Overwhelmed by books...ideas?

[Halcyon]

I am sure we don't have as many books as some on here, but I feel overwhelmed by them. I want to read all of them and instead we don't read nearly as many as i want. I guess I can click buy faster than I read!

 

I am trying to think of a way to manage and get through the books. Some it is true are reference, but we rarely reference them! Not because they aren't great, but because there are too many, so I forget I own them. Then there are read alouds, which I am better about getting to....anyway, I need some ideas. I was thinking of picking out perhaps 10 books that would work with our studies this year and putting the rest in bins. That way i might actually USE them. Or more anally, go through them all and decided on an order of using them...but for reference books, that wont really work. And they are GOOD reference books, useful, enlightening...when I go through them i think "why aren't we reading this??" But what with curriculum and sports and music and my work we just don't get to them all.

 

It makes me feel overwhelmed. I Felt the same when I overbought yarn which there was no way i could use up in 10 years. So I put it all in the shed, except for just what I was working on, so I didn't have the guilt. Might something similar work for books? Or if they are hidden, will they be forgotten?

 

Would love to hear your technique for actually USING your books.

[BlsdMama]

I am sure we don't have as many books as some on here, but I feel overwhelmed by them. I want to read all of them and instead we don't read nearly as many as i want. I guess I can click buy faster than I read!

 

I am trying to think of a way to manage and get through the books. Some it is true are reference, but we rarely reference them! Not because they aren't great, but because there are too many, so I forget I own them. Then there are read alouds, which I am better about getting to....anyway, I need some ideas. I was thinking of picking out perhaps 10 books that would work with our studies this year and putting the rest in bins. That way i might actually USE them. Or more anally, go through them all and decided on an order of using them...but for reference books, that wont really work. And they are GOOD reference books, useful, enlightening...when I go through them i think "why aren't we reading this??" But what with curriculum and sports and music and my work we just don't get to them all.

 

It makes me feel overwhelmed. I Felt the same when I overbought yarn which there was no way i could use up in 10 years. So I put it all in the shed, except for just what I was working on, so I didn't have the guilt. Might something similar work for books? Or if they are hidden, will they be forgotten?

 

Would love to hear your technique for actually USING your books.

 

I did the same thing you just did - I packed a bunch up.  I just did it.  We'll see if it helps at all.

[Kalmia]

Just thinking: After you select out the books you want to use for your studies, how about selecting a few that you will leave out around the house (on the coffee table, on bed tables, in the car) that are set in the path of the children so that they might discover them on their own and read them during downtime. Maybe select four per month for twelve months. On the first of each month pick up the old selections and replace them with the next four. Like at the bookstore, the titles that are face out on the shelves get selected more often so why not strategically place books you hope will get read similarly at home?

[Halcyon]

These are great ideas. I also downloaded book crawler app from iTunes to help organize them, so even if they ARE in bins, i know what's there.

[PeterPan]

I try to pull the books I want to use for the year and put them onto a distinct shelf.  It's not hard to put them in order.  Just stack and apply post-its labeled 1,2,3 for the week.  And yes, in our house, it has to go on the plan or it stays as a great intention.  

[texasmama]

^{I have success in using "extras" only if I put them in the pile of read alouds that we are currently doing.  It might take all year to get through one large reference book, but if you glean a paragraph or two of info every day, that is worthwhile.  I have successfully added many, many extras this way.} 

 

^{I also go through and do a ruthless clean out periodically of books.  We are Half Price Books junkies - all of us!  So we are book-laden, with limited shelf and wall space.  I have books for the future sitting on the plant ledge in oldest dd's bedroom.  (bag over head)  Because it causes me physical pain to get rid of books, I ease the pain by giving them to newbie homeschoolers or folks at the co-op.  I am a big book pusher at co-op.  "Hey Lisa!  I know little Maggie would love the fifth in The Series of Unfortunate Events!  Here - take it.  We have three."  I also grab kids I know when mom is not there and push books on them.  I'm sure people hate me...}

 

 

[Sarah CB]

I move mine around into specific-purpose shelves and bins.  I have my books organized by historical period (4 year cycle) so I always know where my history books are.  When I do my planning for the year I spend some time going through my books and I put them into the plans for the year.  So, if we're planning on specific projects I make sure to write down the books that will be useful to access for those projects.

