Creative Craft Supply Storage with Printers’ Trays

Several years ago one of my sisters gave me a wonderful birthday present – five different printer’s trays. Score! I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to start filling the trays with all sorts of craft materials. The trays are segmented in different ways, with a great variety in the number and size of individual storage slots.

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The trays are perfect for the storage I had in mind, but they quickly became heavy. It was a nuisance to lift and move all of the stacked trays to get to the ones I wanted. Plus I was always afraid they might get knocked over and I’d have to do all that sorting again.

The solution was to build a box to frame them, and to put each individual tray onto rollers so they slide out like drawers.  I am not very handy with carpentry, so I hired a handyman and he did an awesome job. He also built two drawers that were the same width and depth, and just a bit higher/deeper, to use for other purposes.

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Four of the trays are different, and I have two that are the same.  I love the variety of drawer designs as they can accommodate so many different sizes of items. Most of the items I store here are metal bits and bobs, and scrapbooking embellishments.

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This entire tray is filled with Tim Holtz’s Idea-ology. I love having it all in one place.

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The tray with the largest openings is perfect for storing manila and other tags.

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More bits and bobs

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I reserved the space at the top of the cabinet for two rolling drawers. One is used to store pieces in progress. These are small pieces I’ve made while working on other things, that I hope to use in another project down the road.

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The top drawer currently holds all my deli trays and lids. These are the perfect size for laying out small projects that are in various stages of drying, and I usually have quite a few laying on the counter at various times.

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I am so glad I added those two plain drawers to my printer tray storage, as they can easily be changed up for whatever my needs may be as time passes. I’ve been crafting a long time and as my interests have changed over the years, I’ve come to appreciate storage solutions that can change with the times.

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What are some creative ways you store your craft supplies?

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