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Gloria JMJ
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| Posted: March 28 2009 at 10:42am | IP Logged
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My library is a shambles! Our books fall apart and the bookshelf is literally stuffed (not a pretty picture). I was wondering how some of you keep the books accessable without letting them get destroyed. Do you only bring out a little at a time? Our shelf is in the boys' bedroom. Could that be my problem? What rules do you have and how do you enforce them?
Help!
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Smoothing Stones Holy Family Rosaries
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 28 2009 at 2:03pm | IP Logged
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Gloria - I have bookshelves in every room of my house...except the bathroom. It is a challenge for a little while to teach the littles to respect the books, but it is just an ongoing discipline lesson. I like having my books out so I am willing to get up, remove a book from a little hand, and redirect little person to board books several times. I've also learned that setting out small bins/baskets of board books, themed toys for the littles on the floor where they are accessible, sort of strewn about like this has really helped keep interest and little hands where they should be. It doesn't keep them 100% off the books on my shelves, but it does really help.
I keep books ordered on my bookshelves, but I bring out themed books (books that focus or support a theme we're studying or learning about) in baskets. I have baskets of books everywhere in my house!
There are a couple of old threads that really helped me organize and may have some great ideas for you...
Where do you keep your books?
Book Organizing
Hope this helps you some, Gloria! Organizing books is one of my absolute all time favorite past-times! 
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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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Jody
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Jennifer,
Thanks so much for sharing your home with us. How inspiring!! After seeing your beautiful baby sitting in the basket of playsilks I'm on a mission to add that toy to our home. 
Your book shelves look so appealing. In the past I have put up netting that was velcroed to the front of the bookcase so the kids could look through and open and close it easily, but the baby couldn't. I like your ideas much better!
Peace,
Jody
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Jody,
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Gloria JMJ
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Thank you for the links. I'll try find a helpful idea in there. I think my main hurdle is the fact that there are 10 people living in my 1100sf home  and not enough shelves  . Thanks again and your home is lovely.
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Donna Marie
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Mackfam wrote:
| Organizing books is one of my absolute all time favorite past-times! |
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Ok Book lady! Come on over and help me!
I am doing this slowly...a total re-do of the shelves and I could use another understanding eye and ear...too bad you aren't closer...I would even bribe...I mean gift you with some good chocolate and a warm cuppa something!
One thing I am doing in my smaller home (1092 squ ft so I know it can be done!) Is putting together themed boxes with inventory on the front and pushing them under beds. Once I get that done, I will have my woodworking dd make some kind of under-the-bed type box for me with her uncle to replace the cardboard (heavy ones I might add) EGG boxes (they have a cool divider in the middle so things don't slump over and hold 30 doz eggs so they can support the weight of the books) I really want wood boxes to put them in so they won't get crushed over time...toddlers and all ya kno!
Since I can't get to all of the books at once, I do what I can and keep filing and putting away each topic or one other container or shelf's worth of books at a time without anyone scattering the inventory. There are always those books that are kept out and accessible on the other shelves. I am talking about the books that they will only read once in awhile but aren't necessarily the books that they would be interested in learning from on a regular basis. That way there is less in circulation that gets piled because the shelves are full and therefore less gets damaged.
When I have young ones that like to dump, I do find that keeping the shelf full really does help. I keep the bottom shelf of a bookcase for toddler books. I make sure I always play the game of having them put it back...sometimes it is like"hmmm something is missing here...can you find what goes on this shelf?" If there are too many books this doesn't work as well. I just start out with some and slowly add as they get the idea...it worked wonders with my now 4yo. I have learned a lot about book preservation at this point...my TWINS were the WORST with books. The younger ones have learned a lot by imitation and aren't nearly as bad.
I do try and cover books when I can and that helps a lot. Sometimes I hit the fill the bag for a dollar sale at the thrift store and I use that opportunity to cull their shelves of garbage clad in a mylar library cover just for the cover. This kind of garbage no one should read anyway...lol Contact paper works pretty well on some softcovers as well...
HTH!
God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 8dc!!
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God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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Erin
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Gloria
I'm in the same boat, 10 people in a house the same size! Half of my books are in my shipping container in the paddock. It's a shambles.
Anyhow thought of an idea that I did once when one of my children didn't get the message. He used to pull all the books off continually  Anyhow I roped the front of the bookcase and slid a board in front of the lower half. It was only temporary but books weren't getting damaged, ugly but effective.
Regards space, can you build to the ceiling? In small houses we have to maximize what space we have. This could be a great 'nother thread
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Gloria JMJ
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| Posted: April 04 2009 at 9:29pm | IP Logged
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Donna Marie,
I like your 'something is missing' game.
Erin,
That board idea could work.And I would love to have my shelves go all the way up.
I think I need to put the bookshelves where I can keep an eye on them though. Right now they are in the big boys' room and they are a catastrophy almost daily. Plus, I've taken half a shelf worth of books from behind their beds on cleaning day sometimes  . So it's the bigger boys almost as much as the littles . I guess I need to work a little harder on respect too.
Thanks for the ideas!
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SallyT
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I do find that books tend to disappear into kids' rooms, and when I find them again, they are that much more likely to be in worse condition than the last time I saw them. All my kids have their own books, which can live in their rooms, but the bulk of the books I shelve in common areas so that I can keep an eye on them. Currently I even have school books in some of my kitchen cabinets.
Our current house is fairly large, but in the past I've stuck bookshelves wherever I could -- turned a dining room into a library, used bookshelves as room dividers in a big den, stuck bookshelves under a breakfast bar dividing a kitchen and greatroom, put a shelf on a hearth by a fireplace . . . I have never been able to organize my shelves very effectively, but in smaller houses I have been pretty creative about finding places to shelve books!
Oh -- one of my favorite possessions: a heavy, sturdy, particleboard book rack -- the kind where you slip tiers of books in facing out -- which someone gave to me. It's in my kitchen right now, and overloaded with books for the kindergarteners. Our house in old, with a butler's pantry in the kitchen, and I have books shelved on it, too. I have to have them where I can see them . . . otherwise I forget that I have them . . .
Sally
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Home library
