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Kathryn
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 4:21pm | IP Logged
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If you're house is like mine, you accumulate a LOT of arts and crafts pieces...chenille stems, pom pom balls, googly eyes, beads, scraps of fabric and paper and string etc. etc. Not to mention the loads of crayons, markers, colored pencils and paints.
My question is WHEN do you finally decide to throw some of this stuff out? I was going thru markers and some of them still have a LITTLE life left so it seems wasteful to get rid of it but they def. don't work as bright and crisp as new ones. Or crayons that are half broken (although my 3 yr old likes them this way). Same goes w/ all the other misc. things. Things are pretty organized but it still seems we have too much.
May be I'm asking permission here to throw things out?! Tell me it's ok. Tell me I'm not contributing to my carbon footprint and being wasteful if I do so.  
Tell me your criteria for purging something.
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Kathryn in TX
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cheesehead mom
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 4:30pm | IP Logged
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Purge away--anything without a lid, small crayons and such get tossed here as we do not have a ton of storage--and honestly keeping the clutter of the arts and crafts area under control goes along way in keeping mom happier...so that is how I justify the occasional tossing! Also, anything we have not used in the past school year ,that is still useable, gets given away pretty quick.
Happy cleaning.
Laura
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 4:32pm | IP Logged
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what about.. setting out anything you think you should toss but don't want to waste and let the kids try and "use it up" and anything left goes in the trash?
You can make the melted crayon art with the smaller crayons.. or make the rainbown muffin tin crayons by melting smaller parts together.
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jawgee
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 5:26pm | IP Logged
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JodieLyn wrote:
| You can make the melted crayon art with the smaller crayons.. or make the rainbown muffin tin crayons by melting smaller parts together. |
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I used to save crayon pieces just for this occasion. Then I realized that the "occasion" was never going to happen. If a crayon gets broken and is laying on the floor...in the trash it goes.
I hate to be wasteful, but I have to be realistic. We have four little ones and the stuff could easily take over our house.
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Erin
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 5:28pm | IP Logged
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Kathryn
An idea that may help you 'purge'. A friend and I were recently discussing how we both had so much and never used (we're both craft challenged.) Anyhow we decided to have a craft day together, friend arrived with huge totes of craft supplies and I dragged mine out too and we let the children loose  They had a ball  We need a few more days though to make a bigger dent.
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 5:29pm | IP Logged
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JodieLyn wrote:
| what about.. setting out anything you think you should toss but don't want to waste and let the kids try and "use it up" and anything left goes in the trash? |
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This is what I was thinking. When I'm about to throw something out, I'll put it out for the afternoon and let the kids have their last fun with it before it gets tossed. Free for all!
And the melted crayons idea is a good one. Crayons melted in muffin tins make great gifts paired with a notebook or some drawing paper.
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Erin
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 5:39pm | IP Logged
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Adding onto the crayon gift pack idea, could you turn any of the other crafts into gift packs too?
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 6:23pm | IP Logged
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jawgee wrote:
JodieLyn wrote:
| You can make the melted crayon art with the smaller crayons.. or make the rainbown muffin tin crayons by melting smaller parts together. |
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I used to save crayon pieces just for this occasion. Then I realized that the "occasion" was never going to happen. If a crayon gets broken and is laying on the floor...in the trash it goes. |
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This was exactly ME!! I did use some for stained glass windows, though... And then we decided to do stained glass windows in our saint group co-op so we used more there. I did throw out some, though.
I've used up a lot of craft supplies in saint group co-op. Sometimes the craft is determined by what I have too much of.
Another idea is to try to give supplies away. Maybe not broken crayons, but I gave lots of stuff away by posting on our local loop. (I am one that doesn't like clutter either, so I purge often -- too often, my kids and dh would say.)
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 6:53pm | IP Logged
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I'd definitely toss the dried up markers. Nothing more frustrating to a kid than getting half-way through a picture and the marker dies on you. I go through mine every quarter or so and purge the dried up ones, adding in a new pack.
