More Organized: Kids' Bookshelf

Yeah, this bookshelf. It's been an accident waiting to happen for a couple of years now. Good thing the beds were there to support it! Oh, but it's stressed me out, especially since I'm always thinking about earthquakes. Well, we finally got to tackle it!

Aiden to the rescue (again)!

He unloaded all the books into Lyndsay's room and the hallway.

Took the bookcase apart and deposited the pieces into the trash. (YAY!!)

Conor got to see a lot of books he didn't know we had, or books he'd forgotten about.

Then Aiden set to work building the new bookcase, that I bought at IKEA (when I bought the shelf unit for the downstairs closet.)

And then I got the fun job of putting all the books back on. I love that job. For the first time in nearly 20 years, I put the boardbooks on the top shelf. Way too many memories, so there was no way I was getting rid of them, but they don't really get used these days. I have books, though, that Lyndsay and Dylan got for their first birthdays, or books that Dylan chewed, or books we read every single night to Conor. I cherish those books!

Not all of the books fit on this new bookcase, even though it's quite a bit bigger. That's because on the old bookcase, the first three shelves were stacked two layers deep. I want to get shorter bookcase units for the little alcove in our upstairs hallway. I have two more bookcases of children's books downstairs that I want to move up. Also, we're slowly making improvements to the room that used to be Adam's office, and Aiden will move in there to have his own room. When that happens, some of these books will move in there with him, which will free up some space.

I have so many of these books memorized. I've read them to each of my babies, over and over again. As we put the books on the shelves, we would begin quoting from them. Quite funny to see how much the kids have memorized too! ("Sheep on a jeep on a hill that's steep. Uh-oh! The jeep won't go!")

We love our books! Books make a house a home. And we're never lonely in a home with books!

As a sidenote, Conor showed me the castle he has been building on Minecraft. As he was giving me a tour of the inside, I got a thrill seeing that he had put bookcases of books in every room! Love that!