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Supply Organization

Paintbrush Sorting, Solved!

Today I’d love to share a cheap, color-coded system to store your paintbrushes. The system is also student-friendly and will make keeping your brushes sorted a breeze! Having already used recyclables as a storage solution in another area of my room, I began saving containers of multiple sizes. I simply spray painted each recycled container black for uniformity and added a little flare with acrylic paint. See how the matching system works in the video!

How do you store your brushes? Can you share any other tips? 

Do you have a system in place for paintbrush clean-up?

5 years ago
Comments

Alecia Eggers Kaczmarek

Subscriber

Alecia is an elementary art teacher in central Iowa who is passionate about teaching and reaching her students with an innovative and meaningful arts education.

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  • Nic Hahn

    Good one! I’ll use this:)

  • Lisa

    Great advice Jessica! I so agree with you.

    • This video was actually of Alecia Eggers, one of our writers, and showcases her beautiful classroom! :)

  • Erin

    Love the idea, I could really use this since all the teachers in my school use my art materials…but I can’t view the video. Would love to see it to get further details

  • ArtCLassWithLMJ.wordpress.com

    I’ve done this at a previous placement only I didn’t just organize by the different brushes but the sizes too! Because of that, I created the line design on the container with the paint brush it held and then when I was deciding which brush was best for the project, I could make the decisions quickly. Or, when I had students picking the brushes they desired, they could make the decisions about what kind of detail the had without much thought.

  • Leah Keller

    Alicia,
    You are my organizing guru!!

  • Matty Miller

    What kind of paint did you use to dip brushes and make the lines? Were they pre mixed colors, house paints, or did you mix a bunch of each color? Thanks!

    • Alecia Eggers

      Hey Matty – I just used regular acrylic paint from the craft store and then sealed it with rustoleum gloss spray…this was the hard way. I would totally tape/mask them and then use the outdoor furniture spray paint!

  • Pam Lewis

    Alicia–so happy to find this! Do you put the brushes directly in to these after they are washed? Or do you have a drying rack or something first? And if you put them in there wet, do you drill a hole in the bottom–or is water collecting in the bottom not a issue? Thank you! Also, how many containers did you end up with?

    • Alecia Eggers

      Hi Pam!

      I actually use a cheap, plastic dish drying rack to allow my water cups and brushes to dry before placing them back into the containers. I ended up with as many containers as there were different types of brushes. I believe there are 22. These were just recycled plastic containers that I inherited with the room!

      Hope that helps!

      • Pam Lewis

        Great! Yes, it does help! Thanks so much. So do you have 22 different colored brush handles–one color for each style?

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