If you have a kid who loves art, you know the marker situation.

Caps everywhere — on the floor, under the couch, in places you genuinely cannot explain. The markers themselves have rolled to the four corners of the table and then off it entirely. And at least three have dried out because nobody recapped them in time. Purple is always the first to go.

We lived this for years. Marlo, my daughter and co-owner of this business, loves art. Has always loved art. Our kitchen table was basically an arts and crafts studio, and the floor beneath it was a graveyard of uncapped markers.

The frustrating part wasn’t just the mess. Watching Marlo’s favorite colors dry out and disappear one by one got old fast.

So Marlo fixed it.

At six and a half, without being asked, she designed a solution. A holder that kept markers upside down with their caps gripped in place — so you could pull out a marker without losing its cap, and snap it back in when you were done. The cap stays put. The marker doesn’t roll. No more mysteries about where the purple went.

That design became the Marker Parker. Marlo was seven when it went to market, with a patent pending and a real factory sample in hand. (She can tell you the durometer of the silicone. She’s not normal. I mean that in the best way.)

We’ve learned a lot from living with the marker problem. Here’s what actually helps:

1. Give markers one specific home

Not a drawer, not a general art bin — a specific, consistent spot that’s always the same. Kids are more likely to put things back when “back” is a clear, easy target. The Marker Parker lives on Marlo’s desk. That’s where the markers live. Full stop.

2. Store them tip-down, not tip-up

Markers stored tip-down keep the ink flowing toward the tip, which extends their life. Most storage solutions hold markers upright like a cup of pens — the Marker Parker holds them inverted on purpose, for exactly this reason.

3. Make recapping a single motion, not a four-step process

The reason kids don’t recap is that it requires finding a small cap, matching it to the right marker, and pressing it on. That’s a lot of steps when you’re six and just want to draw. The Marker Parker keeps the cap in the same slot as the marker at all times — put the marker back, the cap is already there waiting.

4. Have fewer markers out at a time

A set of 10 markers is more usable than a pile of 50. Fewer caps to track, less visual chaos, easier cleanup. Rotate sets if your kid wants variety — just not all at once.

5. Let the dried ones go

Every set has casualties. Let them go without drama, and without immediately replacing them. This was the thing that helped Marlo most — when dried-out markers stopped getting instantly replaced, keeping them capped suddenly felt like it mattered.