Book Organization: Our Shelves

I promised some people a while back that I’d do a post on how we organize our books. The truth is it’s a bit hard to do this since our shelves are constantly in flux, but this should give a general idea of how we do things. The actual contents of each shelf changes from year to year, and sometimes month to month, depending on the kids’ curriculum and interests. These are our Religion/History/Geography shelves. On top of these shelves are the large atlas books and a globe, as well as the boxes that hold my old stamp collection.

At least once a year, I do a rearranging of the shelves, taking out books that each child will use for that year — those go into their own baskets/desks so they’re easily accessible. Hence the 7th grade Faith and Life books aren’t here, and I guess someone needed to read the CCC again since it’s gone. The kids also regularly take books that they’ve fallen in love with and keep them in their own bookshelves/under their beds/on their desks, etc. I try to keep track of who’s got what so I don’t buy a book again by mistake, but it does get difficult with so many booklovers in the house.

Note: Click on the pics for enlarged versions.

the Catechism and Apologetics shelf

Sacramental Preparation and TOB/Misc Spiritual Reading — also art cards for Sacrament portfolios or meditation

Liturgical Year — there’s a lot missing here because I’m working on them so they’re on my desk. In the basket is our set of homemade Stations of the Cross for Lent.

Salvation History + History spines

We like putting our history living books in chronological order. It’s helpful to see which saints were contemporaries with scientists and statesmen, for instance. One interesting dilemma I always run into is whether I should put a book in the century when the author lived, or the book’s setting. Talk about OCD. >.< Another dilemma is if I should put literature books alongside the history books, in the century when the author lived or if they go in the literature shelves. I just try not to think about it too much 🙂 . If a book is not on one shelf, it must be on the other. [caption id="attachment_6803" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] the Ancients through Middle Ages[/caption]

Middle Ages through Renaissance/Reformation

the rest of the History books. on the right are some of the music/art books (no better place to put them right now)

Languages

I’ll post pics of other shelves in a future post. 🙂