets that slide in and out on side rails. They will hold a lot (once you get the plastic liners!).

4. Get a comfy chair for times when you want to do handwork in there.

5. Be sure to consider appropriate task lighting.

I am in the process of organizing my sewing/craft room, too. It is the smallest bedroom in my house. It's amazing how much 'stuff' I had in there. I pulled everything out last weekend and my husband and I went down to IKEA and bought the Besta Organizer System. We long ago took the sliding doors off the closet in that room. We bought three tall Besta cabinets that fill the closet space. They look fantastic and went together so well. I really like it because you can put together any number of components from shelves to pull out drawers, etc. On the two end cabinets we put the roll-up cover. It's like a mini garage door, if you will, that slides up and down a track and will keep my fabrics dust free. It has a lock on it as well. Anyway, now I have the daunting task of going through all my 'stuff' and figuring out how to arrange it. Good luck with your project. Kathy

If you're going to have a whole room, consider Ikea kitchen cabinets.

Or consider pantry cabinets, and put pegboard on the inside of the doors for hanging tools up.

also consider making dedicated "desk organizer" for each specific craft--one tote for scrapbooking that has the most commonly used tools, and one for embroidery, or whatever else.

So that you simply bring the tote to the center work table, or put it away.

Each tote should have its own scissors, etc., even if that means you own 4 scissors.

If you can't find one that works, consider amaking your own version of those fabric pocket bucket organizers.

Find any sort of central item, and sew your own wrap-around set of pockets for slippng bone folders, cutters, etc., into.

Here is a link that might be useful: desk organizer

We took the doors off the closet in one of our bedrooms (empty nesters here) and put up adjustable shelving. I bought these plastic containers years ago. They work great for fabric and other sewing supplies. I just pull one of them out and set it on my cutting table as I go through the fabrics to see what I might want to use. I have them mostly organized by color but do have a few that just hold scraps. If you quilt you'll know why. ; )
{{!gwi}}

Not shown but on the top shelf I keep seasonal florals and some craft supplies like paint in plastic bins with lids. The closet goes back about 2 feet on one side past the opening so I have deep shelves there for batting, pillow forms, and those yards of decorator fabric that seem to follow me home from my favorite fabric haunts. Also, on one side of the room I have over head cabinets and lower drawers with a laminate top for my sewing machines. My DH made the top from a door and made a custom cutout for my machines. Love it and love him. : )

My upper cabs hold all my quilting and general sewing books, various sewing supplies, buttons in jars, etc. The lower drawers, 6 of them, hold thread, scissors/rotary cutters, pins, rulers, trims, machine feet and tools, patterns, etc. I really love that all these things are behind doors/drawers - much cleaner and safer.

My large cutting table has two drop down sides so it can be stored in the closet when not in use. You've probably seen them at JoAnn's. I've had mine for about 20 years and it still works great. But I am going to have hubs make a new one with wire baskets underneath so I can store some of my fabric in it instead of on the shelves.

HTH! Have fun with your new room!

Oh, hey, check out the craft storage room at Martha Stewart Weddings!

Oh, and storing fabrics: At MSWeddings, they fold them and lay them flat, but that actually is sort of high maintenance.

If you can iron them easily, I'd vote for rolling them and storing them that way. Then it'll be easier to pull the middle one out w/o messing up the stack.

1. CLEAR plastic containers, rolling storage, desktop-just make everything CLEAR-much easier to find your 'stuff'
2. Don't put too much in containers--then too heavy or have to dig too much to find stuff
3. Try and keep "like hobby stuff" together
4. Label
5. NO RUGS
6. Plenty of overhead and task lighting
7. MP3 player
8. Comfy chair

I finally got it done.. What a huge job.. I started by going to the Family Dollar store and bought the shoe and shirt organizers that hang in your closet. The velcro on these are better then the expensive ones. Anyways they hold a lot of weight and gave me several compartments. I also decided to make use of the extra bedroom set we have so I used a bookshelf, 2 dressers and a desk. I have a station for each of the follow: sewing, scrapbooking, painting, family history and puzzles. I never thought I would get it all in and be able to move but it worked. For an early Valentines gift my hubby bought me a flat screen t.v. that has a dvd player in it, a blue ray player and a another reciever for dish. So I am basically hiding in the room now lol! I even put a lock on the door to keep the kids out of the room if I am not in there. I will have to take some pics and figure out how to post them.

Thanks everyone.

I found a wonderful sewing armoire, that I bought this winter, It is photographed in the Pictures? thread in this forum.

It has just the perfect amount of storage, unfortunately it only came in the antiqued white color. the top has two sides where you can adjust the shelves and below it is access to the pull out fold up table that has an electric strip on it for plugging in the sewing machine or glue gun.

below is another pull out shelf and adjustable shelf area, the two doors close over the entire thing to keep it contained and clean. I totally love it..shopped for it online and found one place that had a much better price than others, but on the west coast you can even get it cheaper, as one place with free shipping refused to ship to me in Mich.