I'm sure you are like me- the books are in stacks everywhere because the bookshelves are full. Before I moved in with the Mr, I did some serious purging of books. I had 3 bookshelves full, as well as several stacks all over the house and stacked on end tables. It was crazy, of course- I was managing a bookstore at the time. Now, the over-abundance is in the kids' books. There are books everywhere. It is getting hard to handle. There are holiday books, school books, books that aren't read, art books, and more. It is time to do some purging. Here are 10 tips for purging and organizing books (what I've been doing the last couple of weeks.)
1. Get all the books in one place. Seriously, get them off the shelves and in piles on the floor or on the table. You can really see what you have and you will know what is read of that group.
2. Decide what you definitely do not need to keep. Look through the piles you have around and pull out the books that you immediately know can go. These may be paperbacks you will never read again, books that weren't all that good, or ones your kids have grown out of. You will find more to be rid of once you start sorting.
3. Find places to donate to. As I sort the kids' books, I will send them to a friend of mine that works with special needs kids. They will be used and loved by these kids. Check with children's homes, victim advocate organizations, and even the libraries to see if they could use the books. There may be a family in your area that cannot afford books, but would love to have them.
4. The books you want to sell- put in a stack and decide where you want to sell them- Amazon, Ebay, local booksellers, etc. There are many places to sell them that will be pretty simple.
5. When you start putting books back on the shelves, seperate them into what they are first- educational books for kids, educational for grown ups, easy read, fiction, etc. This will make organization much simpler.
6. Consider putting baskets around the house for books. My aunt does this and switches them out. There is a basket in every place the kids spend a lot of time- even the car. These get switched out periodically and the kids want to read them because they see them.
7. Consider putting holiday books with the decor for that holiday. We are starting that with Christmas books this year because we are out of space in the bookshelves- moving those 50 (kidding- not!) books off the shelves and into storage for next year will free up a lot of space for new books (like what they are getting for Christmas).
8. Do you have a ton of board books? We do! These take up a lot of shelf real estate, but space that could be used for bigger books. I put these in collapsible bins and pull out a bin a week- these are what Kodabug "reads" during school.
9. Decide how to organize your shelves. You can organize by subject, alphabetically, by family member, or any other way that works for you. When we organize our shchool shelf, we do it a little different. These are the sections- Kodabug school, curriculum/ teacher aids, science, reading/ read aloud, easy read, art, fun, and future. The important thing is now how you organize it- it is that it is organized to work or your family.
10 Do not put a book back on your shelf unless you are sure you will read it again. I keep a shopping bag for books to give away. When I see family or the tea- I can let them peruse them for things they will read. I can also keep the books I want to donate for kids seperated that way.
Do you have tips for purging/ organizing books? I would love to know about them.
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