Colored Pencil Storage Ideas

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Finding the perfect colored pencil storage idea makes using the color pencils a creative joy and clean up much easier. Often the storage option is also a lovely design element in your craft room or art studio.

Whether you’re searching for colored pencil storage ideas for children or adults, for casual arts and crafts or for serious artists, you’ll find something here that will answer your needs.

I’m a crafter and a professional organizer and a mother of three. Finding ways to store colored pencils and crafts supplies is something I’ve been doing for years.

How do I store colored pencils?

• Before you decide on the best way to store your colored pencils, you have to consider several factors.
  • Will children or adults be using the pencils?
  • Will only one or two people be using them or will many people be sharing them?
  • Is it important to keep brands and specific shades of color separated?
  • Are the pencils expensive and need to be stored carefully?
  • What is the budget for creating storage?

• Consider whether you want the storage to remain in one location or be portable to different areas.
• Consider whether you want the colored pencils stored away out of sight or on a table or shelf for easy access.

• The traditional budget ways to store colored pencils include:
  • In a pencil box or cardboard box.
  • In a repurposed glass jar
  • In repurposed metal cans
  • In a DIY caddy using toilet paper rolls or paper cups to hold and separate different colors of pencils.

• More specialized colored pencil storage ideas are:
  • A pencil case specifically designed for pencils.
  • An organizer, even the original packages, designed to hold a full set of pencils.
  • Zipper pouches or pencil bags designed to hold pencils
  • Drawers with inserts to separate pencils by color
  • Map or art drawers (units with multiple shallow drawers)
  • Boxes with multiple small cubbies to hold pencils separated by color

It’s important to prioritize your needs before you choose a colored pencil storage option.

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Colored Pencil Storage Ideas

How to Sort Colored Pencils

The first question you have to answer in deciding how to store your colored pencils is do you want to organize your pencils:

• With all colors together in one place. This often works well for children or if you have a small number of colored pencils.
• With the pencils separated by broad color categories like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown and white. This is also known as Roy G. Biv order.

• By different brands.
• By specific brand color numbers or names.

• By type of pencil, for example, keeping the watercolor pencils separate from the other colored pencils and art supplies.
• By price. This works well if you have colored pencils for the children to use and ones reserved for adults or older children.
• By use. You may keep older or smaller colored pencils to take on trips or to the restaurant, while keeping colored pencils in better condition for use at home or on school projects.

Desk or Table Stands

If you prefer to have your colored pencils available on your desk or workspace, then a pencil organizer stand is a great choice, You can choose to use multiple smaller pencil cups and group them together for an easy storage rack that will hold as many colored pencils as you need.

Lazy Susan Storage or Caddy

Lazy Susan style desktop carousels works well when you have a designated table or desk where you’ll be using colored pencils.

A pencil caddy is perfect when you want to be able to carry your colored pencils from one location to another to use them. This is particularly a favorite colored pencil storage idea for teachers and moms. It makes it easy for children to grab coloring books and the pencil caddy from the storage area and take them to a table or desk.

Cube Storage

Cube pencil holders are another variation on tabletop colored pencil storage. You can stack individual pencil cups on their sides to make a large pencil storage unit. Think of it like an IKEA cube bookcase for your table or desktop with the cubes small enough to conveniently hold pencils.

Drawers

Sets of shallow drawers can work well for colored pencil storage. Stacking multiple units and labeling drawers allow you to accommodate organizing even the largest colored pencil collection.

Pouches and Cases

Pencil pouches, pencil bags or cases come in all sizes and styles. You’re probably familiar with the smaller pencil pouch that you carried to school. Pencil cases come large enough to hold over 100 colored pencils.

You may find that you prefer one larger case to keep all your colored pencils organized in one spot.

Or you may find that several smaller pouches, perhaps organized by pencil color or use, works better for you.

DIY Colored Pencil Storage

There are all kinds of DIY pencil storage ideas. Some of my favorite are:

• Clementine Crate Organizer
• Pencil cup from a tuna box

• Filling a shoebox with toilet paper roll or paper cups to create holders for pencils.
• A pencil cup made from repurposed diskettes. You could make several of these and attach them together to make a caddy or a table organizer.

• Metal cans used separately or attached together to make a caddy.
• PVC pipe cut to the right length and attached to make a colored pencil storage caddy.
• This Big Bang Theory pencil cup is a nostalgic favorite of mine.

Other craft organizing ideas

• Color Coded Organizing – 11 tips to make color coordinated organizing work for you in multiple areas of your home and when not to use color-coded organizing.
• Craft Room Storage Ideas – These craft room storage ideas from a crafter and professional organizer make it easy to organize your craft room for optimal creativity.
• 65+ Crayon Storage Ideas – More than 65 crayon storage ideas, tips, products & DIY for home, travel & classroom. Helpful ideas for every budget, DIY skill level & need.
• 12 x 12 Scrapbook Paper Storage Ideas – More than 150 tips and products for 12×12 scrapbook paper storage ideas for every budget, space and need.

Free Coloring Activities

• Snowman Coloring Pages
• Santa Coloring Pages
• Christmas Tree Coloring Pages
• Superhero Coloring Pages
• Earth Day Coloring Pages
• Onward Coloring Pages

Be sure to pin for later so you can always find all these colored pencil storage ideas when your needs change.

Find all my best organizing tips, hacks, printables and favorite products in the table below. ​You can scroll though the table and look for ideas or search for specific ideas with the magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner (on desktop). Click on the topic and then click through the specific article.