Is It Time to Organize Your Witchy Supplies?

by Amber C. Snider

From utilizing your "money corner" to getting creative with natural storage materials, here are 15 tips for organizing your magical supplies. 

Photo © Amber C. Snider

​Did the recent full moon leave you with a boost of energy or feeling a little zapped? If the former, you may have found yourself tackling major cleaning and organizational projects around the house (Virgo energy can do that). And just because the moon is waning doesn’t mean you can’t still harness that energy to give your house a new boost for spring.

If you’re anything like me, your witchy paraphernalia is all over the house. Anyone who steps inside is probably thinking, ‘Oh yes, a witch definitely lives here…’ It’s something I couldn’t hide if I tried –– between the books and bells, incense and cauldrons, crystals and candles, it’s all there. But as time gave way to accumulating more and more magickal stuff (I could never resist a good spiritual shop), I had to find a way to organize what was once a tidy cabinet space. Actually, who am I kidding, it was never quite “tidy” to begin with, but I really wanted this space to shine.

Lo and behold, under that Full Moon energy, I woke up one morning and got to organizing that old purple cabinet. Let’s start with what I had: About 40+ bottles of hand-blended oils from Enchantments, 15-20 bags of incense, 15 bottles of essential oils, 10 bottles of hand-blended oil spray, tons of stick incense, a variety of 120 candles, oil diffusers, holy water, statues, incense burners, mortar and pestles, chunks of palo santo and bundles of sage...the list goes on. I had three shelves and two drawers to work with, so here are my major takeaways, plus some tips from my dear friend, fellow witch, and resident photographer Victor Castro. 

Give everything a good scrub down with a natural cleanser 
Take everything out from your drawers and down from the shelves and give each surface a good scrubbing. You’re probably used to regularly cleaning your altar space, but maybe you neglect to clean out your tool storage space. Wipe down the shelves and objects with a vinegar-based cleaning solution (add ¼ cup of white vinegar to a spray bottle, 1 tbsp of castile soap if you have it, a few drops of lemon essential oil, add warm water, and shake well). You can also add a bit of Florida water or Holy water in your spray bottle. Don’t forget to thoroughly clean out your cauldrons and incense burners, too. 

Like seeks like. Store each witchy item with a similar item. 
This seems too obvious to even write, but it's something I really struggled with. My powdered incenses were mixed with bags of candle glitter and herbs, my oil sprays intermingled with countless oil drams, my crystals jammed next to my 120 candles. Not a good look and also...nonsensical. I grouped items together before I arranged them back on the shelves: drams go with drams, ½ ounce oils go together, sprays go with sprays, incense packets, etc. 

Get creative with natural storage materials
I don’t care for those ubiquitous little plastic storage boxes –– you know the ones for $5 at Target, used for make-up or jewelry or nail polish or bobby pins or whatever. They’re horrible for the environment and I don’t want that energy mixing with my spiritual tools. So like a good little witch, I tried to use things I already had around the house. That’s right, use what ya got. No need to spend money on fancy organization tools here.

Here are some suggestions:
––Reuse tea boxes, tea tin cans, and gift sets: Over the holidays I was gifted a black wooden tea box (here) with a variety of tea packets. I moved the tea packets to ceramic jars and used the various compartments of the tea box to store my hand-blended oils, all organized by size (drams, roller balls, ½ ounces). I kept my 1 oz oils outside the box in a neat little row.

Many loose tea varieties come in tin cans (like Harney & Sons) or smaller wooden boxes, which are also great for storage. You can customize the exteriors with artwork, calligraphy, and creative labels, too. 
​

––Hand-woven baskets: I love a good basket and I’ve accumulated quite a few over the years. I also weave my own pine needle baskets during the winter months (here’s a video to learn how), so I had a few around the house already. I set aside a Mexican palm basket to store all my powdered incenses and use my pine needle baskets for herb packets.