 

Each week the kids have books they need to read.  This goes on a chart for them and I usually pull those books from the shelves downstairs and bring them up to a "current" shelf in our living room.  Or, if the book  is specifically for one child it would go into that boy's homeschool basket.  

 

I also change books around to various places in the house.  We have a variety of books out on our coffee table as well as a couple of books in the bathroom.  

[Sarah CB]

I move mine around into specific-purpose shelves and bins.  I have my books organized by historical period (4 year cycle) so I always know where my history books are.  When I do my planning for the year I spend some time going through my books and I put them into the plans for the year.  So, if we're planning on specific projects I make sure to write down the books that will be useful to access for those projects.

 

Each week the kids have books they need to read.  This goes on a chart for them and I usually pull those books from the shelves downstairs and bring them up to a "current" shelf in our living room.  Or, if the book  is specifically for one child it would go into that boy's homeschool basket.  

 

I also change books around to various places in the house.  We have a variety of books out on our coffee table as well as a couple of books in the bathroom.  

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

After unpacking ofter our move I felt the same way you do. Lots of great books but they are not used because our curriculum gets in the way. I handled this two ways....first I went through all my books and if a subject had multiple books I chose a book to represent each level (grammar, logic, rhetoric). If I had two grammar books on the senses I looked through them, got the kids view on the books , and then chose one to keep. There were some exceptions...but for a rule to start with I used that guide. The other way was each week I pulled books off the shelf that fit in with our studies. These went into a book basket and each day dd spends 20-30 mins with book basket books each day.

 

Seeing all the unused books also had me change ds's curriculum for history. I happen to find our MOH as I unpacked (forgot I owned it) and decided to use this for history along with books on my shelf for each time period. It has made a difference.

[matrips]

We have tons of baskets/bins that I 'file' the books in. The baskets have to be shorter than the books so you can see the books well, and I have them so all the titles/fronts are facing towards you. The kids rifle through the bins all the time to look for books to read; they can see the cover easily. The baskets are kept at kid height so they have pick through them. They read all the time! Including all those reference books I never got to use! :). It's the accessibility that engages them I believe.

[justme824]

I've got the same problem...and trying to figure out a solution here too!

[Pen]

We have a very small house.  We also are in a cold wet part of the country where things saved tend to go moldy and mildewy (ask me how I know).   Sometimes I hear about people with whole rooms that can be dedicated to homeschool, or even a library and am envious, but other times I think, wow, I'd probably just fill them up and be totally overwhelmed!

 

I get rid of a lot.  I have made a few mistakes I regret that way, but by and large, getting rid of excess has been better than having too much around.  The errors of things I got rid of and wish I still had, have been compensated more than enough by the greater lightness I have achieved in getting rid of many more that I do not even recall, nor think of, nor miss--and indeed, in most cases, I could replace the things I got rid of and wish I hadn't...and yet have not done so.   Which may in fact mean it was just as well really.  And I do use the library a lot, though sometimes we want our own of something they have.  

 

I try to get rid of one or more old when the new come in.  I don't always succeed, but it is a good rule of thumb.  Sometimes I try to stop getting new until I have read the old.

 

Sometimes I let ds do the getting rid of...like his finished 4th grade math workbook I was holding onto for unknown reasons: he pitched it into the recycle bin.  Maybe I thought he would need to review it someday, or do the skipped pages perhaps? or to show someone what he did? Or the feeling that it was a good one and I paid a lot for it, so maybe should keep it?   I really don't know why I had not gotten rid of it myself, but if he knows the material, he knows it, and the book can go, and I doubt that anyone wanted an already mostly used up and written in workbook, nor in reality would we probably actually go back and use it as a reference.

