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JennGM
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| Posted: Oct 15 2012 at 12:09pm | IP Logged
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I'm feeling overwhelmed by my books.
I'm trying to reshelve and organize them. I'm purging, too, but it's too much.
Too much of a good thing, I guess. I need to be more ruthless so I can have space for the really good books.
Problem is, more and more books go out of print, or our library doesn't carry them. Plus, I do see my son reading more if the book is on our shelves and invites him. How I remember just going through the home bookshelves and pulling out my favorites.
My biggest hurdle is that I have a collection of adult books and then I have the children's books. I have a LOT of good Catholic books by solid authors, classic and hard to find. This is the area where I feel I should probably let go, but I'm reluctant.
Just whining about my blessing and not knowing how to handle them!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 15 2012 at 12:30pm | IP Logged
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Jenn,
Could you identify those books you would use regularly? I'm guessing you're trying to organize your children's books so they're accessible to the boys but that you have limited shelf space?
I was just thinking that if you identify the sets of books that are a priority for you and your family to be out and available, that it could be a goal to get those shelved. Then I'd probably put a lot of adult books and some older books in labeled bins. I wouldn't get rid of them! I'd just store them in a different way because at this time/season my priority is to have a banquet of reading out and available for all my children - so that is our shelving priority.
I believe VERY strongly in building a good and varied home library, and though your boys may not be going to your older Catholic books now, they WILL in the future...and that future sneaks up on you before you know it! Save ALL the good books in your wonderful library and seek ways to determine shelf priority and store your other books by subject matter in bins so that you can find them when you need them.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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JennGM
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| Posted: Oct 15 2012 at 12:35pm | IP Logged
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You nailed my goal right now, to make the books accessible to the boys, and move mine out of the way. But space is limited. I have no problem filling up every available wall space with bookshelves. My husband, not so much.
I like that idea, Jen. That is doable, and I was thinking as I'm writing that seasons change and these books will be what they will want to read someday -- and me, when I have more time not previewing children's books.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 15 2012 at 12:38pm | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
| seasons change and these books will be what they will want to read someday -- and me, when I have more time not previewing children's books. |
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Exactly! And then you'll just be able to reshelve again according to the different reading priorities of your family and put those delightful children's books in bins to save for your grandchildren!
Happy shelf organization, Jenn! 
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 15 2012 at 12:41pm | IP Logged
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One other thought - underbed rolling storage bins are a good size for stacking most books with spines up so you can roll it out and grab a book. You can do this with books that might fall in an in-between category...like it doesn't really fit in your priority shelving plan right now, but you would like it to be more accessible than in a bin.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Betsy
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| Posted: Oct 15 2012 at 12:49pm | IP Logged
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Jenn,
I have no good advice, I just feel your pain. The though that keeps coming to mind with my own books is that we as an individual family are not meant to replicate a library. But, because of the days that we live in, I feel drawn to this!!!!!
I am constantly trying to pray and be very honest with my new book purchases to fight my own "book hoarding" mentality.
I wish you success with your reorganization. And, if it makes you feel better I alway love the books and recourses that you share with 4Real!
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When handcrafting my work, I always pray that it will raise your heart to all that is true, modest, just, holy, lovely and good fame!
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Aagot
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| Posted: Oct 15 2012 at 1:21pm | IP Logged
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Jenn,
I am here to enable 
I have this very same problem, inherited from my father! (got all his books too)
We packed up books in bankers boxes, numbered them and filled a couple of notebooks with the lists of what were in each box. The only thing I wish I had done was pencil in the number of the box in each book. That way I would know which box to put it in, if we needed to get a book out of storage for a bit.
Real books may all vanish someday, we need to save the books 
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stellamaris
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| Posted: Oct 15 2012 at 1:58pm | IP Logged
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Well. I'd give you some advice, but you've seen my "school room" and know that I have the same exact problem!
Especially with so many wonderful books going OOP, I feel like the monks trying to sequester learning in the monasteries as the Roman Empire fell. 
Prayers that you may be able to wisely discern what to keep and what to let go of.
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In Christ,
Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
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Amber-v
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Keep them, keep them! With so many worthwhile titles existing in the nebulous world of still in copyright but not readily available in print or as an ebook it makes sense to hang onto the good stuff. But store the great ones that you don't need now so it isn't too overwhelming.
Personally, I daydream about opening a private lending library when my collection is bigger/better and my kids are older. People need these books, even if the public libraries no longer agree!!
Amber
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Amber
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Grace&Chaos
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| Posted: Oct 15 2012 at 9:05pm | IP Logged
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What an awesome problem to have 
I have lots of shelves  and still lots of books that need a home. I can't say that I have a system; just have found lots of non shelf spaces where I put away books.
I've been slowly filling plastic containers by time periods and storing those in the garage when we're not studying that era.
Covered shelves in most of our armoirs keep books like manuals or my books.
I have a big wood chest which now holds all my Advent/Christmas books; Lent/Easter are in another wood drawer near by.
I have two leather like crate/baskets where I rotate seasonal/nature study type books that sit near our fire place.
Several baskets in different rooms; for example on top of my wood chest sit two baskets with the kids current school books/reads.
I'd like to have a nice chest like ottoman to put some favorite picture books because this is where the little ones like to cuddle and read. (it's on my wish list)
Good luck sorting and storing 
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Jenny
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Erin
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Aagot wrote:
Jenn,
I am here to enable |
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Well me too!!
