How to Organize Your Artist's Work Table

Lay all of your art supplies on the floor.

Throw away any ruined or old art supplies.

Sort through the supplies and determine what your desk will actually be hold. Don't over-pack your desk, as this will make it easier to get messy again. Remove items that you don't need on a regular basis.

Put items that you don't need on a regular basis in a plastic bin and store it in a closet. Label the bin so that you know exactly what is in it.

Sort the items on the floor. Put like items together such as sorting brushes, sponges, pallets or paints into a pile.

Organize small supplies into a tackle box. Put the tackle box on the floor, in a drawer or on top of the artist's table depending on how much space you have and how often you use the items in the tackle box. Don't overfill the tackle box as this will make it hard to close and it will quickly get messy.

Store the larger items that you use on a daily basis in mason jars on your desk. Use heavy jars as many artist's tools can be quite heavy and you don't want the storage jars to tip over. If this is a concern, put sand or pebbles in the bottom of the jar to weigh it down.

Store larger items that you don't use every day in utensil organizers in your drawer.

Put the remaining like items in boxes and label them. Put the boxes in baskets and put the baskets on a shelf above your work table.

Super glue jars to the bottom of the shelf above your desk. This will suspend the jars to save desk space. Simply twist the jar to remove it from the shelf. Fill jars with art supplies.

Purchase a flat file drawer to keep prints and canvases flat. This will prevent damage.