If you don’t have a dedicated making space in your house or you just like to move around, knowing how to craft without a craft room and keep it organized is key.
If you live with other people, they might not love your latest project spread all over the dining room table or your knitting projects taking over the couch (guilty) but some systems can make it easier and better for everyone involved.
How Do You Craft?
The first question to ask if you’re trying to figure out how to craft without a craft room is what kinds of crafts you’ll most be doing. The space and supplies you need for sewing are different than what you’d need for beading or making candles or crochet.
Think about the crafts you do most often and what kind of supplies and space you need for them.
So someone who sews with a machine would need space for the sewing machine, as well as a place to cut fabric, a place to set up an ironing board, etc.
This doesn’t necessarily touch on where you store those things (or other supplies like fabric, thread and notions) you aren’t currently using on a project, but it should get you thinking about what is essential for the kinds of projects you typically do.
Where Do You Craft?
This, too, depends on what craft you are doing. I tend to cross stitch at my desk for some reason (could be the natural light), and I do a lot of my knitting and crochet on the couch.
Cutting fabric and patterns happens on the dining room table, working with air dry clay usually happens in the kitchen since I make my own air dry clay and that needs a stove, and so on.
Again you aren’t necessarily storing all of your supplies right where you want to use them, but it’s helpful to think about what you would use where and if there is a place to store it nearby.
How to Craft without a Craft Room
The main concept around how to craft without a craft room is gathering all the supplies you need for a particular project and having a way to store them at least temporarily where you use them.
For example I have this folding basket (similar but fancier than mine) I can use for knitting and crochet projects that’s big enough to hold most projects and the supplies I need to complete them. I can even keep my yarn in it while I’m working and put everything away and fold it up when I’m done.
Another option might be to have a Raskog cart or other rolling cart to hold your supplies. These carts hold a surprising amount of stuff and are a great option if you don’t have a permanent sewing table, for example. Your machine can live in the top and then fabric, threads and other supplies can go on the shelves below.
For smaller projects you can use fabric boxes (collapsible ones are nice if you aren’t using them for long-term storage, but having a lid is good, too), baskets, project bags, or really anything that’s big enough to hold your supplies for your current project but also relatively quick and easy to put away.
Storing Stash without a Craft Room
The hardest part of how to craft without a craft room is really where to keep those supplies you aren’t using right now. You’ll need to be more mindful of what you keep in your stash than people with a dedicated space (and maybe declutter your craft supplies before you thing about storage) and try to ensure that supplies for the same craft are stored near each other, if not in the same space.
If your knitting needles and crochet hooks could live near your yarn, for example, that keeps you from running all over the house to find what you need for the project you want to start. Bonus: less time hunting = more time crafting.
I do have crafty storage in my office but I still try to keep things in zones. All my fabric is in a cedar chest, and I keep thread and notions in my sewing machine table (with my coffee mug organizer turned scissor storage). My knitting machines live on the bookshelf where (most of) my craft books live.
The box full of paper and collage supplies is next to the bin of markers and the other bin of adhesives. That way I can pull out just what I need all in one place.
The key is to think about what goes together, what space you have and how you can best keep things together that you are likely to use together.
All of this planning and organization takes time, but it makes crafting without a craft room that much easier.
Do you have tips for how to craft without a craft room and keep it organized? I’d love to hear about it!
