I recently got asked how I store all of our children's books. This was a very simple answer so I thought I would put it in a Behind the Scenes post! This issue haunted me at first as I had TONS of children's books even before I began homeschooling. I used to teach Kindergarten and had kept all of the books I purchased myself over the years. Finally I came up with a solution!
I bought cardboard magazine boxes, made labels for them and sorted the books by the general themes or concepts. Specifically I have these boxes from Ikea, and I used my printer to make the labels, you could use a label making machine or just hand write them!
This makes it so much easier for me to find what we are studying at a particular time, or just to find books we want to read! As for my categories of books, I made them based on the books we had, trying to divide as much as I could to make it more simple to find things.
I also keep our holiday/seasonal books like this so I can easily pull them down. I usually keep these in a special basket at the bottom of the bookshelf during that particular time so we can read them. I don't have a photo of it, but at the bottom of this bookshelf there is a shelf with no boxes-it is for Krash's books. Mostly board books, baby books, and stuff like that. Obviously those are on the bottom so he can easily get to them when he wants.
We also have books all over the house, I just keep our main storage here (it's in our living room). I rotate out books for the boys in their rooms from here. Pac Man is also old enough to find what he is looking for and also help me put books back in the correct boxes- it's awesome!
21 comments:
WOW! Your bookshelf is beautiful. Do you want to come and do mine?? We have three shelves full of books and they aren't organized at all. Now I have some inspiration :) I'll have to start collecting some boxes. Great job and thanks for sharing
I recently saw online that you can make these cardboard magazine boxes out of empty cereal boxes. You could probably figure out how to cut the box and cover it with wrapping paper or colored contact paper. Ikea does have great deals but if I can do it for free, I am all about that. You would be surprised how quickly you can actually collect cereal boxes.
I Love it!!!! I was just thinking about doing something with our books the other day!!! So yes, when we move I will invest in some of those boxes and do the same. Thanks for the insight.
wow! what a coincidence, that's exactly what we've been doing today, organizing our little bookshelf, I love the boxes, thanks for sharing :)
Fantastic! I have the same shelf...two actually! What a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Carissa B.
that is awesome!! been rearranging and rearaaning my shelf and nothing works, I will have to try this
You always have awesome ideas, but I especially like this one!! I have been struggling with what to do with all our books...now I know! Thanks!
It is a great idea to separate children’s books from the ones of the adults. I remember when a child the books for me were on the same shelf as for my parents. And it is nice that the height is reachable for the kids.
I do the same thing, but I use large cereal boxes. I buy store brand cornflakes from Wegmans and they are just the size to cut and hold books.
So, if you don't have IKEA (I don't) and you want to save money, then these work well.
The box of cereal is about $2 or less if there is a sale.
Thanks so much for this post! It literally ministered to me. I've been feeling really overwhelmed by our books lately.
I think I can definitely organize them in this way. I can grab the Ikea organizers next time we make a run to Beijing for adoption paperwork.
It will be hard for me to separate collections such as all the Little Golden Books or all the Spot books, but I can see how themes work better. I guess I need to separate out our bi-lingual books too.
Thanks again!
On the Eastern Journey--
I do have a few book boxes with certain types of books, rather than themes. For ex: Arthur, Franklin, Curious George, an a few more. The holiday/seasonal books from these sets, I have pulled and placed in the theme box so I don't foget about them! But the general books about these characters, my son likes to have all in one place. He will read an entire box at once of Franklin or George!
So, most of our boxes are themes/concepts, but some are by the type of character or book.
:) Happy organizing! I remember when I finally did this, I was in HAPPY land for days just staring at them, all pretty like that! My husband laughs at my nuttiness :).
Carisa
I just started doing the same thing this week. I had no idea those boxes were so cheap from IKEA ($4.00/each) at the local office store! Thanks for sharing-it's much more affordable to be organized now!
That looks great. I have been buying books at thrift stores and am getting quite a colection going. Where did you get the boxes?
I LOVE IT! I am so going to copy!
This is super. Thank you for posting it!
Chrys
What I love about this idea as well as organizing by theme or character is that your books won't fall over if several are taken off the shelf. That is our biggest problem which creates a mess and the boys have a hard time standing them back up to straighten the shelves. Using this idea would be a tremendous help in our family!!! Thanks for sharing!
Okay, picture me smaking myself in the forehead & going "Duh!" This makes SO much sense!!! I have different bookcases & those are labeled but it's still not perfect. I LOVE this idea!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Great idea, we WILL be doing this!
Hi Carisa, I just wanted to thank you so very much for posting this idea. It works so great! I posted about it here http://leavingfootprintsalongtheway.blogspot.com/ if you would like to see how we are using it. I really appreciate it!
God Bless you as you bring a new little one into the world soon!
In Him,
Rebecca
I taught for 5 years before having our first son (17 months now). I would hit Wal-Mart at the beginning of the back to school sale and get the boxes that the 2 pocket folders came in. Wal-Mart just puts them in the trash and they will let you have them for free. I gave some of them away and now I wish I hadn't but I can always get more.
DawsonDL@sbcglobal.net
I loooove this! We will be going to Dallas for Thanksgiving and I plan on making a trip to Ikea just for these boxes (and probably some other neat Tot School items). They are so expensive elsewhere.
Did you happen to save the file you made your labels in? I'd love to see the categories you came up with for sorting your books.
Thanks!
Lori Pedford
www.lorislittleloves.com
lorislittleloves@gmail.com
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