A few months ago I got extremely tired of our playroom floor looking like it was carpeted in books. It is hard to get my cleaning accomplished, let alone just walk across the floor, when books are thrown about everywhere. I also do not like the fact that my kids thought they should just toss the books aside and grab a new one paying no mind to how they were treating their books.
It can be frustrating to teach children the “take one out at a time” rule. This tip is a solution to reduce the mess, teach one-at-a-time, and helps your books get stored properly after every read so that they last. I am so excited to share it with you-you won’t believe how easy it is…
Quick Tip: Keep the Bookshelf Organized
FIRST:
Save those food boxes made of paper board or cardboard like the one in the picture. Cereal boxes, cracker boxes or granola bar boxes work really well. The only key is making sure that the longest side of each box will not be too tall to fit on your bookshelf.
SECOND:
Cut off the tabs along the top opening of the box and cut one of the tall sides off as in the pictures.
THIRD:
Line up all of the cut boxes on your empty bookshelf-I guess the kids get one last chance to empty all the books onto the floor!
When the boxes are lined up, you can place a piece of tape to connect two boxes at a time all along the shelf to add stability. (To be honest, I did not do this.)
FOURTH:
Add all of the books back on the shelf by sliding them into the boxes.
If you really want to get crazy-organized, use paint stir sticks as dividers between subjects. A teacher I once worked with wrote a subject heading on the wide handle of the stir stick, then slipped the long end in between the books. My dream is to have a shelf THAT organized, but it works much better with older children or in a classroom.
Your newly neat, kid-friendly bookshelf is complete!
You have just created multiple bookends that guide your child where to place the books!
In my house, our bookshelf has never been the same. It stays fairly intact because when you pull books out the whole lot of them do not slide over or even out on their own. You of course could go out and buy a bunch of plastic magazine holders, but if you’d rather save the money, try this up-cycling idea to reuse those food boxes.
This post was featured in A Complete Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms: Homemaking Tips. To view all of the great tips shared for DIY, organization and cleaning at home, click HERE.
MORE HOMEMAKING TIPS:
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Snacks in a Snap-Snack Organization to Help Kids Make Healthy Choices
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Jill EnchantedHomeschoolingMom says
October 12, 2013 at 10:22 pmThis is a great idea. It will also help you to keep subject together and authors, oh the possibilities. Just like a little library too. Thank you for sharing and for linking up this week to the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop.
Jaimi says
October 22, 2013 at 5:51 pmThanks for stopping by!
Emma @ P is for Preschooler says
October 7, 2013 at 5:14 pmI was just thinking I needed some way to organize the craziness that is the bookshelf! My daughter has just been throwing the books in the corner (where I didn't notice)! I think this idea will really help – thanks for the helpful idea!
Jaimi says
October 8, 2013 at 12:44 amI hope it works for you! The bookshelf can be such a frustrating area to keep together especially when we want our children to have full access. Thanks for stopping by.
Brenda Priddy says
July 23, 2013 at 4:01 pmThis is needed in my daughter's room!
Jaimi says
July 23, 2013 at 8:25 pmIt was so very needed in our house too! I am so glad I went through the steps to cut all the boxes and get the books in them on the shelf. It has helped so much! Let me know if it works for you too.