Hand-Katt Krafts: Organising Craft Supplies

One of the biggest issues I suffer with is anxiety and mess triggers off these feelings. So much so I try to avoid and ignore the piling hoard of craft items I have collected over the years, then this deters me from wanting to do anything. Which means technically I'm a hoarder too.

So for this years new years resolution, I have decided to confront these feelings and get organised. No matter how much the tightness in my chest cause me to not want to progress, the reluctance to want to throw any of it away; I am determined that I will get it organised into a tidy, workable space.

My compulsion extends to that of what is inside of boxes. Yes, boxes have their purpose to hide a mess but the lack of organisation within them causes me, again, to want to ignore the contents; pretend that they will sort themselves out. I know this won't happen so the only way for me to feel comfortable in approaching these boxes and to put their contents to use is to spend time organising them.

But here is where my lack of not wanting to throw things away and turn them into something else comes in handy. Toilet roll and kitchen roll cardboard inner tubes.

Rather then throwing them away, I know that they can be used for other things.

Here's a few samples:

Seeding plants.

If you set them out in a suitable size tray that stops water spilling by filling up the cardboard rolls with compost you can use them as a bio-degradable plug. Once the seedling is old enough to be planted outside, nature will do the rest for you and rot down the cardboard roll.

Compost.

Simply rip up the cardboard roll and add it to your compost bin. Helps create rich compost.

Animal Tubes.

If you have hamsters or mice or even a snake, these tubes are great and cheap passage ways for them. The small rodents will even gnaw at these (good for their teeth) to add to their bedding. For larger pets like rabbits or guinea pigs you can stuff them with alpha alpha hay and bits of dried food to create a boredom buster treat, as they will tear them to shreds.

You can also use them for dogs. We fill these with treats then stuff the ends with newspaper. The dogs love them, helps with dogs puzzle abilities and keeps them occupied when they are left alone. Results are a bit messy but what's that compared to two happy dogs.

Cable Wraps

Cheap and effective way to keep all those messy cables together. All you need to do is cut length ways down the tube. Place the cables inside the tube wrap around tightly then fix with a little duct tape to seal them in.

My task I set for myself was to organise my pen and pencil box, see below the photos of the box before I began. Finding a colour to use was such a pain, I did little to no colouring, drawing or writing.

What you need:

One plastic storage box with lid

Cardboard toilet roll inner tubes

Scissors (for the kitchen roll size tubes)

The box I used was approx 1ft x 1/2ft x 1/2ft. Firstly I placed the rolls in to see how many I would need and noticed the amount of wasted space between the tubes, so I decided to fold them into rough squares.

I realised I was 2 tubes short so I simply cut a kitchen roll inner tube in half.

Now I had enough rolls I placed them into the box side by side to fill the box as tightly as possible. 36 rolls were needed in total for this size box. Now the box is ready to be organised.