Hey there! I’m finally on summer vacation! I took time for some much-needed R&R and now I’m ready to hit the ground running with some summer organization projects.
The first project I’m tackling is my BOOKS!
NOTE: The links below are Amazon Affiliate links for your convenience, but I may receive compensation if you click through and purchase one of the books. *
Step 1: Purge!
I started out by spreading out all of my books on the floor. I sorted them by category. This helped me decide which books to keep and which books to donate. I found out that my spring book bin is pretty empty, but I have TONS of winter books. I’ll donate the winter books that don’t “spark joy” and maybe look for some spring books.
Side note: I read the The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo last year, and was able to implement some of the suggestions–like organizing my clothes. (I’m hoping to do more this summer!)
Anyway! Back to books…
Step 2: Gather Supplies
I made some labels and use these awesome bins from Walmart to keep me organized.
I was originally using baskets from the dollar store, but I decided to go with bins that can latch so they are more portable. This will make it easier to store books and switch them out with the seasons.
Moving soon? I’m going to keep the box that the bins came in so I can package them up, and they’ll be ready to move!
UPDATE: I ended up using file totes instead!
Check out this post for details on how I put this together!
Step 3: Make a List
I don’t know about you, but I tend to forget which books I have! I don’t know how many times I went to Goodwill and ended up buying a book I already have… I decided to make a Google Sheet to keep track of the books I have. You can check the template out here. Next time I’m standing at Goodwill, I can open the sheet on my phone to make sure I’m not buying duplicate books.
It’s also a nice reference to have when you’re planning therapy. I print a list of all of the books in each category and stick the list on the corresponding bin.
The spreadsheet is really simple, but this way doesn’t take forever to set up and maintain. I especially love the “Category” column; it will help me keep track of where I’m storing the book (e.g., in the winter bin).
They have apps that let you scan books and add them to your “library,” but I haven’t had much luck with them. They always seem to crash, or half of my books aren’t in their database (and I have to add them manually anyway). If you have a favorite app to keep track of your books, I’d love to hear!
Looking for themed books ideas? Check out this page for a list of my favorite books!
Now it’s your turn! How do you organize your books? Let me know in the comments!
* Marisha McGrorty is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon properties including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com.
Hi Marisha!
I love your ideas and would love to see you expand upon this post with a list of titles for some or all of the books you have in those bins by season! I have done extensive internet searching for appropriate themed books for my school-aged students, but there is not a ton out there on this topic. Perhaps you could do a post at the beginning of each season with titles of some of the books in your Library that can inspire the rest of us.
Thanks for all you do! : )
Good news, Lauren! I have a list of books sorted by theme here: roadtospeech.com/books!
Hi Marisha!
I love your ideas and would love to see you expand upon this post with a list of titles for some or all of the books you have in those bins by season! I have done extensive internet searching for appropriate themed books for my school-aged students, but there is not a ton out there on this topic. Perhaps you could do a post at the beginning of each season with titles of some of the books in your Library that can inspire the rest of us.
Thanks for all you do! : )
Good news, Lauren! I have a list of books sorted by theme here: roadtospeech.com/books!
Hi Marisha!
I was JUST thinking about you today as I organized and “binned” all my books! You’d suggested these particular bins a couple months ago and I ran right out to grab some. They are great. I love the shape of the lid (more space)!
As for how I organized them… I just stuck to general topics: plants, animals, transportation, body/feelings/emations/values, friendship/overcoming obstacles, FOOD!, historical figures/biographies… And then I also have one bin with speech-centric books (phonics, early readers, rhyming books, repeated lines). Your idea of dividing them by time of year makes good sense though, so we’ll see how long my groups stay grouped. Also, I work at 2 schools and should probably skim some of them for the other school.
Love it!! Hope you’re doing well. 😀
Hi Marisha!
I was JUST thinking about you today as I organized and “binned” all my books! You’d suggested these particular bins a couple months ago and I ran right out to grab some. They are great. I love the shape of the lid (more space)!
As for how I organized them… I just stuck to general topics: plants, animals, transportation, body/feelings/emations/values, friendship/overcoming obstacles, FOOD!, historical figures/biographies… And then I also have one bin with speech-centric books (phonics, early readers, rhyming books, repeated lines). Your idea of dividing them by time of year makes good sense though, so we’ll see how long my groups stay grouped. Also, I work at 2 schools and should probably skim some of them for the other school.
Love it!! Hope you’re doing well. 😀
I have books spread out in different places. Then I can’t remember where I put them. I have recently purchased several books for social skills lessons so I guess I would need a category for that. I was organizing my books by author units (Jamie lee Curtis, Mem Fox, Peter Reynolds, etc) and book series (old lady books) but then when a season or holiday comes up I don’t remember what books I have.
Any suggestions? Maybe just cataloging where everything is would be better than throwing it all out and starting over.
Hi Lisa,
I highly recommend using Evernote to catalog your books. It’s really easy, and you could add tags by location and theme. Here’s a tutorial (http://blog.slptoolkit.com/inventory-your-speech-materials-digitally/).
I also recently changed how I organize my books. Maybe this post (http://roadtospeech.com/themeorganization/) will give you some ideas. It really helps me to have all of my books in one place, sorted by theme. Makes lesson planning really easy!
I have books spread out in different places. Then I can’t remember where I put them. I have recently purchased several books for social skills lessons so I guess I would need a category for that. I was organizing my books by author units (Jamie lee Curtis, Mem Fox, Peter Reynolds, etc) and book series (old lady books) but then when a season or holiday comes up I don’t remember what books I have.
Any suggestions? Maybe just cataloging where everything is would be better than throwing it all out and starting over.
Hi Lisa,
I highly recommend using Evernote to catalog your books. It’s really easy, and you could add tags by location and theme. Here’s a tutorial (http://blog.slptoolkit.com/inventory-your-speech-materials-digitally/).
I also recently changed how I organize my books. Maybe this post (http://roadtospeech.com/themeorganization/) will give you some ideas. It really helps me to have all of my books in one place, sorted by theme. Makes lesson planning really easy!
There is an app called “book buddy”. You scan in each book, which is initially time consuming, but then you have a portable catalog of all of your books. The great thing is you can add multiple tags to each book such as winter, social skills, zoo and even create your own tags such as regular past tense verbs, etc. You can then search for a book based on the tags. This makes it well worth the initial time of scanning in the books. I believe it cost about $4.99 but it has saved me from accidentally repurchasing books I already have.
Yes!! Love it! I actually use the BookBuddy app!