 

If something is really and truly a reference book (dictionary, atlas, for example) it has a shelf to go on.  A reference book is something I actually refer to.  If I do not, then it is not, it is only a good wishful thinking thought, that I might maybe could perhaps use it, that is, if I could remember I had it and remember where it is, and get to it.  When I cut back, I also picked what I most really use.  That meant I got rid of an OED and a large Websters 3rd International dictionary, because 99% of the time what I actually used was the smaller easier to manage Webster's Collegiate.   I had had more than one Bible, but like the dictionary, decided I only needed the one I most used.   I had had too many cookbooks, I still have more than one, but each now has to justify itself, and I am trying to follow the rule that any new one will need to be accompanied by an old one leaving.

 

 I try to ask myself if I have already read something am I really going to read it again?   I try to ask myself, if I got something a while back, and still have not read it, when am I going to do that?  If I don't have the time or inclination now, why do I think I will have that next week or next year or next decade?  Things tend to get more busy, and yet more books tend to come.   Unread books are often a burden, a reminder of things undone, a busy noisiness in the background.  If not now, when?  If I think in a few years I might get to ___, I need to remember that by then there may be better things on that subject available anyway, or by then I may no longer be interested in ____.  

 

I try not to confuse my home with a library. 

 

Simplicity is calming.  

[duckens]

I donate a lot to the library.

 

For the ones you keep in bins, make an index card for each bin. 

 

On the top of the card,

1) describe the type of books in the bin (if you organized in that way): Poetry, early chapter, Harry Potter, drawing/art, etc. 

2) describe the type of bin: 30gal blue or 48gal grey or 18 gal clear.

3) List your titles that are in that bin.

4) Write a number on the top-left corner of your card.  Write (or tape using packing tape) the same number on the box.

 

In this way, you should be able to find which book you need of the 10 bins you have in the basement.

 

DO NOT LOSE THE CARDS.  Mine are in a pile, with a rubber band around them, in a plastic ziplock, in the top left drawer of my desk.

 

So, for example, if you are looking for your Jack Prelutsky "Something Big Has Been Here," you will look through your cards, see that Poetry is in Box #7 (and confirm the title on the card), and go looking for the clear blue bin with a 7 on it.

 

This system is also good for organizing anything in storage: Halloween, Christmas, childrens' size 2 clothing, the winter coat that is two sizes two big for your oldest child (but was free).

[Hannah]

 I have my books organized by historical period (4 year cycle) so I always know where my history books are.  

 Our history books are stored this way too.  I'm pretty anal, so spent some time putting everything into librarything.com and used the SOTW chapters to cross-reference the topic.  Even though older dd is no longer using SOTW, I still know where to start searching for a particular book on the shelves.

 

Science books are shelved by topic. Children and Teen fiction (other than historic fiction) goes by approximate reading level, etc.

 

I pull the books to our 'current' shelf for the time we're studying a particular period or topic.

[Pen]

I donate a lot to the library.

 

For the ones you keep in bins, make an index card for each bin. 

 

On the top of the card,

1) describe the type of books in the bin (if you organized in that way): Poetry, early chapter, Harry Potter, drawing/art, etc. 

2) describe the type of bin: 30gal blue or 48gal grey or 18 gal clear.

3) List your titles that are in that bin.

4) Write a number on the top-left corner of your card.  Write (or tape using packing tape) the same number on the box.

 

In this way, you should be able to find which book you need of the 10 bins you have in the basement.

 

DO NOT LOSE THE CARDS.  Mine are in a pile, with a rubber band around them, in a plastic ziplock, in the top left drawer of my desk.

 

So, for example, if you are looking for your Jack Prelutsky "Something Big Has Been Here," you will look through your cards, see that Poetry is in Box #7 (and confirm the title on the card), and go looking for the clear blue bin with a 7 on it.

 

This system is also good for organizing anything in storage: Halloween, Christmas, childrens' size 2 clothing, the winter coat that is two sizes two big for your oldest child (but was free).

 

 

 

I used to do more or less this too, and still do with some things.   It works extremely well as a system to organize things, but does not solve the problem of organizing things that are just "too much".  Having books stored that are more than one can get to read because of whatever there is, music, sports, etc. just moves the time of dealing with the excess to the future.  

