Before and After: The Great Library Sort

It's been 7 years since we last culled the herd.  It was time!

It always looks worse before it looks better

 Day1:We started with a toy cull, donating the toys that were too young, and dumping the broken ones. 

We didn't just do the library toys, we worked our way down through all the play areas in the house!

I think we donated 5 trash bags of toys, not counting the special ones we kept for families we knew.

Day 2 and 3: We started going through the books.  We had edged up past 4000, and there were books spilling out of book cases in every room in the house.  Between broken books recycled and heaping boxes of donated books, we dropped around a thousand books.

You can play air hockey again!

Day 4: Sorting and organizing! 

Not only do the books fit on the shelves, we now actually know where specific books are!!

We didn't quite manage the Dewey Decimal system, but we have them organized by subjects, and all the series are together.

I didn't bother with photos of the other 7 "main" book cases, but trust me, it was a massive project.

The blue bins are more books to be donated to the library.

We moved around some book cases, to make a cozy reading spot in the area we've always called "The Reading Nook."  Now you can actually read there!

And the upstairs (our library is upstairs between the main bedrooms) is now cleaner than it's been since we built it, two kids ago!