Decluttering Project: Kids’ Craft Table

I have several “dumping grounds” in my home where I am ashamed to say that I conveniently dump things and make it messy.  Then I forget that I dumped the stuff there and the mess just keeps growing.  Hence I’m making myself tackle these “dumping grounds” as often as I can…hopefully one location per week…declutter and get it organised.

It would be easier if everything can be tossed out but it’s harder than it looks.  Definitely.

Anyway, I decluttered the kids’ craft table last week.  Yes, my kids have a craft table.  How lucky huh…

This is actually a repurposed baby crib.  We bought this crib when we were expecting our first child about 10 years ago, but when we came back from the States with baby no.3, we shipped the crib we bought from US, and so this first crib was not being used.  Hubby (ever the “throwing away” type) suggested we throw the crib away, but I saw this excellent idea on the net where the crib was repurposed into a craft table and decided to give it a go.  That was about a year ago, and the craft table has been well used by the kids.

Look at how messy it is…

I started by taking every single thing off the table.  Important key to start decluttering: Always start on a clean slate.

I then wiped down the whole table and started to sort and corral everything into groups.  Groups of brushes and painting equipment, groups of markers, highlighters, colored pens, tubes of watercolor, poster colors, papers, crayons etc.

I also made use of these fabulous containers purchased recently from Ikea.  Very helpful and neat too!

The entire project was finished in about half an hour, right before the baby woke up.  And I even had time for a quick shower!

Loving these Ikea containers that store almost anything!  If you have kids in your home, get some of these, seriously!  They come with lids and are super useful!

We use them for crayons, color pencils, paints, and I have a couple on my dresser for makeup stuff like lipsticks, blushers and so on too!  More on that later…

But anyhoo…here’s what the craft table looks like now.. I’m loving how neat it is, and how inviting it is for the kids to get imaginative!  I’m thinking of adding a whiteboard somewhere too…. 🙂

And of course, here is the before and after of this decluttering project:

Now, what shall I declutter next….???