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Capsela
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| Posted: July 20 2012 at 12:24pm | IP Logged
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How do you organize your books? I am really at a loss but I know my current system of "put the books anywhere there is a free spot" isn't working. Do you do it by subject? By author? By time period?
I thought about having a shelf devoted to "Ancients", another to "Medieval", another to reference books, another to poetry/composers/folk and fairy tales, etc. Does anyone else have their books organized in that way and does it work?
Kelly
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SallyT
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| Posted: July 20 2012 at 1:57pm | IP Logged
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Mine are organized roughly by subject. My biggest shelf is my history shelf (and the books are already outgrowing it), which is organized chronologically. At the beginning (lefthand side of top shelf) are "survey"-type books like the Usborne World History Encyclopedia and my Teaching Company Foundations of Western Civ CDs. Then I start with periods: stone age, books pertaining to Bible history, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Medieval, Renaissance, beginnings of new-world history, and so on.
The only difficulty is that the shelf heights vary, with smaller shelves up top and large ones, big enough to accommodate fairly tall picture books, at the bottom. So I do kind of start over at the bottom with my bigger/taller books, like Timelines of History. I also keep art books on the bottom shelf of this bookcase.
I also have a science/math bookcase (not currently organized by subject, though the math books have their own end of the shelf), and a couple of shelves for things like grammar, foreign language, and religion. And then I have one disorganized shelf with a lot of stuff sorted roughly by age group (at one point each child had had his or her own shelf, but that got to be a mess . . .). The bottom of that case, also a taller shelf, holds big picture books. I need to reshelve a lot of those books and figure out what that shelf is going to be "about."
Overall, though, this system works for us. For years our books were just kind of everywhere, and I was constantly losing and forgetting about books we owned, which I could have used if I'd had them organized and in an accessible, reliable location. Last year my husband moved more of his books to his college office, freeing up these shelves in our study for school books; having everything in a dedicated space at last has been so hugely helpful.
Sally
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Chris V
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| Posted: July 20 2012 at 2:32pm | IP Logged
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We have our nook (cute little name the girls call our learning space), that room is home to about 70% of our books, and I have them organized mostly by subject. I also have a "favorites" basket that is ever changing with the wind of preference with the girls. That basket sits on the table (in the nook) along with a bucket of coloring pencils and paper. We also have bookshelves and baskets of books in each of the rooms (bedrooms, playroom, bathroom) as well, those are home to picture books. The picture book aren't organized by subject at all - that would be an effort that I just couldn't maintain since they always get carried from room to room and are scattered about the house at any given tIme and when it's time to clean up, I just tell them to grab the books and find the nearest basket or bookcase! Easy :)
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Capsela
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| Posted: July 20 2012 at 2:35pm | IP Logged
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Thank you, Sally. Your post was very helpful.
Today I came to the realization that this organization must be done when I was moving some books around and realized that I had committed to buying a book on cathswap that I already owned  Luckily I hadn't paid yet and the seller was understanding. I actually found several duplicates, that unfortunately have already been purchased.
I have two 5-shelf bookcases to devote to our homeschooling books. I guess I need to plot it out a bit on paper and see what kind of plan I can sort out.
Kelly
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SallyT
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| Posted: July 20 2012 at 4:24pm | IP Logged
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Chris's reminder about baskets is a good one. We have crates, but they serve the same purpose: one for each child's books/supplies for the year, which frees up some shelf space; a Morning Basket with our start-the-day reading (also frees up shelf space); and a Lunch Basket of rotating read-alouds for lunch (ditto).
I like milk crates, or purpose-made crates of a similar size, for book storage: sturdy, hold a good number of books, easy to see and move. That's an option if your shelf space is limited. I also have a heavy particleboard book rack, which a friend brought home from her job at a children's hospital and eventually passed on to me: it's about thigh-high on me, with five "troughs" for faced-out books. This holds a collection of offerings which changes with the season: some picture books, some Usborne-type 'information' books, some slimmer chapter books, whatever I think people ought to notice. When that selection gets old, I change it out. This stands beneath a window in our study and also frees up some space on the dedicated shelves.
That's the other challenge, I find: not only organizing the books so that I know and can find what I have, but also making them accessible and attractive and in the way of the people I want to read them!
Sally
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: Need help organizing books
