Spring Cleaning 10 Minute Challenge: Kid's Books

This is the third of the 10-Minute Family Spring Cleaning Challenges, as I partner with Lisa Soma, Sioux Falls organizing expert and owner of Organizing by Lisa.   A Spring cleaning challenge will be provided, to spend 10 minutes in the designated challenge area.  Together, Lisa and I will provide some guidance, support and tips.  Maybe 10 minutes is all you need, or maybe 10 minutes will provide you a great start, where you can come back and truly transform your space.  Completely up to you!  Grab the kids to help or head in alone, the call is yours. Have fun with it!  If you missed the previous challenges you can find the Entryway Challenge here and the Board Games Challenge here.

This week the challenge is....

Challenge: Spend 10 minutes on kid's books

How to Spend 10 Minutes:
*Remove all books from the shelf 
Remove all books from the shelf that they are stored on.  To assist with this challenge, you can place all books in a small laundry hamper in case you run out of time while organizing and you come back to them at another time.

*Discard Books
Determine which books your child no longer uses or has outgrown and place these in a discard box. Organizing expert, Lisa Soma, suggests that reducing the overall number of books on hand for your child to approximately 20 books will reduce the mess and allow your child to feel like they can keep up during pick up time.  She further suggests setting up a book rotation system to rotate books in and out when kids get bored with their current set.

*Store Books
If there are seasonal books, such as Christmas books, you can remove these and place them in storage until the season/holiday rolls around again.  Lisa Soma suggests that holiday books can easily be stored along with corresponding holiday decor!

*Organize Books
I find it helpful to organize books by size and favorites.  I place all favorites (the ones that your kids pull off the shelf more frequently) in one pile and then organize the rest by size.

*Place Books On Shelf
Now that you have spent a few minutes discarding books that are no longer needed and organizing the remaining books by size, it is time to place them back on the shelf.  Placing larger, more bulky books laying down will make it easier for kids to grab and return these books.  Also, I find that placing the favorite books at the center for easy access helps kids in finding them (instead of digging through all the others to find them - we know what happens then).

Additional Tips:
*Board Books

Lisa Soma suggests putting board books in with toys, as "they are sturdy and can withstand being tossed around".

*Storage Ideas
If you don't have a shelf to designate for book storage, Lisa offers a couple additional book storage ideas.  Try a basket for storage, or a wall shelf.  A "wall shelf is a cool way to decorate with books".

*Discarding Books
If books are ripped or binding is broken, you can toss them.  However, if books are in good shape, there are several options for re-purposing instead of tossing.  Find more information about donating to REACH Literacy or your child's school here or Lisa suggests considering donating to daycare providers, church nurseries and doctor offices.  You can also find opportunities to sell your discarded items here via a rummage sale or the Just Between Friends of Greater Sioux Falls sale coming up in May and more.

That's it!  By now, you are probably finding what an amazing difference just 10 minutes of decluttering and organizing can make!  Look at your newly organized kid's books, awesome!  Providing a more functional space for little hands will hopefully reduce the time needed to step in and help place books away, or even helping locate special books.  Congratulations on your hard work!

*Like the tips that organizing expert, Lisa Soma shared?  Be sure to follow her Facebook page, as she shares more organizing tips and provides encouragement to declutter.