Book Storage

Living Room Book Storage.

Books on the Ottoman.

I mentioned in my first post this month, that we are bursting at the seams with books.  It's a good problem to have, as one of the most important ways to make a reader is to offer him an abundance of things to read.  The trouble is deciding what to do with all of the books!  I have all but one book case left in the living room now, it's the one with the doors where I hide all of our paperwork and office-y stuff.  Every shelf of the other two bookcases was taken over long ago by the toddler in our house.

In an effort to create a sense or order and to make clean-up time a bit more manageable, I finally took some time to organize them.  The baskets now hold his Wild Baby Magazines, his board books, and the soft cover books that tend to be all different sizes, while all the hard cover books take up the rest of the shelves vertically.  And, because our house has that lived-in look, I love how a few books are always on the side table or on the ottoman just waiting to be picked up and read aloud.

More and more BOOKS!

That's just the living room.  I have found that having books in every room is not only good for the reader, but also keeps me from going insane with too many books in one spot.  One of my favorite forms of book storage is using picture rails.  This method of storing books is also much better for children, because they can easily recognize all of their books from the front cover.  I was really excited when we finally installed some picture shelves to hold the books in Beansprout's room (which is now the office).  The fact that the extra special books can be placed up out of reach but can still be seen is even better.  Is it wrong to admit that I am secretly happy these are now part of the office?  I have images of OUR books and MY magazines filling the shelves in the near future . . .

Beansprout's book shelf.

 

Stool with books.

Though I feel our book storage reality pales to all of the book storage ideas I have in my mind and see on the creative blogs, I like the systems that have developed.  In Beansprout's room, he has the tow truck shelf sitting on top of another little table that also holds a few books and a little stool sits next to his bed with nighttime stories.  As well, the Expedit from IKEA allows us to create interesting shelving displays that hold both books and toys in his room and in the playroom.

Not so fancy under-bed storage.

I don't know if just pushing books underneath the bed can be considered thoughtful storage, but it allows us to have Beansprout books in our room without taking up any drawer or shelf space, so it works for us!

There are so many wonderful ideas out there for book storage!  Just today I saw this link to KidCrave via Modern Parents Messy Kids.  A whole display of fun and unique book shelves for kids.  Do you happen to drool over the same types of storage for books?  Any good secrets you have up your sleeve for organization and storage?