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SallyT
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Same here. Aside from some obvious should-let-go books of various kinds, I really regret having purged my own (grownup) library as ruthlessly as I did when we moved to England twelve years ago. I took some books which I knew we couldn't do without, stored some books which I knew we couldn't do without, but then got rid of many books which I thought I'd a) never want to read again and/or b) could easily replace if I did want to read them again.
Now that we *seem* to be finished with moving, and I'm not constantly having to pack boxes of books, I find myself wishing I'd just stored the lot, even the not-so-wonderful books. You never know when you're going to want to reference something you read twenty years ago . . . Now when I buy books, they're almost always children's books and not books for me, so while our kids' library is thriving, my own personal library has gaps it formerly didn't have. Hasn't ruined my life, but I do wish now that I hadn't been in such desperate purge mode before that transatlantic move.
I like that bin idea.
Sally
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JennGM
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| Posted: Oct 16 2012 at 8:42am | IP Logged
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You ladies are so helpful (and aiding and abetting ).
I was feeling overwhelmed and burdened by too much stuff. Still feeling it. Now I have a little better order. Picture books upstairs, main chapter books living room, older reading downstairs.
I guess I've been thinking books need to be on a shelf. You have provided awesome ideas of alternative storage. Our beds are pretty low, so I'm not sure an under-bed storage would work. I hate thinking of boxing the Christmas and Easter books. I find I'm going to those shelves frequently through the year.
I think my main floor shelves are a disgrace because I do put the books double depth, two layers for each shelf and they are FULL. It's still not great, and what to do when I add more books (which I probably will for series like Landmark and Vision, etc.)?
I haven't really made room for our science books, and I ended up with 3 shelves and still field guides don't have a spot. So I'm trying to think of something creative and pretty for the field guides so the ones that we would use on a normal basis would be easily accessible (you know, when bird flies overhead while you're washing dishes you don't want to run upstairs for a field guide!).
I've got huge piles that I have decided we won't keep. I have to organize them and figure out how to get them out of the house -- dh will bug me about that! I am frustrated how many times I duplicated books. I hope that now I've "married" our books together there will be less of that!
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Mimip
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| Posted: Oct 16 2012 at 9:15am | IP Logged
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So I totally stole this idea from Jen but we put shelves above the doorways in our schoolroom.Mackfam's schoolroom (okay so her's aren't directly above the doorways but see how they go all the way up? We don't have crown molding so I thought it would work well.) We can store tall books and still have them accessible when we need them. We have large double french doors so I added a total of about 5 feet of shelf space in three different areas! YEAH!!!!!
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Mimi
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CrunchyMom
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You might find a smidge of extra space putting some of your most frequently used books on an "unconventional" shelf.
For instance, the Bible, catechism, Angel Food series, missals, and a few other prayer books live on the back of the upright piano with brass bookends.
Our field guides live in bookends on one of those decorative molding shelves that hang from the wall. You can't load them up or anything, but the field guides don't seem to be too heavy. I also sometimes keep some nature findings on that shelf, like a vase that holds the feathers they find.
Also, I find that small, rectangular baskets are nice for holding series books or even just paperbacks. They can hold more books of a given size than would fit in the same space doubled. Plus, you can pull it out to get a book and put it back in without the mess that happens when searching for doubled books.
I think your library is amazing! Maybe I can come visit you and help you find a way to take care of some of those duplicate
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Lindsay
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CrunchyMom
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Oh, and I have my most frequently used Gardening books in a magazine basket.
And my organizing/homekeeping books live on my sewing table, again with bookends.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JennGM
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| Posted: Oct 16 2012 at 9:21am | IP Logged
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I had our field guides in bookends on our wine fridge . This was near our nature finds table, so it went well. Problem is I have too many field guides.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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CrunchyMom
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JennGM wrote:
| I had our field guides in bookends on our wine fridge . This was near our nature finds table, so it went well. Problem is I have too many field guides. |
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Canvas bag on a hook? A set of pegs under single shelf for binoculars and field bags? Or a hanging wall basket or two near the nature area?
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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stellamaris
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JennGM wrote:
| I haven't really made room for our science books, and I ended up with 3 shelves and still field guides don't have a spot. So I'm trying to think of something creative and pretty for the field guides so the ones that we would use on a normal basis would be easily accessible (you know, when bird flies overhead while you're washing dishes you don't want to run upstairs for a field guide!). |
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Several years back I had a flea market salvaged little cabinet thingy that I put in the dining room next to a window that overlooked our crabapple tree. That tree is especially attractive to birds and there are often several different species of birds on it at one time. We also have a bird feeder hanging from a low branch which is very easy to see from the window. I put binoculars on the top of the cabinet (it was slightly lower than a regular tabletop), field guides for birds, butterflies and moths, insects, and trees went on a shelf down below. There was a small drawer in which I put our Indentiflyer (bird song identifier). This made a wonderful bird/nature station and the boys often would use the binoculars and those field guides as they were set out and easy to access.
I was thinking about setting this up again, but I don't know where that little shelf unit is now...I probably threw it out in a fit of cleaning...just goes to show you that you shouldn't toss too many of your homeschooling resources even when you are desperate I can't even remember why I took it out of the dining room in the first place  It really was great to have it there!
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Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
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SuzanneG
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And, don't forget....you can always just put one of the subjects in your fireplace!
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Suzanne in ID
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: Too Many Books
