DH's books in our small flat

I love books too, and have several full bookshelves around the house. Books (and cats) make the house a home IMO.
But - you have to cut your cloth according to your means, and in this instance, I agree that some of the books should go to storage - hard that I'd find that if I had to do it myself.

I’d sooner cut down on toys. Most children have way more of them than they need these days.

Keep the books, have fewer toys. The books look better, and too many toys overwhelm kids... they do better with only a few available at a time. Honestly I hate toys.

Unless you have very thick shelves, the floorspace of bookcases in minimal. But get wall mounted shelving instead to reclaim the floorspace?

I'd rather have books than toys in a living room tbh. Can't your kids keep toys in his room?

I hope the bookcases are securely attached to the walls.
Can you extend the shelving up to the ceiling and put the books on the highest shelves and the toys on the lower ones? Once my dc were school age I stored all my books in a huge kallax unit. You can fit a double row of tall books or a huge number of small books by stacking them on their sides.
A toddler will not benefit from easy access to DH's books. They are much more likely to pull them out and accidentally damage them. Toddlers climb up bookcases, so when they were little we fitted alcove shelving that started half way up the wall and went up to the ceiling.

This seems an odd hill to die on. 500 books is not a large collection.

Books are also baby safe, assuming the bookshelves are secured to the wall. The baby is more of a danger to books (recalling a certain toddler of mine tearing out pages of a very expensive and loved art history book). I would suggest storing or putting up high any precious books.

It is not a good idea to put toys on book shelves unless you want your toddler climbing up them to get to the toys. I would suggest alternate toy storage? We had this coffee table that had baskets under it which were perfect toy storage.

How much stuff does he generally have?

DH had a lot of books and CDs but they were practically the only things he really had so in terms of square footage per person, i couldnt really complain.

I love books and so does my OH. We probably had 2,000 books between us at one point and were both brought up with the attitude that you don't throw books away.

But then one day when we couldn't work out how to fit more shelves into the house, we had a heart-to-heart and took the decision to get rid of all those we were never going to read again, which was over 90% of them. Probably half had been in boxes in the loft for over 5 years and were never coming down.

We had a clearout and took multiple car loads to the charity shop. Although it was difficult it was the best thing we ever did. And thinking about it those books got a chance to be read again, something which would never have happened had we kept them.

Toys will be gone in ten years. Don’t lose the books!

Also don’t see the problem. Books hardly take up any space - you could put toy storage in front of the bookshelves if you wanted to. Or if the shelves are very deep and bulky, double stack them to take up less space. Your DH is right imo - books as the walls is a good backdrop. Could be floor to ceiling all the way round as far as I’m concerned and not a problem. And I’m saying that as someone who had a baby with loads of toys in a small flat too.

500 is not that much.

Kids who grow up in houses with lots of books do better academically, even when adjusted for their socioeconomic status AND the amount of time they are read to.

I would leave any partner who demanded that I get rid of my books.

Oh no, i'm team dh here!! We have hundreds & hundreds of books! They are prized & much loved possessions.

I would hate to live in a home without books.

I wouldn’t be getting rid of my books if anyone asked, and tbh I think even asking is unreasonable.

That was painful, I don’t enjoy being on a man’s side 😅

We’ve got loads of books too, but if you’ve got space under the bed and his books are taking up space that could be used more practically, I don’t see why some of them can’t be put under there. They’d still be in the house!

I had to get a kindle

If it were 5000 books I would agree with you OP to do a culling. Usually I donate the best ones to a library the rest to the National Trust 2nd hand bookshop at a local property we visit often.

I have no idea how many books I've got - apart from my recipe books which I counted recently and found I have 67!
I will always make room for books.
Definitely team DH here, toys can live in DC's room. They can be brought out to play with obviously but then put away.

I'd rather get rid of the spouse that was asking than the books. Or the toddler. I have nearer 2000 books and wouldn't want to whittle numbers down any further.

Team DH, the baby fits in with you not the other way around.

DH sounds uncompromising and a joy with whom to cohabitate.

I have previously owned thousands of books, having worked in bookselling and book publishing way back when. But we moved house a lot over the years and I realised each time I was boxing up these dusty books that were never being read - they were just decoration. I've since whittled it right down so now it's mostly books I haven't read yet, reference books (by this I usually mean interesting nonfiction as well as stuff like a dictionary or whatever), industry related (eg husband works in games), kids books, and favourites.

In other words for fiction I just keep the books I would recommend to others or might read again one day. What's the point of keeping them otherwise? Be honest, how many books do you actually reread?

When I was a kid, all the time. Now, hardly ever. Although I have bought copies of books I listened to on audio first, as I might try the text version one day.

I get it - our book collection says something about who we are. You can still look at my shelves and get a sense of that (huge dork). I just don't keep every book I read any more (and I love my Kindle).

I don't see the point of lots of books unless they are beautiful editions.

You can fit 500 books on one or two decent sized tall bookcases. It surely isn't that big a deal. Also, you don't mention any books for your child, just toys. Crack on with buying children's books and put them on the lower shelves.

We still have children's books belonging to our adult sons (and some from our own childhoods). Just waiting to offload them on grandchildren......

I would be leaving anyone who moaned about my books