Reorganizing books

My husband has been gently (and not so gently) telling me I need to clear away some of my children's book for nearly a year now. The children and I have been resisting but this week we finally did it! It was time to finally get rid of some of the more childish books that my youngest has outgrown. It was a hard process as the kids resisted, they love all their books and they a hard time admitting that certain books were just too young for them now. Princess wanted to keep them because she said she reads them to her dolls. That made my heart melt and I almost gave in. But really I couldn't we are over flowing with children's books and out of book shelf room, they had to be thinned!

The before pictures -- I forgot to take a picture of their end tables next the their beds, they were overflowing with books my children insisted they were reading. I counted 13 on Princess's end table and 7 on Little Man's:)

The Hall way book case










Little Man's book case in his room













Princess's book case in her room -- this is not a fair representation as we had already started sorting by the time I thought to take a picture:) trust me it was in the same condition as her brother!








By the time we were done we had three boxes of books that are ready to donate!
I have invited a few people I know with small children to stop by the house this week and take what books they want for themselves the rest will go to the charity shop other wise known as the thrift store!



It took us two full morning to get these three bookshelves in order. The finish result.....

The top shelf is still full of books that the children have outgrown but said they could not live without. I admit there are a few of my favorites in there as well.
The second shelf is all my holiday books. I found so many missing Christmas stories that I usually read to the children every year but couldn't locate. I really need to label my clean shelves
The third shelf is full of classic novels I have found that I want to read to my daughter and eventually to my son. I have several revised versions as well as original versions. My husband and I really like Usbourne revised books for the classics. We have read Huckleberry Fin and Moby Dick and my daughter really enjoyed them and we as parents felt they were not dumb down to much and the themes of the story were still present. We have had some great discussions with her as we read. I highly recommend them:)


Little Man's bookcase. I have moved all of my daughter's starter chapter books into my son's room. I am really trying to get him out of the mind set that he can't read a chapter book without me. His reading skills are excellent and he is more than ready, just needs a nudge, I think. We have Magic tree house, Magic school bus, Dinosaur Cove, A to Z mysteries and a few others. He also has a shelf just for his super hero books:) and we still have all of Dr Seuss books.





Princess's book shelf. We have Boxcar children, Nancy Drew, Harry Potter, Ink heart series, Secret of Droons, and her mystical creatures books and mythology books. We found several books that her father has bought her that haven't been read because she forgot they are there:)







I wonder how long they will stay like this....