Our book collection grows and grows, and our kids just eat those books right up! We have been so fortunate to receive SO MANY BOOKS as gifts along the way, specifically since Brady had his surgery. People have searched for ways to put into our family, and books has been one of those ways that has really shown up. Very quickly after Brady went to the hospital, I had to buy another bookshelf. And recently, its been nagging on me to find another one. Not urgently, but to keep my eye out.
Anyway. Yesterday I came across the perfect bookshelf on Facebook Marketplace. It was an Ikea shelf very similar to what we already use in our house. It was vastly discounted, and came with the cloth boxes to store things. Now, we don’t use those for books, but our basement toy shelf is also from Ikea and we could really use the boxes down there. When I went to message the seller, I discovered it was being sold by a family just down the street from me! Thank you Lord for orchestrating such a smooth transaction!
So I wasn’t with it enough to take “before” pictures, beyond this one.
This is one of our bookshelves with two rows of other books from a different shelf that was going to move stacked on top. The brown recliner was also stacked HIGH with books we could barely keep from spilling off the sides.
Once we confirmed that my plan for placing the shelves was a good one, I gave Dekker and Laela the job of sorting books. Dekker was pleasant and willing, and Laela was AMPED. They worked on that job until bedtime, deciding where to put the all the different series’, board books, comic books, etc.
They finished that task today!
So first we have our original shelf setup. It used to hold everything. Now it predominantly holds younger kid books, both hardcover and paperback.
Not board books, however. Our kids are mostly through with those, but I’m not ready to get rid of them yet, so they live in this shelf 🙂 This shelf has replaced the little end table that was over here originally, so now Brady has an end table over by his comfy chair, and I still have a place to set my coffee from my comfy chair! Plus, the books directly behind me are used less often. So its a win.
This is the new shelf. It holds ALL of the chapter books, as well as the more delicate, older comic books. Family Circus is HARD to find nowadays, but we have TONS thanks to my mad garage sale skills.
Once the big task of book reorganizing was done, I moved downstairs! The toy shelf wasn’t in great shape, and now that we have the boxes, it felt like time to sort through things, throw away what was broken or missing pieces, and get things back where they belonged. Duplo with Duplo. Lego with Lego. Pet Shops with Pet Shops. Hot Wheels with Hot Wheels. Puzzles with their pieces. Barbies with clothes. Etc etc etc. There was a LOT to go through. So many piles like this…
But we came through!! And while its not perfect by any means, it makes a LOT more sense now!
It was a HUGE morning of work, but after those hours were behind us, I was greeted upstairs with coffee and toast. It was perfect.
Onto the next! A fantastic evening awaits! I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow 💜 Real life kicks in again tomorrow!!! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, friends!