How do you organize your children's books?

JenniC1135

We have so many books.  SO MANY.  Partly because I was a primary teacher, and partly because we love to read, but it's overwhelming.  The kids have books in their rooms, and we have them in the living room and family room and some stored away in the office.  But we end up reading the same ones over and over because they are the ones that end up on the top of the pile of the overflowing book basket.  I went and got new shelves from Ikea and some bins and was thinking of sorting them by theme or something, and maybe pulling some out to be brought out monthly based on holidays or seasons - I think if I labeled them well, it could happen - but still.  Looking for better ideas.

Mrs.Tony

We have tons too.  Some are in the playroom in baskets and on the built-in shelves we have.  I keep a basket in the family room and we circulate them as we read them.  I felt like we were ignoring so many that I wanted to make sure we read them all.  the seasonal ones are put away (at least xmas is) but the others are in one basket all together.

CleoKitty

I've kind of crudely sorted ours by type:

All picture books are on one bookshelf in dd's room, science-y books are on a different shelf in ds' room, poetry and art books are grouped together on a shelf in the dining room, easy readers have their own spot, other non-fiction is grouped by general topic and placed together, chapter books on the bookcase in the living room, etc. It's not perfect, but it lets us distribute the books around the house and we have a rough idea where to find each one based on its type.

shouldbworkin

I do bring some out that are theme-y for holidays ... I put them in the bathrooms.  lol  My kids love to read on the toilet, what can I say?  I will also put some on their nightstands to read before bed.  I also pull out whatever readers they're ready for at the moment and leave those on their nightstand for awhle before they get sick of them and need something else.  Or, if they seem to be getting sick of what we're reading, I'll put back what we had out and bring out something else that might interest them.  Right now, DS has a bunch of nature books on his nightstand to read b/c he was over what we'd been reading before. 

I have some in buckets in the living room and den, but we never read those so I really should just put them back up in their rooms in their book cases.

I also rotate them out.  I buy DS new books through Scholastic or library sales, put his books away, take out some that DD is ready for, put those away in her book case and take out the ones she's too old for and store for #3. 

AnnapolisLari

My mom was a school librarian for 20 years.

She said that they were ALWAYS told to get rid of the books that they aren't reading, no matter how much you may love the idea of having them. Too many books overwhelm kids and they end up doing exactly what you mention-- reading the same 5-10 books over and over.

I recently got rid of about 40 books and I will say that she's right. The kids seem less overwhelmed and are actually flipping through what's there and making lots of different choices. I may pare it down even further. I also have a shelf of Magic Treehouse and Boxcar Children books that we have started reading together. They like the suspense of the chapters since we only read 2-3 short chapters a night.

I also take the Christmas and Easter books out and store them with the holiday decorations. They only got about a month with the Christmas books and liked it because they were special.

JenniC1135

I can't get rid of the books.  Someday I'll go back to work and they're my classroom library.  But I guess I do need to suck it up and just pack some away. 

jlw2505

I don't waste my time organzing them into themes or anything since I know my kids - my older DD loves to take them all off her bookshelf and "organize" them on a pretty regular basis.  Each of the girls have the cubby style book shelves in their rooms and we keep all the books in their rooms.  I rotate them between their rooms from time to time but for now, we have all the chapter books in my older DD's room (we are reading a great fairy themed series at the moment).  I used to have a book basket in the dining room as well but got rid of that when I did my last toy cleaning as they were mostly books that they had outgrown.  I just realized that I missed a bookshelf that we have upstairs and I am going to go through that one soon - most of those books will go into the donate pile as they are baby books and I am not sure what I will add to that shelf.  The kids really never look at that shelf so I may just get rid of it (it was in the nursery way back when but is no longer needed).

superslug

We have this problem, too. I try to sort them by subject or series and I also have a shelf for the hard backs and a shelf (or shelves) for the paperbacks. I don't stay on top of it that great, though. Mine want to read the same ones over and over again, too. We have one of those display shelves in the playroom and I try to rotate it by season and I have some readers on it for my oldest. That works if I keep it updated. We really need some new bookcases, the one in their room is overflowing into baskets and on top of the bookcases.

DandRAgain

My mom just retired from teaching first grade..she brought home MOUNTAINS of books accumulated over 30 years....

I went through and picked the ones my kids would be into and she took the rest to goodwill....still it was at least 100-150 books that I took.

So we have 2 book shelves in our toy area...they are sorted by "level" sort of...all the chapter books are on 2 shelves.  All the board books (that I probably just need to get rid of/donate/whatever) are on one shelf.  All the picture books are on the other shelves depending on the size.

It works for us..the kids love going to our "library" to get books to read, or for me to read.

 

shouldbworkin

Maybe put them in labeled bins then?  By holidays, age/reading groups, genres.  Then store them out of sight, but withing reach so that you can go and get some when your kids are ready for them w/o getting rid of all of them. 

Angela814

We haven't even read all the books we have. We have books on a shelf downstairs in the family room. DD2's room has all the board books and some books that she's received as gifts on top of her shelf with bookends. DD1's room has all the remaining books. The only books I have sorted out are the Christmas books. Nothing else is sorted. Oh, and I try to rotate the downstairs books with upstairs books occasionally since they seem to get read more.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the girls a disservice by having too many books. We recently had a kindergarten parent meeting with the school reading specialist, and she mentioned how important it was for kids to hear the same books over and over again.

Excuse the mess here. Family room:

DD2's room:

DD1's room: