Momof3 Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 We've got sooo many books around this house (and I mean around) - it's driving me crazy! I love love LOVE books (especially children's books :)), and we've accumulated quite the library over the last 6 years (since I was pregnant with ds5)... Now things are starting to get out of control. Issue #1 We have most of the books on shelves in the living room. During the course of a day (or few days, or week) they get strewn all over the place or stacked every which-way and all over the shelves... (Guess who gets to do all the book straightening when the mess finally gets too big to ignore anymore?) I've tried to teach the 'one book at a time' rule...but ds-almost-2 doesn't get it right unless I'm in the room paying attention to what he's doing...and the other kids get lazy about the rule, too. (Ds5 and dd4 aren't really old enough to do proper book shelving without help...and so I usually end up doing it all by myself when I just can't take the mess anymore.) Do you just keep books off-limits in your house? I really like the kids being able to access books whenever they want. I think it lends to a love for books/reading... But I'm also looking for a way out of this chaos. Issue #2 I've collected all of the paperback picture books & kept them in baskets in the kids' rooms by their beds...just because they don't really work on the shelves, and I sooo don't like to see picture books all ripped up!!! But then they don't get read as much... Any suggestions for how you keep paperback books from being shredded (with toddlers in the house)? Issue #3 The books just don't fit on the shelves anymore! Between the board books, picture books (HC), easy readers, and read-alouds... We've accumulated more than I can fit in our living room. I'm planning to homeschool for the first time this coming fall (probably will unofficially start before then) and I've got a long list of books I'm on the lookout for... Does anyone do a rotation of books (boxing some away for a time)? We have limited space in the kids' rooms for actual bookshelves... I have a little bookcase in the basement/playroom, but that's full of other picture/board books. *Sigh* Just don't tell me I need to cut back on books. :( (Yes, we do utilize the library - we usually come home with a laundry basket full!) Looking for sympathy - and ideas. :) Any literary-loving, book-hoarding moms-with-tots out there with suggestions? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I don't organize or limit them at all (note, MY books are organized like a library, the kids books aren't organized though as there's no point). They're there for little ones to enjoy and I don't want to hamper that. I did keep paperbacks away from the younger one when he was still in the chewing and tearing phase, but other than that, the kids are free to get as many books as they like. The little one can't get them back on the shelf nicely, so he has been taught to neatly stack them beside the bookcase during cleanup time. Ours don't all fit on the shelves anymore either since I haven't bought new shelves in a year and we've gotten many books since then. We end up stacking, but it all works out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyerin Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 One horizontal row on my giant Ikea expedit bookshelf (that mostly holds school stuff) holds picture books. The paper back books are in the baskets on either end, the hard bound books are on the middle 3 cubes. The sling bookshelf is for library books. The small dark brown basket is for audio books (it gets carried all over the house for use during rest time, etc). The other basket holds books that specifically coordinate with our unit study. We also have one shelf on the bookcase in the TV room that holds chapter books. We're just now starting to amass a collection of those, though. My kids also each have a small basket or shelf in their room to keep a few books in for bed time or rest time reading. They rotate those out as they please with others that we own or that they have gotten from the library. My kids know where all the different books go and are responsible for helping me put them away. There is always a pile on the coffee table, the couch, the floor in the living room, etc, of the ones that have been looked at in the last 48 hours or so. We try to make a quick dash to return them to their rightful homes every 2-3 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momof3 Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 Thanks for the replies! :) I'm thinking I need to maybe pull some of the read-alouds (longer chapter books than my kids are going to pull off the shelf to peruse themselves) from the shelf & store those elsewhere... The kids don't really need to access those. I just like to see them out. :) That will free up some space... Craftyerin, thanks for the pictures! The baskets-on-the-shelves looks like a great way to separate the books... And I can probably - no, I can - do a better job of training the kids to pick up after themselves. Ds1 is the hardest to deal with... He'll pull every book off the shelves in his hunt for the one he wants to read... And he doesn't try to rip books, but they do get ripped. Even the hardcovers. Little Golden books are the worst. :( I have taped & retaped those books so many