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How are your kids books stored? How many do you have?


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I was wondering how people store kids books? Do you have pictures? I was thinking I need another bookshelf and I might get the spice racks to keep the books they are currently reading. I have so many kids books right now and I don't like having too much stuff or clutter but I think kids book can be my one excess. I would love to see pictures of others books set ups.

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I'm not at home to post a picture, but I can tell you what has worked best here. We have a lot picture books (more than can fit in two full IKEA bookshelves kind of amount) thanks to a generous grandparent. But the problem here was a. that many books is overwhelming really and, even if it's not, some get missed when selecting from a bookcase full of books and b. my kids would pull a lot out and were horrible about putting books back on bookshelves. The divided, cubby type bookshelves are easier to reshelve for them, at least as they are older. Even then I still ended up doing it more often than not, and I only have one of those types of bookshelves.

 

So we went to a different system. I rotate picture books. The "current" books are in two 66 quart tubs  (these aren't exactly what I have, but I think the same thing). The size of these allows the picture books to be placed so that the spines show. The books are easy to see/select and easy to put back. It really works great here.

 

The not current books have been kept on bookcases. But now I think I'm going to put them in tubs under my bed. This is mostly because my husband is also a book lover and we have more books than bookshelves right now. I'd rather rehouse the picture books than shove another bookshelf in my house. Beyond that, my kids still pull the "not current" books off shelves. I don't so much care, but it's still mostly me putting those things away on the non-cubby shelves.

 

Now my boy are reading a lot of novel or chapter book types and I don't have a great system for those. So I'm back to a little bit annoyed with books here!

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We have several thousand children's books (my mother and I are both former school librarians and had large personal collections for teaching), and I keep them all out minus seaonal titles. Those I have sorted in book boxes in the schoolroom closet.

 

Also in the schoolroom I have most of our nonfiction titles, early readers, and some series books (Magic Treehouse type). Otherwise they are are on shelves in the playroom and living room. I have them organized by reading list, author, awards (Caldecott and Newbery), series, etc.

 

Library books and current read alouds are in baskets that are supposed to stay near the couch but they migrate. :-D

 

ETA: I forgot to mention that we do have one small display bookcase, but I wish we had more. Ours is in the younger boys' room and displays all our nighttime/bedtime themed books. We don't have the wall space for rain gutters, but I love that. I'm a fan of living in a library. I've seen pictures on Pinterest of spice racks used to display books and I think it's a great idea too.

 

Oops, forgot a link! Here is ours: http://www.amazon.com/Steffy-Wood-Products-Toddler-Display/dp/B008FLAA88

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I think we end up buy some sort of book shelves at least once a year LOL and I still don't have enough room for all of our books-including kids books---I have a short shelf in his room with books that are just for HIM to read (not necessarily school minded but kid books) in his room---started out with a milk crate type box when he was a baby--he would be quiet and we would go see what he was getting into and would find him sitting in the middle of all of the books he had dumped out of the crate and he would be quietly looking through the books....Miss those days LOL now that he's 10 it's rare he will sit down with a book by himself....

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I have a book shelf but I did notice the little boys can't put them back easily because they fall when I book comes out. So I put a box of books every foot across to make my own cubbies. The boxes hold the ones I would prefer guests leave alone (out of sight out of mind), and board books (these are awkward to look at). My little guy can now use the books without help.

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We've got 1000+ children's books, and right now they're wherever we have room for them! Which means generally haphazard and random piles everywhere. We need more bookshelves in ds's room, but for some reason we're having trouble finding shelves that are durable and solid and will hold up for a few years (there's no Ikea near here, and it would cost $300 to have shelves drop-shipped).

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I have 3 shelves which are all pretty packed (sorry no pictures handy!)
I like to keep my shelves very organized! And if the kids or I don't have time to tidy them up, we have a medium sized basket we keep next to the shelves that are "to be put away as soon as we can." (I never let this fill up and spill over)

Organized:

Starting with reading level

Then type (fiction, non-fiction, picture books, biographies, etc)

Then alphabetical by author

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