S/O How do you organize your books?

[hellokitty]

I know I am not the only here with this, "problem." I always laugh when we get literacy fliers home from school, encouraging kids to read, etc., since we have enough books for probably our entire neighborhood. We are drowning in books. If it weren't for DS3, I would have gotten rid of a lot of the toddler books by now. As for MY books, wow I have a lot I need to weed out. Some are obvious, like old text books that are just outdated or not used.

I'm wondering how those of you with lots of books organize them? My DH refuses to get more bookshelves. So, I have books in tote bags, boxes and just stacked up on the floor. It really does look awful, but I buy books like some ppl buy shoes. It seems we have books tucked into every nook and cranny of our house. Also, what criteria do you use to decide which ones to get rid of and which ones to keep and do you have a, "system" of shelving your books?

[BabbyO]

Until DH and I moved in together they were organized in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Once we moved in together, they kinda were organized by size so that we could fit them all on the shelf. Once DS came along...well, there's no organization...I try, but it's a never ending battle.

Our DVD's however, have remained in alphabetical order...its a small victory, but I'll take it! :)

[hellokitty]

Until DH and I moved in together they were organized in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Once we moved in together, they kinda were organized by size so that we could fit them all on the shelf. Once DS came along...well, there's no organization...I try, but it's a never ending battle.

Our DVD's however, have remained in alphabetical order...its a small victory, but I'll take it! :)

Oh man, don't get me started on our dvd/vhs problem. They are all over the place, I wish that they all had the small jewel cases, so they took up less room. The kids ones are all in those big dvd sleeve folders, but I need to buy more. The vhs ones I will phase out once DS3 is past them (thomas and some other kiddie videos).

[lurksalot]

These are not technically bookcases, so maybe your husband will agree to them...we have the IKEA ledge shelves and use them to display our upstairs childrens books. This allows them to face out, which I like the look of and it makes it easy for my boys to "see" them. We put them about 1.5 feet from the floor and they run the length of the pony wall in our loft/playroom.

Our grownup books are all on IKEA Billy bookcases that we run from floor to ceiling the length of the wall in our living room, they each have about 7 shelves per case (we used the extenders), we even covered up our fireplace with the Billys, they look great and we get compliments all the time. This was my husband's idea.

As for weeding out books, I did insist that unused textbooks had to go. Otherwise some I may take to work to share with my students. The rest stay put, my husband worships his books.

Oh, and we do not put them in any order on the shelves, I arranged them to look good, not to be easily found.:ROTFLMAO:

[JoyNChrist]

We have a lot of bookshelves, so that helps. We're currently working on installing built-in bookshelves in our playroom/office, so then we'll have even more space (although some of that will go to toy storage).

What I do is take the jackets off the hardcovers, because they look nicer that way. I mix them on the bookshelves with figurines, vases, etc to keep it looking decorative. Paperbacks get stored in boxes (like these (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60180376) from IKEA) or baskets. I try to stick a label on them by author's last name (A-B in this box, S-T in this basket, etc). I only keep books I think I'll read again.

Kids' books are currently stored on shelves in DS's room, but as soon as we finish the shelves in the playroom they'll be moved in there.

[KrisM]

I get rid of them. I only keep those that I know I'll read again and I re-evaluate that every year or so. Mine are mostly paperback novels, so nothing valuable.

[wellyes]

http://www.cash4books.net/ :)

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

Kid's books or adult books?

For adult books, we have one Billy bookshelf with the added shelf on top to make it a bit taller. I pruned down a large amount when we moved here 3 years ago, so that was adequate. It's starting to get overrun now. DH thinks we should get another, I'm not sure.

For kids books, we have this Ikea dvd shelf thing that works really well for small books, and then a regular bookcase with a combo of just books on shelves and baskets for the paperbacks. We're out of space for kids books, so I am thinking of going through and culling the not-so-good books.

[nicepersonfl]

organize? Is there a way to organize kid's books? I consider myself lucky if they are NEAR the bookshelf! Bonus points if they are on the bookshelf!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Kids:
reference books, workbooks and activity books are together on one shelf
"fancy" hardcover or nicer books are on a high shelf
ds1's books are divided up by chapter books, books like Berenstain Bears, non-fiction, etc and in different places in his room
ds2's picture books are all on a shelf in his room
more are in the family room

Grown ups:
fiction books are tucked into a built in cabinet in my living room
parenting reference on a shelf
favorite series and nice looking books are on another shelf.
cookbooks are on a shelf in the dining room, commonly used ones are in the kitchen

I really prefer the library for my books as I am just tired of storing more stuff.

[hellokitty]

http://www.cash4books.net/ :)

Thank you! I will have to look into this.

Oh and yeah, we have some billy cases of varying ht. They look nice, but my DH refuses to get more of them. However, the room that had the billy cases, we are trying to convert into a study/music room for us and the kids, so maybe I can eventually convince him to just have the one wall of billy cases, b/c it will look nicer than just having the few that we have now.

[essnce629]

For our adult books, both DBF and I each have a large bookcase from Ikea in our bedroom to put our books on. I don't read fiction, so pretty much all my books are doula related (pregnancy/birth/breastfeeding/infant) that I keep to lend out to clients and my friends and health related books that I love to read. I also saved a few of my nursing textbooks (OB/GYN and pediatric ones). DBF has all his books from law school and a bunch of books from college. I pretty much sold all my textbooks and class related books as soon as my classes ended since I knew I would never be reading them again!

The kids have their own bookcases. DS1 has a large bookcase in his room for all his books. We just bought and moved into our first house 8 weeks ago and during the packing phase I had DS1 go through all his books and sort out all the books that were "too baby" for him. Those books we packed away in boxes and will store in the garage to save for DS2.