times... If anyone else has further advice, I'd love to hear it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lots of little ducklings Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Most of my dc are still too little to successfully use a typical bookcase, and baskets just invite messes-- to "see" the books kept on shelves or in baskets, when you are a non-reader, requires dumping them. The book sling mentioned by a PP saved my sanity. My DC, even my 2 year-old, can see the covers to choose their books, and easily return them. We have 2, purchased through One Step Ahead. They hold more than you might think (30+/sling) but not enough for our monstrous library. So the rest are on shelves in the basement, and get swapped out from time to time. As for organizing, one sling is for library books (theoretically, at least!), one is for our books, and in the basement I have sorted out at least some books based on subject matter (like science). The kids don't have independent access to these, and they know that if they mess with them, they have mommy to deal with. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lots of little ducklings Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Thanks for the replies! :) I'm thinking I need to maybe pull some of the read-alouds (longer chapter books than my kids are going to pull off the shelf to peruse themselves) from the shelf & store those elsewhere... The kids don't really need to access those. I just like to see them out. :) That will free up some space... Craftyerin, thanks for the pictures! The baskets-on-the-shelves looks like a great way to separate the books... And I can probably - no, I can - do a better job of training the kids to pick up after themselves. Ds1 is the hardest to deal with... He'll pull every book off the shelves in his hunt for the one he wants to read... And he doesn't try to rip books, but they do get ripped. Even the hardcovers. Little Golden books are the worst. :( I have taped & retaped those books so many times... If anyone else has further advice, I'd love to hear it! Posted simultaneously so I missed this! :-) My oldest, DS, was the same way. Books were a nightmare, and all my attempts at training failed. I loved that he loved "reading," but it was rough on me. Even at age 6, he's messy with them. My DDs have been easier. The slings helped tons with messiness. Rips I never solved, except to repair and reuse and try to keep the littlest ones using only board books. If a book is really special I limit its accessibility. And I don't spend much money on books except for those special ones-- used or donated ones have been great, as I feel less stressed about damage. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momma2three Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I have thousands of kids books, and it's a struggle to organize them. I keep board books in big plastic tubs in the living room. All of my kids still go diving through there. Chapter books are on Ikea Billy bookshelves in the upstairs hall. There's not much space, but we jam it in. We don't have enough space, and I'm not sure how we'll expand. Most of our books are picture books. I have built-in bookshelves that were made for records, and they're the PERFECT size. If anyone is ever planning to build custom shelves for picture books, I definitely recommend using record shelves. I have tried to organize this mess, but it's just never happening and so I have given up. The one thing I did do, after about a month of homeschooling and never being able to find the teeny tine 2 millimeter thick picture book I wanted in the vast sea of picture books ("I know we have a Let's Read and Find Out about wind...") is that I pulled out most of the non-fiction picture books and put them with curricular materials. Unfortunately, this is out of reach of the kids, but that's the necessary evil right now for me to be able to find the materials I need. They're on higher shelves, organized by subject. As we use them, though, I've been putting them back in general circulation so that my kids can look at them. For example, we just did our last bit on Ancient Egypt, so I moved all of those books to the record shelves, and DD1 likes looking through them because I've already read most of them to her so it's visiting old friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
three4me Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 We have one bookshelf for kids books, and it in my kids' bedroom. The top shelf is for chapter books that aren't being read right now, but will soon be read by DD (6yo). Next shelf has their clock/cd player and a box set of Beatrix Potter books. The next shelf has hardcover books, then a shelf with a bin of paperback early readers, and next to that bin the hardcover early readers. The next shelf down has a bin of paperback books. Next to that bin on the shelf is a box set of Fancy Nancy books. I also have a few shelves in my closet with school books (curriculum, as well as science picture books and more of our chapter books - classics mostly). I also have some paperback books that are currently out of rotation. I find that if we have the right amount of paperback books in the bin on the bookshelf the kids can flip through them easily and they don't get torn up or anything. Every once in a while I change them out with the ones on the shelf in my closet. In our main living room we have an Ikea Expedit shelf (8 cubes) and in one of the cubbies is where we keep library books. It holds roughly 30 library books. If it gets too full to fit them then it's time to return some books! I let the kids bring out however many books they want to at a sitting, but when they're done they need to put them away where they go. DD knows where they all go. DS (almost 4yo) knows where the library books, paperback books, and hardcover books go. He doesn't usually bother with the early readers. The bins I use are from Target. These ones. They fit the paperbacks really well. And our paperback early readers fit sideways so I can fit a whole bunch in there. Hope that helps some! