Summer is in full swing, and even if you’re trying to keep your kids safely at home, they’ve probably gotten the itch to play outdoors sometimes.
This is a good thing! Getting a little sunshine and fresh air is helpful for anyone, no matter how many indoors distractions your kids may have (not that there’s anything wrong with video games or what have you), and it can go a long way towards preventing cabin fever if your summertime entertaining options are still a bit…limited.
One popular outdoor activity that kids have long enjoyed is crafts! There’s a ton of crafts you can still do even while outdoors, including sidewalk chalk, messier paint projects, or even making wind chimes to hang in their favorite tree outside. (Kids always seem to have a favorite everything, don’t they?)
Of course, as any parent who has embarked on craft projects knows, crafts can be awful…messy. Even if your kids are good about cleaning up after themselves, there’s still a ton of supplies that might go into crafts, and with as hard as they can be to organize indoors, using them outdoors can be an even trickier task.
Enter the craft cart!
Outdoor Craft Cart & Art Supply Organization
Craft carts can be a super convenient and easy way to keep your kids’ favorite craft supplies close at hand and out of the way all at once.
The first step is, of course, to find a cart! Carts come in all different fashions and styles, but for outdoor uses we’d suggest trying to repurpose a kitchen cart or a bar cart over something more wooden or old-timey, since the metal construction will hold up a little better to being used outside.
Now, before we start going crazy with the organization, now might be the time to figure out what exactly you’ll be storing on there and how you can organize it better. Go through your kids’ most often-used craft supplies and see what’s most important to take with you outside – clay for your little sculptors, drawing supplies for the sketchers in your life, and the occasional bucket of sidewalk chalk. (This is also the perfect excuse to toss out any of those old, dried-up markers!)
Once you figure out exactly what’s going to be kept on there, you might need to add a little bit of organizational help to your cart to get things under control. Some carts, like wire carts, will need shelf liners to help things sit safely on them. Depending on what you’re bringing outside, bigger things or messier supplies could be kept inside plastic storage bins for the sake of cleanliness.
After that, you need to find a way to organize it that will help your kids the most. Try not to keep anything too far out of reach, and let your kids help decide what goes where so it’s arranged in a way that makes sense for them. This will help them feel more involved, and let them help keep their favorite craft tools right where they can be the most help.
There shouldn’t be much else to do here but enjoy your handiwork! Your kids will have a much easier time getting to their favorite art supplies, even when they’re playing in the backyard, and you’ll love how much cleaner it keeps everything. Everyone wins, right? (At least until someone runs out of their favorite color crayon…)