 

I do still have some books in boxes like that, for example, ones meant to be gifts for last minute birthday  parties where I would not have time to shop.  And some books that are, like the clothes, "to grow into".    As we have got to those stages, some grow into books have been used and appreciated, but just as many or more have turned out not to be.  Similarly we had some things like a pair of wonderful high quality hiking boots too large for ds, received as a gift, and so stored, and yet when he got to that size, he had no interest in the boots, so we had just done the work to save and catalog them carefully in order to end up giving them away in the end anyway.

[Zoo Keeper]

The best way I have found to *know and use* the books you DO have is stop buying any more.  Pick a time limit, and NO new books take up residence in the house at all unless it is an absolute and real need ( such as your son has finished his math books and needs the next level...). You do not buy a book because it looks interesting, or is a good deal, or because your little darling gives you puppy dog eyes over it. Be ruthless.  Just say no.  Go to the library instead. 

 

 When it comes time to study ___, SHOP YOUR SHELVES.  You will be surprised by what you find.  Lots of good stuff there. Use the library for any gaps.

 

 Due to various financial hiccups, I have been working this way for the past few years. I have been making more school plans based on what I *do have*, not on someone else's pie-in-the-sky list of books.  No one has suffered.  We have actually been *reading* some of that stuff I always thought we didn't have time for.  Re-reading it even.  Talking about our books more.  Some of my boys are starting to treasure their books more, now that we've had fewer books scheduled for school and more time to "walk around" in them.  I'm understanding better why programs like AO, Memoria Press, and LCC seem to have a skinny book list when compared to SL, Veritas, and others. 

 

I love books. Lots and lots of books.  But sometimes more is just....more. 

 

(and since you didn't ask for it, :) I've been purging the shelves based on a piece of advice I read in another thread: If the house burned down, would I pay to replace this book?  That question has been very helpful as I sort the wheat from the chaff.)

[justme824]

The best way I have found to *know and use* the books you DO have is stop buying any more.  Pick a time limit, and NO new books take up residence in the house at all unless it is an absolute and real need ( such as your son has finished his math books and needs the next level...). You do not buy a book because it looks interesting, or is a good deal, or because your little darling gives you puppy dog eyes over it. Be ruthless.  Just say no.  Go to the library instead. 

 

 When it comes time to study ___, SHOP YOUR SHELVES.  You will be surprised by what you find.  Lots of good stuff there. Use the library for any gaps.

 

 Due to various financial hiccups, I have been working this way for the past few years. I have been making more school plans based on what I *do have*, not on someone else's pie-in-the-sky list of books.  No one has suffered.  We have actually been *reading* some of that stuff I always thought we didn't have time for.  Re-reading it even.  Talking about our books more.  Some of my boys are starting to treasure their books more, now that we've had fewer books scheduled for school and more time to "walk around" in them.  I'm understanding better why programs like AO, Memoria Press, and LCC seem to have a skinny book list when compared to SL, Veritas, and others. 

 

I love books. Lots and lots of books.  But sometimes more is just....more. 

 

(and since you didn't ask for it, :) I've been purging the shelves based on a piece of advice I read in another thread: If the house burned down, would I pay to replace this book?  That question has been very helpful as I sort the wheat from the chaff.)

Awesome!

 

Right now I even want to quit the library for a bit. We have more than enough at home that hasn't been used/read. There are a couple topics on the agenda for this year that we have nothing for and I am forcing myself to use the library for those. But really, outside of that, I want to just use what we have already at home.

[Pen]

On more thought, Halcyon, maybe if you and the boys started grouping books by subject, you and they would see things they want to read, or things that really will not be read and can be purged, and it would familiarize the boys themselves with what you have and where it is going to be placed.  A realistic sense of how many you can read in a year would also help--that is not going to change much by how you shelve, box or otherwise organize them.  Unless you plan to give up other activities, which would likely be a mistake. there are only so many hours in each day to read, and it will probably not be more than it was last year.  Plus, also, maybe you could post here what you have and others who are familiar with those books could help you decide what is redundant, what is a gem, and so on.

[stoverdavid30]

I know how you feel.  I have over $35,000 worth of boks and I'm starting to purge.  It's not a good thing when you have more books than most local libraries.