Organizing Children's Books: Our Home Library

Finally, I can tell you that our home library is organized!!  This summer, my amazing aunt and uncle hauled a huge Expedit shelf from IKEA to my house.  When I say hauled, I mean from Arizona to the Mid-west.  So yes, hauled!!  I am forever grateful :).  This week, I finally got my rear in gear and got it to look the way I wanted.  

Here is it!  After purging two large boxes of books I was able to fit pretty much every book (not curriculum) that we own on the shelf. We have very few adult books since we use digital.  But, I feel that children need real books when they are young.  

I hemmed and hawed about how to arrange them.  Initially I thought about sorting by theme, but too many overlapped and I was stressed about whether I should put the book about sea creature with oceans or animals.  Then, I thought about by author-but only one of my children can read so I would be the only one putting them back.  Not cool.

So, I chose by color!!  I saw this once a long time ago and thought it was silly.  Now, I think it's genius, LOL!  I did pull out chapter books and put them in bins and some of the chapter books are in the drawers at the bottom.  They just aren't as pretty!

Our shelf tour starts at the top.  

Our globe pillow-it might get swapped out for a real globe.  But, I wanted one the kids could play with.

Camera bag that belonged to my great grandma.  It needs to be repaired so I can't use it for a formal bag.  BUT, it can be used for storage and makes me happy when I see it.

Our continent box.  This was going to go in the school room, but I thought it would be great to have it out with the books for my children to explore when they are reading.  It is slowly being filled with continent packets.  I'll show you them when it's finished.

The view from below.

Little pom poms with magnets for magnet pages which will be in the drawers at the bottom.

On the left is a set of rug checkers.

Some of the checkers are on another shelf.  I like the way they look!

A super cool marble mind game for kids.

One of our favorite games, Flea Circus.  The bin holds our Happy Hollister books-LOVE!  Our poetry books are here, too.  One of the few things that didn't get put into the rainbow.  The last package on the right is a book and puppet set.

Books are held in front by plate holders. I chose our brand new book, There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly to make sure the kids saw it right away.

In our Classical Conversations timeline, Egyptians are mentioned.  I thought that my children would enjoy reading about something they had heard about.  It's a cute story!

In honor of the Presidential debates, I brought out Arthur Meets the President

and Duck for President. 

I will change the books out as I see they have been read or want to bring attention to others.  Mustang has already switched them out for ones she is reading or wants to read-specifically all four slots are each holding one of the Happy Hollister books.  I had wanted to put the books lower but Explorer kept pulling them off the shelf and the plate holders aren't that durable!

 The bins below hold a few games, chapter books, and some art supplies.  

I hope you enjoyed our little library tour!  

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!