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vida Winter Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 By room, by size, and hardback vs paperback. Special subjects (like science) get their own bookcase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 There are 2 general bookshelves that the youngest is allowed to take books from. I expect to re-shelve books to those shelves at least 2x/day. If HoHo takes books from other shelves I gently redirect her to leave those books alone when I notice she has done it, and we put them back. It doesn't happen very often now. It took a few days to learn. The older kids are allowed to take books from any bookshelf, but they have to ask if it is from my room. :) There are 6 bookshelves in the livingroom and they have 2 cubbies of an Expedit upstairs to put books that have migrated up to their room into. I periodically bring piles of the books back downstairs to the shelves here to clear space upstairs for more. I have seasonally rotated books. It can be a fun way to have fresh books - pulling all but spring off the shelves for now, for instance. We currently have 2-3 bins of kid books in the basement. Mostly picturebooks which I am considering bringing back into the rotation now that my toddler seems to not be as hard on books. I do find that rotating them in general helps the enjoyment of books. It's like getting a new shipment of books when the stored bins come out. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 The one thing I did do, after about a month of homeschooling and never being able to find the teeny tine 2 millimeter thick picture book I wanted in the vast sea of picture books ("I know we have a Let's Read and Find Out about wind...") is that I pulled out most of the non-fiction picture books and put them with curricular materials. Unfortunately, this is out of reach of the kids, but that's the necessary evil right now for me to be able to find the materials I need. They're on higher shelves, organized by subject. As we use them, though, I've been putting them back in general circulation so that my kids can look at them. For example, we just did our last bit on Ancient Egypt, so I moved all of those books to the record shelves, and DD1 likes looking through them because I've already read most of them to her so it's visiting old friends. I did the same thing with our Lets Read and Find Out books - it felt wrong, but it was hard to find them (and I wanted to protect them from the toddler). I do have some separate sections for some book types - naturalist type books are by my Handbook of Nature Study, Chapter books I want us to get to are mixed in with some chapter books they might pick up on their own nearby, etc. Not too regimented, but organized enough so I can usually find what I am looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyMountain Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I have a bookshelf for just kids books and half a cube organizer is used for books. I also have 2 spice racks that I use to store the books we are currently reading. I organize by categories like picture books and then history and science. I still need more space. I am getting lots of library books now and I need a place for those to go and I need more space for books we own too. We are building loft beds for the kids that will have book shelves but I don't want the kids to think that either their brother or sister can't read it because it is in their room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Oh, yes, library books have a separate basket. It used to be a certain shelf, but we moved and having a basket for them here works nicely. Well segregated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pollo_la Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 We built a library! Okay, not really, but close!! I was having the same issue. There were books everywhere - ALL THE TIME. So, we actually do have a separate "cabin" type building on our property that is a guest house/music room/library. All the book shelves line the walls of that little cabin, and we only have ONE tiny bookshelf in the house. We treat the cabin kind of like an actual library. The kids each have a few books in the house, and when they want something new, they have to bring another book back out. Of course not everyone has their own cabin/library, but I think the key is simply not allowing the kids access to the "extra" books, and to only have a few out at a time. If you can't move the book shelves to a completely separate "off limits" area of the house, then I would use cabinets instead of shelves. Close the books inside the cabinets and lock them