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cvbmom
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| Posted: Oct 18 2007 at 3:27pm | IP Logged
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I've been enjoying the thread about where everyone sleeps (we'll have 3 small/medium bedrooms for the 8 of us) and now the thread about the toys. My question, now, is what about the books? Where do you keep these?
We are moving, as many of you have heard in the prayer forum. We are downsizing some (a 5 bedroom house to a 3 bedroom, with possible 4th in the basement). The house is smaller, but the 5 acres is wonderful! I have packed 60+ Trader Joe grocery bags full of books and still haven't touched four full size bookcases  My father in law, who is helping me, feels like he is moving the county library. I would love to do built in bookshelves, but that is time and money that I don't have right now. Sooooo, any suggestions? Where do you keep your books?
God bless,
Christine
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kingvozzo
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| Posted: Oct 18 2007 at 3:50pm | IP Logged
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We downsized from 2400 sf to 1600sf, and have added another person since our move. Our front room is all bookcases (basically floor to ceiling), but it's still not enough! DH has been making some simple oak brackets and oak shelves that we can put over the doors and around the bedrooms to store some of the books we don't need quite as easy access to. plus, I have to be more discerning about what books come into the house as keepers.
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Stephanie_Q
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| Posted: Oct 18 2007 at 4:19pm | IP Logged
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I'm working on turning our guest room closet into a mini library. We have 2 large bookshelves in our guest room, a large bookshelf in our living room, and 2 small built-in bookshelves in our piano room, but we're just getting started!
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Oct 18 2007 at 5:06pm | IP Logged
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This is something we've thought about a lot!
I highly suggest Sarah Susankah's series "The Not So Big House" for ideas for creating small homes. We were inspired to look at our small home as a challenge, and are pleased with results (for example, we put our CPU, printer, etc... on a shelf in the basement stairwell, ran the cords through the wall and mounted the monitor on the wall, and have a wireless mouse and key board sitting on the dining room table).
She suggests that if your stairway is wide enough, its the perfect place to put shelves (she claims 10 inches is sufficient for a useful bookcase width). She also has pictures of homes that have been remodeled so that the dividing walls between two rooms are actually bookcases.
As for us, I am blessed to have a handy husband, but he built me shelves similar to these in our narrow hallway. Otherwise the space is not all that usable. He also built a daybed for a twin mattress in the jut-out in our teeny bedroom that has draws underneath and shelves up the sides.
We've contemplated putting shelves around the hallway above the door height.
We checked out the BEST book from the library, and I can't seem to recall the title or find it, but I think that dh will remember. I will ask when he comes home. It was different ways to display books, and one of the ideas was the hallway with the shelves going across from side to side that were approachable from both sides in increments down the hallway. There was a ladder/stepstool for easier access. I'll definitely post it later since, even if none of the ideas work for you, it is a delight to look at if you love books!
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: Oct 18 2007 at 6:15pm | IP Logged
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I agree about discerning about what comes in and maybe even downsizing your books. I had lots of "classics" and other "someday the kids might want to read this" books.
I have a rule that I will not buy any books (with a very few exceptions) that I have not read at least once from the library and do not see myself re-reading or referencing at least three times a year. And I do not keep those "someday" books if they are easily available from the library. Of course, I have been very blessed to live somewhere with good library systems.
Even at that, I still have crates of books in the closets that I do not have the shelving to keep out.
Good luck!!
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CrunchyMom
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Living With Books
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Erin
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| Posted: Oct 18 2007 at 10:27pm | IP Logged
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Christine
I posted in the other thread that we have the three girls in the one room, a bunk bed, double on the bottom, the reason for this is so that we can fit some bookcases in there, believe it or not I have managed to fit 4 bookcases in their room. Yep it looks like they sleep in the library, and in the boys room which is very small we have squeezed in one bookcase at the foot of a bed and a small one. It means that you have to climb over the bed to get to the other bunk but hey the boys have to have their books 
The overflow is sitting in the shipping container in my paddock, the beauty of that is I am able to rotate the books. Pack up one box of books read by dd and bring down another.
What did I keep out? Well I got rid of lots, I am choosy, the twaddle that I agreed to went into the container.
Oh what about boards and bricks? I have a friend who has her floor to ceiling 'bookcase' of boards and bricks.
Btw we also moved from a large home, 5 bedrooms, 3 living areas, to a small three bedroom 'cottage' with one small living area. There are nine of us. We also moved for the land, 140 acres  it has been a challenge and mostly the sacrifice has been mine but I am very glad we did it. The first 6 months were tough on me but now I am much happier.
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cvbmom
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| Posted: Oct 19 2007 at 7:59am | IP Logged
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Thanks so much for the suggestions and encouragement. Downsizing can be intimidating. It's nice to know that it can be done. I'm trying to weed out as I go but it's like someone in the house is parting with a friend every time I decide to let one go.
I have to get back to packing ALL THOSE BOOKS 
God bless,
Christine
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juststartn
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| Posted: Oct 19 2007 at 1:17pm | IP Logged
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I'm in 1100 sq ft with 7 people. All of the rooms except the bathroom has books in it, and that only because the bathroom gets too much splashing, and there's no room for shelves anywhere in there.
Most of them are in the living room, but I need larger shelving units along one wall. Sams sells reasonably priced, NICE large bookshelves, btw.
I don't have any advice on how to store them, though, cause we use 99% of ours, and the rest? Well, I know we will...lol
Rachel
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Philothea
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| Posted: Oct 20 2007 at 2:32pm | IP Logged
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I moved all of my clothing into the master bedroom closet and filled my large six-drawer dresser with books. Now they are out of sight and don't get dusty, but they are well organized and easily accessible. I put them into the drawers spine-up, so I can see the titles and they are not stacked atop each other that way.
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Martha
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We are wanting to put shelves above the door line. You know that 1 - 2 foot of space along the ceiling that goes above most doors and windows?
This wouldn't be good for all the books, obviously, but it would be good for MOST. All MY books and teaching materials or curriculum not currently in use or that it's okay for big kids to get down but not for the little kids to chew on. And it would hold those tall books that don't normally fit anywhere else, and binders too.
My biggest issue with this is how to organize the books that way? I currently have a shelves for science, history, art, religion, ect... I think I'd buy book ends to divide the sections.
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: What about the books?
