How To Organize Children's Books?

We recently faced some serious storage and organization problem for the books of our 4 year old. In last 4 years, I have built a small at home library for our daughter; since I could not find any good Children's Library in the vicinity and neither the school offered this facility. Thus, right from BLACK & WHITE Contrast Books to PICTURE BOOKS to quite a few CLASSICS and then ongoing additions led to books all over the house. Off-late it so happened that I really had to search and dig the titles out; whenever our daughter recalled and demanded to read a specific one.

Therefore, today I am going to share with you how I organized her books in our house. We have one cupboard that we store the majority of the books and then a couple of places in the house where our daughter access books throughout the day. Here’s how you can get started. You may watch our VIDEO first or may go ahead and read the entire blog ....whichever suits your liking :)

 

1. Get Started

There are several successful book organizing methods which you may opt for and even encourage your child to make an attempt to follow the same. However, the method which may suit my need, may not suit yours. therefore, select a method that works best for you and your family. Which could be based on the number of books your child owns, the age of your child, the type of books and the type of book-cupboard, bookshelf or the organizing system that you will use.

2. Convenient Location and ease of access 

Before you actually get onto organizing the books, decide where you would want to keep the books so that they are easily accessible to you and the child both. Would you prefer storing and organizing the books at one place and would opt for floating shelves or book stands for child to access. Or would you prefer to place them in your child’s room, playroom, living room? I would suggest always consider location that are super convenient and easy to access.

3. DIY Organizer 

In our case we decided to store all the books in one of the cupboard we have and have two different access points for our daughter in the reading corner and her bedroom. Then we thought of trays/baskets we could use as organizers; for the books to be placed into the cupboard. We figured out we had some baskets with us and we fell short of 2. So for the remaining two organizers, we decided to make them ourselves at home; instead of buying new. We had a big box from Amazon Pantry delivery which we measured and came to the conclusion; that if we cut open that box into halves....it would be just perfect fit in the cupboard. We then utilized that box and converted the same into the organizer for the books; along-with the existing plastic organizers. 

4. Categorization 

Once you are sure of the places you would want to store and display the books; then get onto the categorization of the books you have on your shelf. We went ahead and categorized the books under following category; based on the kind of books my daughter has: 

• Board Books 
• Hindi / Marathi Books 
• History Books 
• Mythology Books 
• Festivals 
• Audio Books 
• Indian Authors 
• Foreign Authors 
• Activity Books 

We also prepared labels with these categories and pasted them onto the organizers. Then we placed the books into each organizer as per the category and then back into the cupboard. Little one also helped in the entire exercise; we used the regular stencil, and a black marker pen to prepare label over the chart paper.

4. DIY Book Display Shelf 

This is how our cupboard looked after it was all set-up and organized :) yayyy ! 

However, we wanted to prepare a small display unit too; for two main reasons. Firstly, it would help us create a BOOK-NOOK for our daughter and secondly it would help us to do BOOK ROTATION with ease. We again landed up using the Amazon carton to prepare the same. You can note the steps in the pictures underneath. TaDa....our cozy BOOK NOOK got ready :) 

Last but not the least, in case you have too many books ! 

Here are some suggestions which may like to consider, for those books: 

You may keep the seasonal, festival books — like Holi, Diwali, Independence Day, Dusshera etc — and place them on a higher shelf or store away until the festival or the day approaches. 

Books which you may bought during the sale or pre-loved ones, that aren’t age appropriate; you can store them away till you need them. 

Try to make a cozy book area/reading area with an existing or DIY bookshelf or a small Bookcase in the living room or the child’s room. Try throwing some rugs and cushions around to make the space inviting :) 

The books which does not excite your child anymore you may want go ahead and DONATE them or may also want to sell them. In case you would want to sell them you may try https://www.bookchor.com/index; which I came across at New Delhi World Book Fair 2018.

Hope this helps you getting more organized with your child. Happy Reading!