up if you have to. Then only let the children have access to a few books at a time, and use the "extra books" like you would a library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I have lots and lots of books thanks to a generous grandparent. Finding a system they can easily access and put away along with rotating has worked well here. I got 27 qt tubs. They are just the right size to put picture books spine up/vertically. I got smaller, divided type tubs for paperback and smaller books as we got older. Two large tubs and three paperback type tubs are in our main bookshelf. The rest of the books (many) are in my bedroom. Seasonal types are in tubs under the bed. The rotating ones are bookshelves. Those books are switched in and out of tubs in sets. We enjoy the books more this way. Every rotation is a revisit of old favorites. My boys can pick up and put away books in tubs, and could do it much younger than bookshelves. Because the books are spine up, you can easily pick what you want. Even better, when you take one or two out the whole bookshelf row doesn't collapse on the child! I think the sling shelf above could work the same way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 We organized by eliminating the dinning room and turning it into Wall to Wall floor to ceiling bookshelves on two walls, plus two metal cabinets and two more bookshelves along another wall plus one more small bookshelf butted up against the desk in the middle of it all....and we still spilled over into a storage room and book shelves in both kids' rooms and the Master Bedroom closet. And current reads are kept on a cart. And I had to put some in boxes. I SO need to cull down...:) (And no, I didn't actually pay full price for even a quarter of those. Lots of relatives that love books donated plenty, plus I had a ton I had been accumulating from childhood, plus I hit garage and rummage sales and co-op sales and library sales all the time and have for years. Gotta love 50 cent World Atlases and 1 box for a dollar biographies :hurray: ). Maybe somebody needs to stage an intervention..... :confused1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pollo_la Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 One Step at a time - There is a thrift store by us that sells all their books for 10 cents a piece, except for 1/2 off Saturdays!! I accumulate way too many books from that store! ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momof3 Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 Wow - great ideas, everyone! Thanks! :) (My favorite has got to be the cabin/library. Can't wait to see dh's face when I mention that one! :)) We have pretty limited space right now, but looking at a possible housing move this spring... Some things I will work on for now...and other ideas I will tuck away for whenever we settle into our next locale. :) I LOVE shopping used books... We've gotten most of ours at Goodwill. :) Dh knows I can't ever go there without coming away with several great finds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I have thousands of books, most of which I collected before I even had kids. They have lived in the basement until the time was right to bring them upstairs. When my kids were tots, I had one of those sling book organizers in their closet. (It was in front of some plastic drawer units that I didn't use all the time.) Actually it had slings on the top bins on the bottom, which were good for little board books and a few toys. It was a nice way to make the books easily accessible to little ones. When I needed them to be contained in their room I simply opened the closet and let them have at it. I also had little piles of books in the bathrooms, and in wicker bins in the family room (which was mainly their play room). The wicker bins fit nicely under the wooden furniture, so the room looked neat. When they were about 3, I bought a good-sized bookcase and a dresser with a tall hutch for their bedroom. These have a lot of shelf space. I also had a couple of those white cube storage things which I used for some books. I had a little wooden CD shelving unit on top of the cube shelves, and it held quite a few small board / paperback books. Eventually I needed to expand to a cupboard in the family room, which still looks neat because it has doors. And recently I moved the white cube storage into the family room and put some new paperback book series (mostly boxed sets) in few layers on top. Other than the box sets / series previously mentioned, I shelve most books in the kids' room. Fiction generally goes in the bookcase, nonfiction on the hutch by subject - science, math storybooks, biography, geography, religion, etc. Read-alouds go on a top shelf. Spanish books and practice workbooks go in the cupboard in the family room. I try to make every book easily accessible, and they are allowed to take out any book they want at any time. I still have a lot of books in bookcases in the basement. I really want to bring many of them upstairs as the kids are ready for them, but first I need to rotate out some of the preschool books. It is a never-ending task to go through the books and decide which ones are too young for them or unlikely to be read, and make room for stuff from the basement (or the next influx from a birthday/holiday). My kids are 7. One of them is constantly reading, goes through a