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I am by no means an organized or neat freakish parent. At best, you might catch me folding towels into perfect squares or even stacking my bras so they can fit in my drawer. But, neva. (Yup, I said neva). Neva eva taking on the task of organizing a bazillion books and crap found in a preschool bookshelf.

Preschool bookshelf organization project

What Possessed Me To Tackle A Preschool Bookshelf?

I don’t know but I feel like I’m surrounded by wonder moms online and off who love to color code and organize their lives to perfection. If you’re one of those moms, you’re so annoying. I hear some of ya’ll even find joy in it. Like how sway? I just don’t have it in me.

Most days, I’m wiped out from dealing with my kids, taking care of the house and hustling at 50 eleven income streams.

Preschooler riding tricycle in house — First day of school bedroom joyride on tricycle | Naturally Stellar

Well, I don’t know what got into me today. It was the first full day of school for both of my kids. When I finally got home after dropping off my daughter the house was strangely quiet (minus the dryer repairman and maintenance guy that stopped by to fix our A/C unit).

I don’t know what got into me. I must have mustered up some crazy mama energy and motivation this morning because I went IN on her bookshelf today and didn’t stop until it looked like Marie Kondo came over and worked her magic!

Organizing Her Chaotic Bookshelf

My daughter’s bookshelf was full of all kinds of things. Because it doubled as a place to store both books and toys, a lot of interesting things seemed to creep in on the regular. Things like crayons, coloring books, fast food paper toys, stickers, toy manuals, loose-leaf paper and anything she felt like plopping in there.

Create A Throwaway Pile

To start, I created a throwaway pile. I separated out all trash. This meant every ripped up or heavily damaged book. I also pulled out ripped coloring pages and old chewed up baby board books. This pile here is only a fraction of what I found on top, inside her bins and mixed in with perfectly good books.

Removing trash from bookshelf

Thin Paperbacks & Specialty Books

Next, I organized all of my daughter’s thin paperbacks by separating them from the shelves and placing them in their own bin. I looked for any books that had spines that were unreadable (due to thinness) and placed them inside a fabric bin, in order by size.

I also added some specialty items like leap reader books and “your baby can read” cards.

Thin paperback books in shelf bins

DVD’s & Toys

I used a catch-all pink plastic bin that sits on her shelf top to organize her DVD’s. I put all of the sleeves and loose DVD’s back inside the cases and stacked them so she can quickly find what she wants. Any loose DVD’s I set inside the bin and will place inside a DVD holder when I get a chance.

Organized preschool dvds on top of bookshelf

Puzzle pieces stored in a cookie jar — Preschool bookshelf organization – Puzzle pieces stored in an old animal cracker container. | Naturally Stellar

The Finished Project

Here’s the finished project! I’m not quite sure how long this is gonna last but it’s still a serious accomplishment. My next step is to implement the “1 book at a time” and “no tearing up your books” rules for the umpteenth time lol.

bookshelf completely organized — Finished project. Organizing preschool bookshelf | Naturally Stellar

Whew! Now that the kids are both in school it really is a new life for me. I’m not used to all of this quiet and hours with zero distractions. This is like a whole new world! Who knows what I’m going to accomplish around here in the next few months. I’ll keep you posted.

Right now, I’m about to sit down and write out a new to-do list!

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