Crayons get tossed into a big bucket and the small ones usually just filter down to the bottom where they can be found for melt-craft or whatever. Every new school year I go through the bucket and only save the larger ones. The pieces get trashed.
I have all of my craft supplies (such as google eyes, glitter and foamies) stored away from the move right now. We move into a new house this weekend and I look forward to going through the boxes and organizing the lot of it.
One organizing tool that have worked for us in the past have been hanging clear plastic shoe pockets (for craft sticks, glitter glue bottles, yarn, etc) , and little hardware drawers (for google eyes, buttons, other tiny things).
I hope to have it all arranged again within the next few weeks. Perhaps we can share photos of our craft storage ideas???
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SeaStar
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 7:52pm | IP Logged
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Many libraries or children's museums will be very happy to receive art supplies. Another idea: religious ed teachers are often very happy to have a box of donated crayons, markers, scissors, surplus glue to keep with them for use during class. That way the kids don't have to bring their own supplies each week.
Another fun idea for using up broken crayon bits: draw a rainbow on a piece of cardstock or poster board. Then let the kids glue crayon bits into the right color slots. Sort of like a sorting/art project with a fun and pretty result... kind of neat to see what your "rainbow" will look like.
Or- put out some graters and crayon bits, and let the kids have fun just grating up crayons (boys especially seem to like doing this). Then iron piles between two sheets of wax paper to see what shape you get... a variation on the stained glass project.
I once melted bits into minimuffin tins to make crayon "cookies" that were multicolored. They turned out great... however, we still have them after four years as they seem to last forever, plus it was a HUGE pain to get all the wax out of my muffin tin. But they would make a cute gift for a toddler... crayon "cookies" in a cute cookie box or pouch.
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Kathryn
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 10:47pm | IP Logged
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JodieLyn wrote:
| what about.. setting out anything you think you should toss but don't want to waste and let the kids try and "use it up" and anything left goes in the trash? |
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This kind of happened last week in a non-planned way. I've had all this stuff out in reorganizing and that's when they got out the glue gun I mentioned in another post and created all sorts of little figures and book marks and just odd assorted things. Now we've enjoyed them a week, the items have been used and they've made their way to another land.  Somehow I don't feel bad about these going in the trash b/c they HAVE been used at least once.
lapazfarm wrote:
| One organizing tool that have worked for us in the past have been hanging clear plastic shoe pockets (for craft sticks, glitter glue bottles, yarn, etc) , |
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I actually used one of these last year here in the school room and it stores all the index cards, dry erase markers, chalk, tape, scissors, reward stickers etc. In fact now that I look at it, I have some empty pockets...could put some items in there. It's been one of the best re-uses of an item that ALMOST went to the Goodwill since I didn't need another "shoe" holder.
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Kathryn in TX
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Kathryn
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| Posted: July 26 2011 at 10:49pm | IP Logged
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SeaStar wrote:
Or- put out some graters and crayon bits, and let the kids have fun just grating up crayons (boys especially seem to like doing this). Then iron piles between two sheets of wax paper to see what shape you get... a variation on the stained glass project.
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Ok, my son will LOVE you b/c I am soooo doing this for him!! This is exactly, exactly the kind of craft project he will be all over.
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Kathryn in TX
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Theresa H
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| Posted: Aug 02 2011 at 3:37pm | IP Logged
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This may be a little off topic but I had to share what we did with the little crayon pieces we have. I had been putting off doing it in the oven and was not wanting to clean up the muffin tin mess afterward, so...
It was hot enough in Oklahoma today (about 110 degrees ) that we melted the crayons in muffin liners on a plate outside. When they were done melting, (took about 4 hours total) we put them in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes and are now coloring with multi-colored round crayon disks.
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: When to throw away arts/crafts supplies?
