Whenever my kids want to make something, a battle explodes inside my brain.
My creative side desperately wants to give my children every opportunity to create.
And my practical side is just like, “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” with like a million cry emojis.
Because, mama: THE MESS.
Art Zones
My three daughters are prolific artists, able to create a thick stack of artwork in a single afternoon. And my 8-year-old son will build massive constructions with everything from Lego to Magformers to Gears.
This is great for their growing brains, self-confidence, and self-expression–but it can be a little overwhelming to our house.
If your budding Van Gogh is also want to bury your space in art supplies, mess, and one-of-a-kind masterpieces, let me tell you: designating spaces for their creativity will help!
Our Creative Spaces
With four busy kids constantly creating and playing, I’ve found that assigning certain activities to specific spaces to be one of the simplest ways to keep the mess manageable.
In our home, there are four spots where the kids are welcome and encouraged to get messy when they create:
- The kitchen table,
- The kitchen bar,
- The playroom desk, and
- The Lego table.
The Messiest Messes
Most of our house is carpeted, and you know I don’t want to spend my morning dabbing glue out of a rug.
So, because we have an easily cleanable tile floor under the kitchen table, this is where our messiest artwork happens:
- Clay molding,
- Watercolor,
- Tempera painting, and
- Anything involving glue or glitter!
We keep supplies for this kind of art play in a low kitchen cupboard, which not only keeps them close at hand, but also reinforces that this room (where they’re stored) is also the space they should be used.
Creativity + Company
My kids like to be around each other (and me), so they often gravitate toward places where they can create and socialize at the same time.
Both the bar in our kitchen (downstairs) and the playroom desk (upstairs) are in activity hubs of our home, so the kids naturally started making art and doing homework. They are very content settled in these spots where they could chat and work at the same time.
These workspaces are also both on carpeted areas in our house, which means only pencil, crayon, and washable markers are used and stored here.
Our collection of washable markers (I love the Crayola Ultra-Clean Washable ones) and twistable crayons (we’ve opted for these Crayola ones because they break less often than average crayons) lives on the bar in our kitchen, and stays here.
We also have a stash of art supplies upstairs in the kids’ playroom which is assigned to stay in that space.
This means we have some duplicate supplies. While this might not jive with some decluttering experts, I love it because it means we don’t have supplies being scattered throughout the house if the kids decide to switch workspaces.
Yes please!
Engineering + Pretend
The Lego table might be my favorite kid space in our house.
It’s an inexpensive solid-wood table, purchased explicitly for the building and play of our kids’ massive collection of Lego. (Also, did you know the plural of Lego doesn’t have an “s”?!)
Here, the patrons of the Hogwarts Express can visit their Stormtrooper friends, Emmett and Wyldstyle can climb a massive, teetering skyscraper, or they might all have a bad day and end up in the city police station.
This space is a physical embodiment of my kids’ combined creative brains, a space they use both to build and to pretend.
And (bonus!) having this specific space set aside means that I have (almost) none of the kid’s Lego pieces cluttering the floor in the rest of the house.
Making it Work for You
Ready to get started?
Grab a piece of paper or open your notes app, and ask yourself these questions:
- Which spaces in our home can I designate for kid creativity?
- Which types of creativity are best suited to each spaces?
- Where can I easily store supplies?
- What do I need to do to prepare those spaces?
Share!
Where do your kids create? Share in the comments, or post a photo on Instagram and tag @brightlightmama!