DS2 has 2 bookcases (the kind where the book covers face you), one in his room and one in the playroom, for all his board books. We also have Ikea Expedit units in both his room and the playroom and there's one cubby hole in each unit that has books for DS2 that are a little bit older for him (non-board book books). I also have a small basket in the living room for him to keep a handful of books since I noticed we weren't reading as much when all the books were out of the living room. He also space on the bottom shelf of the bookcase in my room to keep a couple books since we cosleep and on the weekends he wakes up early and needs something to keep him occupied for a while.

[lizzywednesday]

I only buy books I'll re-read.

Well, except for the Twilight books, which I have re-read a couple of times, but Bella ticked me off so much in the end that I don't think I want them in my house anymore. (Off-topic: If any of you ladies know anyone who'd be interested in them, please let me know. I will ship to you.)

I sort them by author, then by series (especially if the author has multiple series), by paperback or hardcover and then by height. If there's enough room on top of the neatly organized ones, I'll stack more on top. (My Sookie Stackhouse books are stacked like this, for example.)

If I hated it, I purge it as soon as I can, unless it ends up under my bed. (Then I let the dust bunnies eat it.)

My "good" books are in the bottom shelves of 2 Billy bookcases from IKEA.
My "I'm not parting with them but don't go back to them" books are in several Rubbermaid/Sterilite tubs in my in-laws' basement.

I really have to make a point to go through them sometime soon, though, because I got a few new ones for Christmas and I don't know where I'm going to put them.

[MomToOne]

I get rid of them. I only keep those that I know I'll read again and I re-evaluate that every year or so.

Books are huge clutter. I get them out the door as fast as I can. My preferred method is donating them to the library. They know me there ;)

[egoldber]

I am making the effort to purge them (sell, donate) and use the library more.

As my younger DD outgrows board books, I am being pretty ruthless about giving them to others or to our preschool.

[zag95]

DH and I are both teachers- we have lots of books (mainly DH because he was an English major and reads even more than me!).

We have 3 bookshelves in the LR- Books are arranged alphabetical by author- pretty much most of it is fiction, with a little non-fiction separated on it's own shelf.

We hope to upgrade the shelving to Billy bookcases this summer, to increase our shelving and because these cases are sad looking and sagging under the weight!

Near our computer we have 2 billy bookcases- one is more narrow and houses dictionaries, DH's boy scout books, writing books and office materials. The other is larger, half of it are books on history or historical fiction (I'm a history major, DH was a history minor).

In an ikea expedit cabinet, I have my cookbooks- I purged a few last summer, so basically have one shelf worth.

In DD's room, we have a low white billy bookcase. 2 shelfs are books- We try to use the library to rotate books- and if we have some that we have gotten for gifts, we sell them or rotate them out of "circulation"!

DH is very much a hoarder when it comes to his books (and CDs but that's another topic!) and usually 2x per year, I push hard to have him purge out books- we take them to Powells and trade them or sell them. We try to have a policy of one book in, one out.... to keep things manageable.

[niccig]

I've limited the number of book cases we can have - the books must fit in the space that we have. I'm a librarian and it's perfectly OK to weed your collection and make room for future growth (there should be some space on the shelves). Go through and remove what is out of day (textbooks for eg) and then I get rid of books that I will not read again. DH has difficulty doing this, so I bought him a kindle. He can buy as many books as he wants as long as they're on the kindle. He went through and pulled books we're keeping for DS, those are in a box in the garage.

We have a couple of bookshelves and they're loosely arranged - eg. all DH's science fiction is in one bookshelf.

Once DS is out of toy stage (several years away), we'll have plenty of space in the expedit shelves for more books.

[elephantmeg]

I got rid of anything that I didn't love. That helped a lot! Then I got rid of a ton of the toddler board books and decided we needed to use the library more for the early readers! Even DD is enjoying longer books now so we really aren't reading the board books. We have some in 2 cubbies of a 9 cube organizer, a large tote with board books and then shelf of books in their room. DH and my books are on a large bookshelf in our room but I am sure we will find more as we clean out upstairs I know there is a box of Hardy Boy type books up there that he had saved and I'm not sure what is on the other side. We seperate books by people-mine are on my shelves and his are on his! Mine are sorted by series (most of my favorites are series books.

[Indianamom2]

Honestly, I Dh and I each bought a Kindle. We are much like you and have no self-control when it comes to buying books. (I console myself by thinking that at least books are a healthy habit!).

We bought Kindle's for this very reason....we are out of room and I won't buy any more bookshelves. We tend to have collections of our favorite authors and so right now, the books are arranged by author (usually those are hardbacks) and we line them up vertically. The smaller paperbacks that might not be part of a collection we stack up horizontally because they take up less room. Some time this week, I'm going to pack some away in boxes in the basement so that I can clear out some of the shelves for toy storage (we've got too many of those too!).

Good luck. It's hard.

[MissAndi]

Oh, Books! How I love them!!! I hope to one day have a house that has a true library with walls covered in full bookcases.

I've been carting around boxes, baskets, and sterilite storage bins of books that wouldn't fit on my numerous bookcases. (we move every 2 years or so)

This past Fall, I decided to bring this under control. I went through every book we owned and tossed and tossed and tossed. Basically, if it wasn't a book that I would definitely read again, or didn't have sentimental value, it went. Now, I have one giant bookcase that holds our fiction and non-fiction. Fiction books are organized by author. Non-fiction books are organized according to subject matter. I keep cookbooks (I had a massive purge of these), on two shelves in the kitchen. I keep my baby, money, and marriage books on the low shelf on my nightstand.

It made me feel so much better to get purge. At first, I was sad, because i LOVE my books, but, truth be told, I enjoy not having to constantly move around the books even more.
:yay: