Fancy-Schmancy

Do you drool over those fancy-schmancy storage solutions for your craft items every time you are at the store? Do you secretly wish that you could have at least one of each cooler-than-life pencil cup, ribbon holder, drawer organizer, and table-top-tray-thingie that divides your little doo-dads into separate compartments?

Yeah, me too.

But let's get real. I don't have room in the budget for a matching set of Martha Stewart containers and boxes.

Small, cuter than life hat box keeps my fabric baggies ready for use and ready to take on the go with me.

This wide heart shaped basket is great when I need to sift through many items with only one hand.

I do, however, need to keep the crafting items neat, accessible, and contained in a practical way. My solution? Hit the Goodwill, or the "Boutique" as we fancy people like to call it.

This I use all the time to separate differnt elements of a project until I'm ready for them. It always sits right in front of me as I work.

Take a look at all the cute containers, trays, and dividers I found. (And this isn't even all of them!)

Two deep dishes separate korker ribbon by size.

Isn't this little guy sweet? It holds all the sparkly embelishments for all kinds of projects.

Turns out, I actually like my solution better than the matchy set... and No, I am not just saying that to console myself. It is really quite rewarding to find simple solutions that are lovely at the same time.

The large, shallow shape of this iron basket is perfect for catching larger items that I need to grab while crafting.

These are great at a show or open house. Use them to separate people's orders while they shop, rest a hot glue gun on, keep sticky things away from the table cloth, etc. etc. I have several and use them all the time.

This beauty was origionally from Big Lots. It was brand new and still had the tag on it - $2.99. Not bad. But 20 cents at the thrift store is even better!

How do you keep the craft clutter at bay? Any tips or original ideas you could share?

Side Note: Yes, I know that the red valentines cloth does not match the pastel colors of my containers. But I was half way through taking the photos before I realized it, and am too tired to redo them. Either think of it as really super, fabulous, edgy color mixing.... or try to look past it. If I were you, I would go with option two.

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday. Head on over and see what other crafty ladies are doing!