Toys

Shae and I strive to impart a love for reading in our children.  As such, books are one of the primary activity areas in our house (the other is a Lego table).

Unfortunately, kids are pretty awful at picking up and neatly shelving books when they are finished.

I’ve watched both Frugal Boy and Frugal Girl grab the bottom most book and yank it out causing everything on top to come avalanching out.  We have neatly arranged the books standing upright with the spines facing out and less than 24 hours later it looks like the above picture again.

The problem was simple.  There were too many books and they were not visible enough.  A little kid wants to see the front cover of a book.  That is how they judge it!  The title and author on the spine mean very little to them.

So I started looking around the internet for ideas on how to corral the bookalanche and make it a better experience for everyone.  I really liked Simple Families method.

It is simple, practical, and easy!  What’s not to love?!

First I looked at clear plastic folder holders like this, but they are $8-12 each and only hold one or two books at most without stacking them two or more deep (which utterly defeats the purpose).

Then I saw the Tidy Books – Original Kids Bookshelf.  It looks great and is sizable at 30″ x 45″ but it also costs a whopping $151.

There are some smaller, cheaper options like this sling rack.  It measures 24″ x 24″.

I couldn’t help but think that I could build something myself.  Thankfully, Ana White already did the heavy lifting by publishing some plans for a book or magazine ladder shelf (link here).  I’ve used her plans before when I built a changing table.

For about $35 worth of materials, I was able to build a custom sized piece to exactly fit the intended space.  48″x48″.

I assembled it in the garage.

You may be able to scrounge up the materials from leftovers of other projects.

I brought it inside to test it out with the kids.  They seemed to respond very well to it.

It is important to note that the unit leans against the wall and ultimately has to be fastened to the wall to keep it from tipping over.  I used a 10° angle on the feet per the original instructions.  Ana recommended in a note afterwards that 5° might be more appropriate.  However, I have some networking equipment that I wanted to hide behind it, so I stuck with the original 10°.

Frugal Boy is tall enough to reach the top shelf with ease.  We can put one or two of his jigsaw puzzles up there and no longer have to worry about lil sis dumping them out all over.

I finished the project up with two coats of paint that I had.

I didn’t see the need to plaster the bookshelf with bright colored alphabet letters.  Maybe it is just me being a miserly old man, but I don’t think every surface in a child’s line of view needs to be a shade of neon bright.

Besides, the emphasis should be placed on the books themselves.  I think it really comes back to the Simple Families blog post about teaching children some reverence for books.  These are treasures that should be cared for, not dumped into a heap.

So far Frugal Boy has adapted very well to the new system.

How do you manage books in your household?  Do traditional bookshelves work or have you tried something else?