Craft Closet Organization with Pull Out Fabric Shelf

This past week {or two} I’ve been cleaning out and organizing my craft closet.  I don’t have a craft room, just an extension of our computer desk, so most of my supplies live in their own closet in the hallway nearby. 

My craft closet used to look like this:

Now it looks like this: 
All in all, it wasn’t too bad for a while.  It stayed organized this way for about a year.  But after hoarding more supplies and fabric and shoving more unfinished projects and mess into this closet, it started looking really really bad! Here’s just a glimpse of what’d it become…I don’t dare show the rest!

With some work, I conquered the fabric and scraps and now have a better system for it.  After that I needed to work on the rest of the closet and make it more functional, too. 
One more time, here is the new pull-out fabric shelf.  (Click here to see how I built it).  It fits perfectly in the odd little nook that is in this closet. 

Starting from the bottom of the closet to the top, we first have the rest of the fabric.  Large yardage, denim, sweater material fits into the large bin, and all the scraps are sorted by color into ziplock bags in the smaller bin.  If the scraps or other fabric starts overflowing again, it’s time to purge! 

Next shelf up is ribbon and yarn.  I decided that ribbon is one of the hardest things on the planet to organize and no one has yet come up with an absolute perfect system.  I hated nearly all the things I found online, so I ended up using these two bins for ribbon.  Luckily it all fit!  I did have to purge some ribbon that I decided I could part with to make them fit, but compared to how I stored my ribbon before this is a better solution.

I spent 2 1/2 hours on Saturday organizing just my scrapbook paper!  I first went through the entire 50lb stack and removed all the paper I didn’t love any more.  I ended up clearing out a third of the entire stack! Then I organized all the papers into color family and then re-stacked it to put back in the closet. I could have put it all into separate 12x12 bins for easier access, but I like it this way because it takes up less space. I can usually find what I want without too much hassle. 

Next to the paper I have all the envelopes, and next to that I have two more bins. These supplies used to be in just one basket, but it was hard to find things and got messy fast. Now they are organized into stamps and the other is punches & Cricut supplies {extra blades, a few cartridges}.
Here’s the Punches & Stamps bins:

Fun!  Just looking at all those stamps in one place makes me want to start making something!!
Next shelf up is Kid’s Craft and a few miscellaneous things on the side.  The basket on the right has all kinds of things—pipe cleaners, googly eyes, foam stickers, fuzzy poms, and more.  The one on the left has markers, colored pencils, fabric markers and things like that. 

Lastly, the top of the closet stores all the smaller storage tubs with all the other various supplies!

There are three bins marked “Craft” and that’s pretty vague, but for me that just means it’s a random mix of supplies that don’t really need their own bin. Here’s what’s inside:

And that’s it!  I’m so glad I decided to tear it all out and organize each shelf and bin.  It’s so much easier to think and create when there’s not a cluttered mess everywhere!
BEFORE:
AFTER:


I’m proud to say that I didn’t buy a single tub or basket to organize this closet! I was able to use what I had around the house and not spend a dime! Thy only money spent was on the fabric shelf for the wheels and the handles.  I already had the primer and paint. The three smaller red tubs used to be on Sam’s changing table shelves, but we got him a dresser so they made their new home here!  Love it when that happens!

I’ve been working on the craft desk itself, but there’s still more work to be done, so here’s a sneak peak of what I’m working on for Easter until I’m ready to show that off. Can you guess what it is?