The Chip Bag

Improving my life by putting things on a metal cart

A few years ago, I got one of those carts everyone and their mom seems to have. I don't use it as a cart 99% of the time, but it's easier to move around than a shelf if I do need to move it. I recently got the impulse to consolidate most of my art supplies onto it for easy access, so I am here to share the results of that organization with you, the audience.

Long shot of the art cart

I got the cart on sale from a Store that sells Containers, but pretty much everyone is selling them nowadays. I didn't bedazzle or accessorize my cart at all, but there are also a bunch of different attachments and other junk you can hang off of your cart for maximum organization. Or you can just be like me and stuff everything in there regardless of whether it wants to be stuffed.

Top shelf

The top shelf of the cart

I saved the top shelf for stuff that I access regularly so I can put it on or take it off the shelf without needing to rearrange 10000 other things.

Traveler's Notebook: I take this thing everywhere, as evidenced by the sheer number of scratches on it. I have written about my notebook setup in unnecessary detail on the Traveler's Notebook post.

Pen case: For now, I've been storing all my pens in a homemade zipper pouch so they can stay horizontal. Thanks, Mom! It's already becoming a bit of a squeeze, so I'm looking into putting together a pen roll for increased storage capacity.

Paper: I have way too much paper to keep all of it on the cart, but I wanted to keep the paper I use somewhat frequently handy. This includes my Rhodia dot pads, a watercolor pad, and a pad of palette paper.

Ruler: This is here because I had space and it fit.

Middle shelf

The middle shelf of the cart

The middle shelf has boxes! So many boxes! And a few other things, but mostly boxes. It takes a little more work to get some of this stuff out, but not much.

Bookbinding box: I was a certified industrial tech kid in school, so this box is about as old as I was when I made it in metalshop. I threw all my bookbinding stuff in here because there are a lot of small things that are easy to lose. It contains a box cutter, thread, binder clips, a sponge for glue, an awl, and a few other things.

The bookbinding box

Writing implement box: This box houses my whole Sakura Gelly Roll collection as well as some other pens, pencils, stump blenders, and markers. Also contained within it is another, smaller box with my dip pen holders and nibs. Please alert me if you can find any tiny boxes to put into this one because that would be funny.

The pen and pencil box

Wax seal bag: All my wax sealing supplies are in an old plastic bag because I haven't found a better storage receptacle for it.

The wax seal bag

Ink-formation binder: This is a half-size binder that I use to keep all my ink swatches (mostly fountain pen ink).

The ink binder

Watercolor palettes: I've shoved my dry gouache palette and a random cheap metallic watercolor palette in here. My watercolor insert for my Traveler's Notebook also lives here if it's not inside the notebook cover.

Art boxes: These are recycled dishwasher pod boxes that I Mod Podged some nice paper onto and stuck stickers all over. I like the dishwasher pod boxes because they're roomy and ridiculously sturdy for something that's supposed to be disposable. The first box holds my paint, brushes, palette knives, and a rag. The second box holds a bunch of random shit that happened to fit in there (the Mod Podge, bookbinding glue, more rags, artist tiles). The rags are old shirts that I cut up.

The art boxesThe inside of the first boxThe inside of the second box

Bottom shelf

The bottom shelf of the cart

This is stuff I don't need to grab as often. Or I just needed to put it somewhere, and somewhere ended up being here. It's all very important, though!

Misfit supplies: There was extra space here, so I shoved my colored pencils and glitter varnish into the side.

Ink box: This box is a testament to me needing a better ink storage solution. Everything is haphazardly jammed in there right now. It's a mess. It's fine.

The ink box

Sticker box: I need a better way to store stickers because this is not conducive to finding what I want, but it's what we have right now. There's also some random ephemera (mostly Featherbone's critter cards that come with his stickers, also pictured) in there because I don't know what to do with it, and I shoved my collection of artist business cards in there until I remember to buy some binder sheets for them. There's a lot going on.

The box is a Ferrero Rocher box because they are also ridiculously sturdy for something that's supposed to be disposable, and it's hard to find boxes of this size and depth. If I cared more, I'd work harder at removing the label because the box itself is nice to look at.

The sticker box

Paper cutter: It's one of those little paper cutter apparatuses. I wish I had an industrial-grade guillotine cutter, but this one does what I need it to do.

Non-potable water mugs: I got these mugs at the dollar store with the intention of using them for paint water.

Cardboard stash: You can never have enough brown paper, so I save brown paper bags and have shoved them in the back of the cart. Inside one of the bags is a bunch of cardboard I've harvested from food boxes. You may have noticed in the Traveler's Notebook blog that I enjoy using the packaging as-is for notebook covers, but I also use it to wrap in decorative paper.

The cardboard stash

This configuration is basically guaranteed to change as I begin to use it more, but it's been doing fine for now. Unsurprisingly, I'm enjoying having all my supplies in arm's reach and not buried in the same box they've been in since I moved.