Organizing kids' books

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 1:37 pm

Hi! My kids are big readers B"H, which I am very happy about, but their books are always a mess. Right now they are on a bookshelf, but they are constantly falling off the shelf and making a pile right in front of the bookshelf. My kids are young, only 8, so we are not talking about heavy adult books that are easy to line up on a shelf - they have small kids' books that don't line up so neatly.
We have two library cards, so between the books we own and the ones we take out, we easily have about 80-100 books at any time.
I would love some ideas for making this area more neat. Thanks so much!

mummiedearest

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 1:39 pm

you can use magazine holders to categorize books based on size, topic, whatever. this type of thing:

http://www.uline.com/Product/D.....aw.ds

granolamom

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 8:10 pm

I have these

http://www.containerstore.com/.....74545

right now each kid has one (or more) by their bed for their frequently read books. books for my older kids are on the bookshelves, I used to keep board books in a basket in the playroom, they never stayed neat anywhere else.

UQT

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 8:55 pm

Just did the bookshelf today! Designate a separate shelf or bin just for library books. Whenever you find one lying around the house, bring it there so you don't get slammed with overdue fines. My youngest is past the board book stage so I took all the small baby books and put it into a container and put into storage. I find those books mess up the shelves the most since they are all different sizes. Then I made a shelf of series books (bakers dozen etc.), a shelf of hardcover books and a shelf of soft cover books. I lined them up by size. It should last for a full week:(

granolamom

Sun, Mar 15 2015, 9:58 pm

UQT wrote:

hey, a full week is pretty good! I dont think that would last a full day here.

Mon, Mar 16 2015, 9:37 pm

It doesn't last a day by me either.... Sad

I would love the idea of putting a box by each kid's bed, but they all read in the living room....I do have baby-size books for my 2 yr old, plus chapter books for the older kids. Today I put books into bins and put the bins onto the bookshelf, which is an idea I just saw by a friend. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get each kids to put their books into the bin. Smile

When they sit down for a reading session, there ends up being a pile of books on the floor around them, and I don't want to be a nag and keep telling them to pick it up.....I can save it for their night-time chores, but then there will be arguments about who was reading which book last.....

Any ideas? (Any ideas on how to organize the books are also welcome).

granolamom

Mon, Mar 16 2015, 9:49 pm

yeah, true, the bins in the bedrooms help with the books in the bedroom. we have books piled all over the house, but I'm probably just as guilty as my kids. I am constantly leaving my books around. I dont mind so much, as long as they arent scattered on the floor. or left face down and open, that drives me crazy. when I want to clean up I just scoop up the books and stick them on the shelf. no specific order. I used to organize them but that turned out to be an exercise in futility.

seeker

Tue, Mar 17 2015, 1:26 am

For stuff on floor (including books) I have two basic approaches:
1. Set pick-up times. Mess on floor will happen from time to time, when I have had enough of it or at the end of a day you call for clean-up time of this area before anything else happens.
2. Items left on floor and not cleaned up disappear for a length of time subject to my discretion (read: mood or memory)

iluvy

Tue, Mar 17 2015, 2:13 am

I bought plate racks (like this http://www.amazon.com/Spectrum.....+rack) and put two of them vertically into a shelf. They fill the shelf completely so there's no room to stack on top or in front. They hold all the skinny narrow books beautifully!

We have a bin in the living room for library books; they are *only* allowed to go in there.

questioner

Tue, Mar 17 2015, 9:30 pm

Which of these solutions (if any) will help with books constantly getting torn? Even my board books get torn apart. When someone takes out one book, out comes half the pile, and then they forget to put them away, step on them etc. I can't keep track of how many books got torn like that and it is really bothering me.

granolamom

Wed, Mar 18 2015, 8:05 pm

questioner wrote:

maybe put half the books away? or more than half depending on how many you have. fewer books = easier to keep them neat.
I like book bins better than shelves for young children for that reason, easier to take one at a time, and easier to put them away.