We have a lot of children’s books. I offer photographic evidence of three of five shelves of children’s books. Not only do I need to straighten and organize these books, but I must make room for the next school year’s books. I have two boxes of children’s books that need a home on our shelves. My mission today is to cull all of the baby-ish books and box them up for storage. I can’t bear to give them away; I’m thinking about giving them/reading them to my grandchildren (Lord willing!).
And this is my “desk.” Let’s just put that in quotes because I do not use it as a desk. I can’t remember the last time I sat there to do “work.” Maybe if I clean it off, I’ll have a place to do “work,” or at least have a space for our school administration stuff.
Last year, I tried keeping the books organized by subject and reading level. It didn’t survive since the kids didn’t seem to understand my system. So, I started to wonder how much of my life I would waste if I attempted a Dewey decimal system. We have so many books now, I couldn’t tell you what we have and what we don’t have. I need to do something! If you have a system for organizing your kids’ books, please share it!!
A couple of hours later:
I filled three boxes of baby-ish books, cleared the books out of Hannah’s room, and organized these shelves. These are more or less organized by reading level and subject, and sets are together. I made room (reserved by the storage boxes full of blocks and puppets) for more.
On to the desk!
And many, many hours later:
As you can see (now that I’ve cleaned it off), this desk has been used for crafting. The dark marks are from a purple ink pad that I dropped while trying to turn it inside out. (That last sentence is all you need to prove that I’m not all that crafty).
I think I’ve found my favorite hobby in reading and writing.
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Leslie Wiggins 
19 responses to “Tackle-It Tuesday”
Sorry, no suggestions for ya – we have a lot of books too but you’ve got me beat! (Give us time – my kids are little yet.) My organization system? Keep ’em off the floor. :O)
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We don’t have quite as many books as you, but we have a lot. I just organize ours by size & type of book.Great tackle! Thanks for stopping by my blog!
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We just got rid of my “desk”. It looked like yours and served no practical function beyond holding piles of stuff with no home.My organization method is really simple: the really good, quality books are kept in a cabinet upstairs in the living room. The rest have plenty of shelf space in the family room downstairs. That probably wasn’t helpful, but that is what I do.
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Love the idea of saving books for the grandkids! But, the problem is choosing which ones to save and where do I save them?! (LOL)Great Job on the tackle!
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There is nothing quite as satsifying as bringing order to a pile of books. Perhaps that is because I LOVE books. If I could afford it, I would buy books every week…lol! Some day I dream of having one whole library room with ceiling to floor bookshelves…sigh.By the way, is your email address Latin for Light Came?Thanks for stopping by!
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Good job! I am still working out the kinks for organizing but I think the stackable cubic system may work best for us since I can divide by subjects. I have a three-tired wire basket thingy (from Costco) that the girls keep their individual notebooks and required reading in. I plan on taking some pics of our before and after “school room” very soon :)The books that we have but are not being used during the current school year go up on some shelves that are part of that t.v. unit I repainted last year (remember that?)
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Last year we hung cabinets in our study room (otherwise known as a dining room that is not a dining room at all!). Each child has his/her own cabinet with hooks underneath. This has worked out very well for keeping school stuff organized. Of course, we don’t homeschool, but you might be surprised at how much they have to keep at home. They are issued duplicate text books to keep at home. Our bookshelves are overflowing but I just stack what won’t fit in baskets and put them on top, or below, or wherever!Yours looks great!
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looks great! It’s so hard to figure out what works.. i’ve got 4 kids and each of them something different works, so communal areas are harder to keep under control!
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I love books, too. Especially children’s books. One system I did for my first graders was to organize the books by generes into clear tubs. I used color dot stickers to label the back of the book and the front of the tub. The kids knew to put the book back to it’s matching colored tub. It is time consuming at first but the system worked very well for them! Good luck.
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Natalie, I was thinking of color-coding in some way! I am thinking that I would try the dot stickers to indicate reading level so that it will be easier for the kids to keep the books organized. And it will help me find the books I need when it’s time to read them with our curriculum.
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Great job! Doesn’t it feel great to get more organized?!I’ve been thinking about these:http://www.flickr.com/photos/castanet/2664124677/I think I really need some kind of system like these. They are at ikea and not very expensive.
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Those are nice!
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Reading and writing is my favorite hobby as well. And pretty much my only one these days.We too are overrun by books. Each of my four children has a bookshelf in their room that is overflowing. If I think they are good books I simply can’t get rid of them.Great job Leslie!
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My daughter’s books look like that every night! We do not hav tha many but when you have a child that likes to off load books, once a day is enough! Still, you tackle looks good!Stop by my blog, I am tackling an outhouse, not a bathroom but an outhouse!
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I separate my books by subject and it has worked out well for us.Then I have a space for board books and story books (I then subcategorize them by size).We are pretty big bibliophiles around here, too!I hope you can find a system that works well for you….It drove me bonkers until I found my niche.
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They look MUCH better now!
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When I taught first grade I organized my hundreds of books by author. I’m a big believer in helping the kids learn who the author and the illustrator is. I put the color circle stickers on the books and then they returned them to matching color milk crate type cubes. I would do A-D all blue and then E-H all red, etc… you can do that however. I thought about doing subjects, but with the younger books it was just easier to do authors. Hope this helps you out! I love the green color of your desk!
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Looks nice! I love the low bookshelves. I need some of those!
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Tiffany — thanks for the suggestion. That system sounds like something easy enough for the kids to understand and use.
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