How do you organise your children's bookshelves?

[YunoYurbubson]

By author?

By size?

By age group?

By publisher? (I have a friend who actually does this)

We have just taken delivery of a lovely new (to us) bookshelf for the children's room and I can't decide how to do it.

Is it very wrong that I am really looking forward to a lovely morning tomorrow shelving children's books? I shall probably have Rob Brydon on Desert Island Discs on Listen Again.

So go on, how do you shelve yours?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.

This is how it goes in our house. Books on bookshelf to start with, possibly lovingly and carefully arranged. Children take book, and another and another. I leave the room for a minute to wee/put kettle on/answer door. I come back and find 90% of books on the floor. At the end of the day I shove them in any old where.

Have fun tomorrow.

Er...'organise' isn't really a word I'd use to describe dc's books.

I did try once to put the non-fiction books on one shelf. That lasted about 10minutes.

DD 5 has a Tidy Bookshelf in her room and they're organised by size and how pretty they look.Lauren Child's Goldilocks is on the top because I love the red!!!

The boys 6 have their paperbacks on shelves in their bedroom. They are organised by author eg Enid Blyton,Horrid Henry etc.

They have all their picture books on Ikea Trofast shelves the other end of the room just random except for the Julia Donaldson,Simon Bartram and Timothy Napman books which are on the top by author as they're favourites.

Downstairs all the baby books(I childmind)are in baskets on shelves in the playroom.

Enjoy!!!!

Are you my official designated thread answerer today Bran?

And obviously my 2 and 4 yr olds won't pull all the books out and kick them all over the floor. Oh no. No. No no no no no no no. That won't happen.

Agree with bran have fun lovingly arranging the books in order (my preference, by size!). But don't get too frustrated when they are all over the bedroom floor (in no particular order) before the day is out, will you?

I just noticed that myself. I was a bit more useful on the other thread though.

I'll leave you to enjoy your delusion about books. My DC have a Tidy bookshelf each in their rooms but the books seem to migrate into the sitting room of their own accord so we have a big teetering pile at the end of one sofa.

We do have far too many books though. I have a bit of a book problem which I am passing on to the DC.

By size, on their side, with a heavy toy on top to stop them sliding off during the night.

The sad fact is that I will enjoy putting them all back again . My children have the world's tidiest toy room, and believe me, it is NOT because they sweetly choose a toy and play with it tidily and put it back before choosing another.

They ransack the place on a daily basis and I grudgingly let make them 'tidy up' (they put everything back wrong but I suppose I am supposed to teach them about looking after their things ) and when they are asleep I sneak in and reorganise the jigsaws and reunite the Potato Head family and put all the Babar elephants back in the fire engine.

By colour!

I was constantly rearranging my books as a child and this is the look I decided I liked best in the end.

You what????????!!!!!!

Um...I organise them by...um...which shelf they fit on...or whichever one is nearest to me as I try and get them off the floor where the DDs have chucked them!

Chuck them on!

Although DS has his organised by groupings ie all Young James Bond, all Robert Muchamore, but he is 10, and wants it to look like a library!

I did it by colour a couple of times - loads of fun - highly recommended, but it only works well for some books - you'll be left with a large rump of multicoloured/black/white spines.
I then started to reorganise the novels by author, and had only just started when DD said "Mummy, don't be silly, Anne Fine has to go before Enid Blyton, because her name starts with an A". So her fiction books are now arranged alphabetically by author Christian name.

Why yes, I have worked as a librarian, why do you ask?

By size...big ones on shelf they will fit on and smaller ones on smaller shelf.And others crammed on top.

I'm sure people with a nanny and a housekeeper have organised children's bookshelves. Sadly I don'thave any of those.

I used to do it by size. Now I do it use the "Cram It In There" method.

Now I am starting to feel anxious about all your crammed in slidey piles of books.Can I come round and organise your book shelves too when I've finished mine?

Dilys - by colour! There's a thought.

by size and type

but now I want to do it by author

Although it lasts about 30 seconds before the kids mess it up.

Also in their room I have their things in boxes by type (all the cars in one box, lego in another, transformers in another etc) plus a little metal set of drawers (used to be in my office). drawers are now labelled paper, gogos, clay, pens, etc etc.

It takes me hours to tidy their room because they DON'T FOLLOW THE SYSTEM!! So everything gets shoved in the wrong box.

For reasons of insanity this disturbs me so much I have to tip everything out into the middle of the floor and put it all back in the right boxes.

I use the 'cram/shout' method. As in cram everything onto the shelves. Shout about the mess.

It's handy. Comes in useful for drawers, cupboards and toyboxes too.

Oh yes, I used to be a librarian and i love organising books. . My dds's books are usually organised by shape and size. We have big books on the bottom, ladybird ones and smaller ones on the middle shelf and some mr men and the hardback enid blytons on the top. I do change them around sometimes and then sit back and admire them. Is that weird?

Yuno we have lovely big built in bookshelves which I had imagined would look fab before they were built - all neat and tidy.

Unfortunately I have to agree with Bran - the books get pulled out by the DC's and I shove them back wherever I can.

I arrange the childrens books with one simple sentance (best said at a high volume in an assertive manner) "Girl's!! if those books arent picked up off the floor and put back on the shelf by the time I get upstairs you will not be having the TV on again today!!"

Seems to get them arranged just fine.

I'm having a good laugh at this thread. In our house it goes: I put the books on the shelves, little ones on the top shelf, big ones in the middle and very big ones on the bottom. I make sure they are all the right way up and facing the right way. DS (2.5) comes in and systematically pulls off one at a time until he finds the one he wants. DD (4) occassionally chucks the odd one back on. I leave them for as long as my OCD tendencies can stand it (or until I realise that someone is going to slip on a shiny cover any minute now) and the cycle starts again.

Apparently though arranging by colour is very now. I saw it in Living Etc magazine.

Big books on top shelf, all others in two shelves below. Every few days I re-shelve books left on bedside table, under bed, strewn across bedroom floor.

DD is book mad and is 2.5. In her bedroom we have a standard ikea Billy bookshelf, top shelf, boynton box sets and Hairy Maclary boardbooks (no order, second shelf mid size books no order, bottom shelf, big books no order.
In the lounge we have a clear perspex newspaper holder where her 'non-fiction' books - ABC books, etc. All books are put away at night in a rough order, but all toys are put back all complete. As they should be

By size. If there is a lot from the same series ie ladybird, mr men, I put them together on the odd occasion I tidy up, but i don't stress if stuff goes in the wrong place.