It was the scissors that did it. They tipped the balance from crowded into chaos. To be fair, it’s a whole carousel of scissors. And the living room has been maxed out for a while.

The journey to move Ellie’s play zone out of the living room and into her old bedroom has begun. While I had a vision of it being a one and done undertaking, I’ve come to terms with this being a more gradual process.

We started with the crafts.

Ellie is a prolific and varied crafter. Paper, fabric, stickers, glue, beads, wool, she loves it all. We’ve managed the crafting process and supplies with a small table in the corner of the living room and storage in the coffee table and sideboard. For a while it’s been a tight squeeze.

Then Matt’s aunt arrived for Easter lunch with an assortment of provisions, including a carousel of scissors (she knows what our girl likes). This, just weeks after Ellie’s birthday where she received rolls of colouring sheets, cases of beads, and sacks of needle felting, meant we were overrun with craft stuff.

I had the idea to shuffle some things around. As I said in my home goals post at the start of this year, this shuffle becomes like a row of dominoes. I reorganized and relocated some of Matt’s things. That freed up a cabinet and a bookshelf in the basement. More of Matt’s things moved into the cabinet and the bookshelf came upstairs.

After a quick coat of paint, the bookshelf moved into the playroom and became craft supply central. The first item to move in? The carousel of scissors.

While we were stocking the bookshelf, we made a few other changes to the room. (Though we obviously did not clean the mirror.)

Her little table and chairs moved from the living room to the new (soon-to-be) playroom. I also used my knock-off DIY Eames hang-it-all to arrange a little dress-up area for her with all of her costumes and a bin for accessories such as hats, crowns, scarves, Minnie Mouse hands, or an inflated pink dolphin wearing a fluourescent green legwarmer (???).

This is just the start (and it’s definitely not Pinterest-perfect), but now Ellie has most of her craft supplies in one spot, clearly visible and easily accessible.

Anyone else have a crafty house? How do you handle craft supplies? Who else feels like home tweaks are like dominoes?