pile of books at a time, and is often in the middle of 10 different books. She is not a person who develops neat habits readily; quite the contrary. So I just periodically re-shelve the books. I deliberately move things around from time to time so they will notice the books that have been overlooked. I figure, there's no point having books if they aren't going to be used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 One Step at a time - There is a thrift store by us that sells all their books for 10 cents a piece, except for 1/2 off Saturdays!! I accumulate way too many books from that store! ;-) Oh so cool! Can I come? :) (you are obviously not the person who will be staging my intervention :lol: ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I never had a problem with tots ripping books. The books that were always within their reach at the ripping age were board books. Paperbacks were in places that were a little harder to access. But even when they had access, they really weren't rippers. I taught them to be careful and they complied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fdrinca Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I really believe in rotating books and toys. It helps make sure we read/use all of our things. There's a small bookshelf in our living/play/school space that has all library books and whatever seasonal/thematic/rotated books we're now reading. The rest of our books are organized by the way we use them on big bookshelves in our office. Since we do a lot of theme/seasonal rotations, our books are sorted by that - so picture books are mixed with nonfiction. Before we had more shelf space, I kept our books in tubs. I'm a visual person, so once they went into tubs I felt that they were gone. Now that I can see them, I"m reminded to rotate, reminded what books we have, and can come grab that little book about XXX that the kids need. The upside of having a small collection of books out at any time is that it doesn't really matter how they're put back on the shelf. The disorganization is contained. The kids are welcome to come pick books out from the office if they like, although the never really do. We go to the library once a week, so they get their fill of self-selected books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abba12 Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 We have a board book shelf that everyone has access to Then, we have a shelf which holds picture books, golden books, dr seuss books, and beginning readers which are not specifically for teaching reading (my bob books etc are stored in the schoolroom) and other books for the 6 and under crowd. We have taught the baby not to touch this shelf, and our 3yo has just started being allowed access to it. It gets messy, but it's only half size so I can easily re-sort and stack the books each weekend. All other books are in the schoolroom and off limits. My plan is that the kids will be allowed to have a set number in their current reading pile, and to get a new one they have to return the old one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 We have a single 6 shelf bookshelf in the living room/kitchen (it sits between). It holds (top row) curricula and binders of completed work, (next row) manipulatives and several types of paper, (third row) our current read alouds and books that correspond to what we are doing in school at the moment, and then each kid gets a shelf to himself to hold library books and their current "favorites" they want easily accessible. The side has jars of art supplies they are free to use like pencils, markers, scissors. The top has two baskets of art supplies that require permission like paint, chalk pastels, In the basement library we have 1 short and 5 tall bookshelves of books "not currently in use" organized by genre and then authors last name. No one messes with the books downstairs without me. They are free to use those books but not without asking to move them upstairs. We switch out every week or two and Ill probably give them permission to do it themselves when they can reasonably alphabetize them correctly. I've never had a "ripper". I had a drawer once though so I commiserate. Maybe give him/her a phone book to rip? We gave him a coloring book and it fixed the problem after a week or two of reminding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I never had a problem with tots ripping books. The books that were always within their reach at the ripping age were board books. Paperbacks were in places that were a little harder to access. But even when they had access, they really weren't rippers. I taught them to be careful and they complied. I haven't had much of a problem with this either, BUT there is an added element of challenge when your kids' ages are spread out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LatteMama Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 All the bookshelves in my living room are for my books and next year's school books. I have another bookcase with only children's books in my bedroom. It was a disaster when it was in my daughter's room! Though I still do quite a bit of reshelving every day. :001_rolleyes: With regards to book ripping, has anyone used clear contact paper? My mom covered all of our picture books and paperbacks with clear contact paper and they really held up well through