If you’re a parent, you’ve probably been there – Hefty bag in hand, you hastily whisk through your child’s room scooping up excess, unwanted or orphaned markers, colored pencils, paint sets, glue sticks, construction paper, even googly eyes, and head straight for the trash bin. Guilt might briefly descend, but you’ve won, at least temporarily, the clutter battle.

Or maybe you’re the dutiful niece charged with carefully and meticulously separating out bits and bobs from your deceased great aunt’s sewing room – then taking them right to the local landfill.

But now there’s an alternative for parents and others looking to offload the overabundance of art, craft and office supplies otherwise headed for the trash bin. It’s part of a recycling trend in the Port City that’s seeing the rise of creative reuse centers, or CRCs. The centers, which function like thrift stores, collect donated materials and resell them to the public at discounted prices to be turned into art.

“To date, we have collected almost 22,000 pounds of (donated materials) and helped put those materials back into our community,” said Cheryl Kanzinger, owner of The Crafty Krab, a CRC that opened last year at 5202 Carolina Beach Road, in the Monkey Junction-Silver Lake area. “Creative reuse centers vary in what items they accept in donations, but most take standard art and craft supplies, including fabric and sewing supplies, yarn, paper, silk flowers and other general business and school supplies.”

Kanzinger’s penchant for and pursuit of the creative arts has included various vocational stints for the one-time Cleveland, Ohio, resident – from elementary school teacher and seamstress to, in more recent years, sewing and fashion design teacher and costume maker.

“I started sewing at 5 years old when my grandfather, who worked for Singer, got me my first sewing machine,” said Kanzinger, who sewed her own wedding dress.

But it was her adult daughter who first addressed the elephant in the room, so to speak.

“I visited the Scrappy Elephant (art supply) in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2022, where my oldest daughter was working and fell in love with the creative reuse concept,” she said. “So, with a lot of support from friends and family, I took the leap into becoming a small business owner.”

Kanzinger said she didn’t fret about the national arts and crafts chains like Hobby Lobby and Michaels.

“Obviously I don’t have the inventory that a big box store like Michaels would have, but I feel like I can offer a welcoming place where people can share their projects, ask questions and have the thrill of the hunt like you would in any thrift store,” she said. “The best part is getting to see how creative people are and the joy they have in sharing their creations and, of course, being able to provide resources at bargain prices.”

Across town on Wrightsville Avenue at Cape Fear ArtXchange, executive director Rhonda Clerkin thinks of her nonprofit CRC, which also opened last year, as “part art supply thrift store, part environmental initiative, part community gathering place and part creative incubator.”

“Our mission is to increase access to creativity, reduce waste and build community through the arts,” she said.

Like The Crafty Krab, ArtXchange collects “donated art, craft, educational, office and maker materials that might otherwise end up in landfills and redistributes them back into the community at affordable prices,” Clerkin said.

Clerkin’s customers, like those of The Crafty Krab, include professional artists, teachers, students, nonprofits, families, hobbyists and anyone who wants to create but might not have access to affordable materials or traditional arts programming, she said.

Both CRCs offer rentable studio and classroom spaces – in the case of The Crafty Krab, the “Krab Lab” rents for $10 for 90 minutes and “is stocked with all kinds of traditional and nontraditional crafting items to create with.”

In addition to workshops, classes and studio sessions, ArtXchange offers collaborative community events such as the Sunday Art Market, where local artists and creatives can access free booths to sell handmade, vintage or repurposed products.

Demand for creative reuse, and the businesses it spawns, “continues to grow as people become more conscious of sustainability, affordability and the importance of local community-centered spaces,” said Clerkin.

Deep discounts and environmental perks aside, what drives business at places like The Crafty Krab and ArtXchange may be the most important – and essential – reused and recycled product of all, said Kanzinger: human connection.

“I really want everyone to feel like they belong to a creative community when they walk through the doors,” she said. “I love that people are not afraid to talk to each other and share their crafting and artistic experiences with complete strangers. Everyone is just happy to have found a place that supports their creativity.”