––Wooden bowls: Stop into any Goodwill and you’ll find a cool wooden bowl. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get creative with this stuff, so keep an eye out and the right bowl will find you. I like to store my plant-based items in wooden bowls, including loose herbs, sage, palo santo, etc. or oil sprays. 

––Pottery: I also love a handmade cup, dish, or bowl and normally pick up a new piece of small pottery every time I travel. This makes for full, eclectic kitchen cabinets, but many of them I only use for magical purposes. My mother is gifted with ‘throwing the clay’ so I store my crystals in her various handmade bowls and cups. 

​Kondo it up
“I use Marie Kondo’s philosophy when it comes to my magical supplies. I was keeping vessels and trinkets and things that I gave spiritual meaning to but that didn’t really serve me anymore. It was turning into hoarding. I came at it with a Marie Kondo attitude: Does this bring me joy? Or is it something unnecessary that I was justifying? I got rid of a lot of things like chalices and bowls and gave them to people I care about –– because it passes the magic on,” Victor Castro says. “It’s so easy in the modern day to just accrue, accrue, and we don’t think about sustainability.”

Keep minimalism to a minimum, but keep it in mind
“I have to remember that all of our predecessors didn’t have all the things that we have in our modern age. I don’t like minimalism at all as a style, but I try to use minimalism in the tools I use everyday. Energetically, we have a bad habit of spreading ourselves too thin. Yes, having a broom collection or crystals collection is wonderful, but sometimes having too many irons in the fire is unnecessary and can cause harm, at least to your psyche,” Castro tells me. 

"People are really into minimalism, but sometimes instead of reflecting what their individual style is, they do whatever everyone else is doing. It looks pretty, but there’s nothing inside. It’s trying to be high-end on the low-end scale. It’s trying to look expensive instead of being authentic,” says Castro. So instead of trying to pare down to complete minimalism for the sake of a trending aesthetic, think deeply about how your objects reflect you and how you reflect them. 

Work with the elements
If you work with the element of water, you may want to group all your shells, river rocks, and stones together in a single bowl. That way, if you want to fill it with water/salt in the future for a ritual, you know the salt water won’t damage your other crystals. 

Utilize decorative trays 
These work well for grouping items together, such as essential oils, carving tools, and small incense burners. 

What joy looks like. Photo © Victor Castro

​Conscious book arrangement
I have an entire library in my house filled with everything from the classics, theory, philosophy, bestsellers, and esoteric metaphysics. But I also have a series of distinctly “witchy” books (check out some Enchantment favorites here) that focus on tarot, spells, runes, herbal magick, and Gods & Goddesses. I grouped all of these together to store on the top shelf of my cabinet so they’re in easy reach when I’m looking for a particular spell, ritual, or recipes. 

Keep Feng Shui in mind
Did you know there’s a “money corner” in your house? “Think of where the front door of your house or apartment is, and then think of the farthest wall opposite to the entrance of your home. Now follow that to the farthest left corner along that wall –– that’s your money corner. It’s where I put my plants. I also installed a vertical metal tension rod there, which lets me stack and hang even more plants in that area,” says Victor Castro.
​
Statue placement
I like to think of my various statues (including alebrijes) as tiny protectors of my home and this sacred area, so I arrange them accordingly on my shelves. Say a blessing over each one and add a photo of your ancestors to personalize the space (it’s also a reminder of the unique power that runs through your blood, passed on from generations, reminding you of the cycles of life).

Storing individual candles
 If you stock up on 120 candles and just leave them leaning on a shelf somewhere, it can cause warping –– not to mention discoloration (especially if you leave a white one next to a red one and so on). I keep my 120s individually wrapped in scraps of brown paper (from grocery bags) and lay them flat in a drawer to prevent warping. 

Maximizing drawer space 
You can make easy “compartments” in your drawers by using cutout cardboard scraps. Rather than go digging for something at the bottom or back of a drawer (like stick incense or resins) it’ll have it’s own little compartment, preferably with a label. Think of it like a filing cabinet and organize away.
​

Want more witchy tips? Here's are 25 ways to magically cure the winter blues.