Tips and Tricks to Contain The Mess During Art Projects With Kids

Art is pretty popular around my house. The girls and I enjoy a good art project. Glitter, paint, glue… We love it all. I’ve always loved encouraging creativity in kids. In fact, my first job was as an arts and crafts chief for a summer day camp. What I’m not such a fan of is the mess that can happen when you set a bunch of kids lose with art supplies.

Over the years I’ve learned some tricks that can help minimize the mess without limiting the fun. Thank goodness because cleaning is just not my thing.

Smocks

When you’re working with paint beyond watercolors I strongly recommend smocks. In the past I’ve asked my students to send in an old oversized t-shirt that would not be returned. I had extras in case we didn’t get a class set, but that wasn’t a problem. We got plenty. I threw them all in a plastic storage bin that I stored on top of my cabinets. I’d take it down and pass out shirts when we broke out the tempura paint. When the class finished painting they’d just stick the smock shirts back in the bin. I’d wash them as needed.

Trays

Trays are my best friend when it comes to art projects for kids. They provide boundaries. They are portable and you can stack them for drying. You can get small cookie trays for $1 at most dollar stores that will hold a standard size sheet of construction paper. Trust me. It’s worth it to buy a bunch.

Paper Plates

Paper plates make great paint pallets. They will hold several colors at once. The very best thing about paper plates is they are disposable. No need to rinse the paint off. Easy!

Scrap Cans & Plastic Bags

A lot of teachers give groups pails to collect the scraps of paper during cut and paste projects. Usually they are only for dry paper trash, but during art projects I line those suckers with a plastic grocery bag. It’s a game changer. Now your students can throw away their scraps, their paper paint plates, and any paper towels or baby wipes they used without carrying anything across the room. No more drips! You can simply pull the plastic bags out and throw them away after the art project is done.

 

Lint Rollers

Let’s talk about glitter. I love it. The kids love it. But…it goes everywhere and is tricky to clean up. First of all, put glitter on art work over something that can catch the excess glitter. Trays work well for this. An oversize sheet of paper does too. Glitter that spills can be cleaned up with a sticky lint roller followed by a baby wipe.

Sometimes you just have to go with the sensory experience of art and know that it might get messy. Other days it’s a colored pencils kind of day because any mess is too much. My final suggestion is to know your limits and work within them. Art should be fun. It shouldn’t stress you out.