• An organized closet prevents crafty clutter.craft a card! image by Shirley Hirst from Fotolia.com
  
  If you're buried under an avalanche of rubber stamps, paper punches and glitter glue every time you open the door to your craft closet, it's time to reorganize. Tempting as it may be to shove everything inside and quickly slam the door shut, your supplies and your closet deserve better than that. Following a few simple tips keeps your closet organized, your supplies easy to find and your sanity intact.
  
  

Unconventional Storage

• If you're tired of the same old stackable plastic bins housing your sewing supplies, try some unconventional storage techniques. A small vintage suitcase gives your crafts a shabby chic home and is the perfect size for small supplies like buttons, gift tags, rulers and colored pencils. Look to other storage solutions intended for other objects. For example, a collapsing toolbox keeps random smaller supplies in place, as does a clean fishing tackle box.
  
  

Hang It Up

• Closets are often used for hanging clothes, so don't be afraid to hang your supplies as well. Hang a peg on the inside door of the closet and hang commonly used items like scissors, rulers, a T-square and twine. Use a heavy duty glue to adhere the lids of mason jars or jelly jars to the underside of your closet's shelf. Fill the jars with small items like thumbtacks, paper clips and erasers and screw them onto the lids.
  
  

Drawers

• Don't hesitate to furnish your craft closet for some extra organization. Small rolling carts with drawers, often designed for kitchens, can roll into place right in your closet, giving you drawer space for storage. Fill your drawers with folded fabrics and spools of thread and ribbon so that they stay together and in place. If you need even more storage, invest in fabric drawer dividers to keep your embellishments separated.
  
  

Bottom to Top

• Your closet is a vertical storage space and, when you have crafts to spare, you need to utilize the entire thing. Install extra shelves in your closet for storing racks of scrapbook paper and crafting magazines, and add hooks to the walls where you can hang swatches of ribbon. Prioritize your supplies to determine what should be the most accessible--for example, your sewing machine should be on a lower shelf with easier access than your ocean-themed hole punch collection.