seven kids. I covered my daughter's books when she was a baby/toddler. I stopped covering books because it seemed like a waste of time because she was so good with her books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 If they are off the floor they are organized. I can't keep up with more than that. I'm trying to teach my youngest to put books back with the spine out but I consider it a success if he just puts it on the shelf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tohru Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Cardboard Banker's Boxes I homeschool toddler to teen with huge age gaps in between, so Banker's Boxes has worked out to save the ones we want to keep, but no one needs now. I've noticed all our books are themed in some way so I separated them out into different Banker's Boxes the way I saw them themed. For example: Paperbacks: Free Reading, Age 9-12 Historical Fiction, Age 9-12 Historical Ficiton, Teen Fiction picture books, Elementary non-fiction picture books. Seasonal books by age range, in different boxes, stored away until the right season. And then a handful set out in book baskets. Good luck. Sometimes a great book purge brings relief too :) I've been through two of them in 15 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 We have a large upstairs hallway with a sofa and several bookshelves in it, so most of the books are up there. I use the cube shelves for kids' books, because the small spaces keep things from falling down as much. The kids have free access to those, and the 2yo and 5yo do strew the books around. They've been taught to put them back. I keep a few very special books up on high shelves, and the big kids each keep a couple of special books in their rooms. Babies and toddlers don't have free access to the hallway area because of the steps. Library books live in a box downstairs, and again, no free access to them for babies or toddlers. There is a box of board books downstairs, where babies can get them, and the books just get tossed into that box. I also choose a pile of picture books from the upstairs shelves to keep downstairs, on a table, and I rotate those periodically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indian summer Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Have you ever seen rain gutter book shelves? If not, google image them. These work great for little kids because they can put them away themselves easily and see the titles well too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicai Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 We have a lot of books. Presently each of the kids has a bookcase in their own room filled with age-appropriate unorganized fiction. Our school room has a lot of builtin bookshelves. The uppers are all claimed by me for adult books, curriculum, and I have a shelf each for history and science books. That way I can always find what I need for teaching. My oldest is tall enough to get stuff out of there but she is also careful with the books and usually puts them back. I have some lower shelves in the schoolroom mainly filled with more advanced chapter books/read aloud type things. They are safe from the baby at the moment but I will probably have to make some changes as she gets older. Oh, and we also have a library book basket that the kids are trained to return the books to. I can't stand it when a library book goes missing :mad: I would like the books to be better organized and I've been slowly working on getting them all put into LibraryThing with appropriate tagging so that I can pull them out when they tie in nicely with something we're studying. That's a big project though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking Squirrels Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 School books are kept in an expedit that houses most of our homeschooling materials. That is in my bedroom so the toddler can't get to them unless someone leaves the door open. Picture books are kept in a 3x3 cubbie system from target. Like the expedit but smaller cubbies. I split them up and put half in a box and half out then we switch sets whenever we feel it's needed. 2 of the cubbies are for board books. Besides keeping the board books on those two shelves I don't do much to keep it all organized. Library books go in baskets kept on top of those shelves. My books are on big bookcases out where they are accessible by the toddler but she usually doesn't bother them. Too many other books she can get to that are more interesting. She went through a short phase of ripping them off the shelves (along with every picture book, every DVD, and anything else she could reach) but I just put them back and told her no. She did rip two books before we got out of that phase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BugsMama Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 I came up with this system a while back, and it's been a total sanity saver for me. You just stick the color coded labels on, and the kids just have to keep the colors together. I have picture guided shelf labels for the younger kids, and the books have stayed organized and easy to use for almost a year :) I have the younger, elementary pack free on my blog :) You can check it out here- I hope it helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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