I have so many books I can't find the one I want

Do you have so many books that you can't find the one that you really want? When my son was interested in astronomy, I knew that I had some books on the subject, but where? When you collect lots of books, which is not a bad thing, they can become a burden if you don't keep them organized.

For those of you who are voting for your favorite Daily Tip topic, the subject of Organization is in the lead. Remember, you can vote for more than one.

Now, I've tried all sorts of methods to organize my books; alphabetical, kids books in one area, teens in another and adults in yet another, even by the Dewey Decimal system.

But, I've found the best way to organize anything, especially books is by use. So, the books in our house, now fall into one of the following categories, and each category has it's own designated space.

Categories We Chose (your family may choose different categories based on how you used your books)

Science - All astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, etc.

History and Geography - This includes biography/autobiography, map-making and so on. We store our globe on top of this book case.

Art and Music - Songbooks, lesson books, etc go here. Also, we put this section next to history and geography so that we could include art history and music history in this section.

Math and Puzzles - This includes sudoku books, logic books, and of course our math textbooks.

Handwriting - Here we keep handwriting lessons and handwriting paper. Next to this, we have coloring books and crayons for our little ones to "practice" writing as well.

Classics - There are certain books that I consider classics and would like my children to read. When I assign reading, I allow them to choose from this area. By keeping them apart from general fiction, I don't have to search for a "good book" because I have them all in one place.

General Fiction - This area is away from the classics so they don't get mixed up, and includes many children's books that we enjoy at bedtime.

Writing - This is different from handwriting, and includes Vocabulary Builder, Dictionary, Thesaurus, Manual of Chicago Style, and so on. This is primarily a resource shelf for me as I work on Professional Writing, but the children use it frequently as well.

Language - This area is just below the writing section as some of these are related, it includes spelling lessons, English from the Roots Up, Grammar books and our foreign language materials as well.

Hobbies - This shelf has a variety of books, but includes all sorts of things we've been interested in over the years, but do not necessarily fit into an academic category; like gardening, antiques, electrical systems, tropical fish, puppetry, theater, woodworking, etc.

Crafts - Some of our art could really be crafts, and some of our hobbies could be crafts, but I keep a bucket just for craft project items. It includes some books, but also includes paints and brushes, markers, colored pencils and chalks, etc.

All of these book cases line the walls of our school room, and are available to us all day long, and we always know where to look when we want a resource for something. Some books that myself or my husband own for personal reading are kept on a shelf in our bedroom, but pretty much all of our books are in one room, and organized by use, so that they are available to us easily, and we seldom have to search for material on a topic. 

This method also helps us quickly see what we already have on a subject so that our library trips are devoted to filling in areas that we don't have at home.

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