New Bookshelf!

My finished bookshelf.

I've been trying to figure out why I'm so proud of it; it's just bricks and boards, after all. The key here is that I didn't go out and buy something to fulfill a need, I used what I had. The bedrails were just taking up space in the garage, and it's a way to utilize them until I'm ready to sell the bunkbed set.

One thing that was a little different is that at the ends of the rails are thicker parts where they slide into the head and foot boards. I had to turn those parts up so that the rails would rest against the bricks and not create sway (and warp). Therefore I lost about three inches on each end of the rails. I also had to add the bricks in the middle, as the wood isn't strong enough to hold books for any length of time without warping. I did lose room for storage, but overall it's better than the clutter we had downstairs.

I like to use magazine racks and bins to hold collections of books. We have quite a few of the slender Usborne and Scholastic books, plus groups of books for certain unit studies (we've used quite a few Beautiful Feet studies which call for 8-10 books each). Keeping them together makes it easy to find them for the next kid!

Pictured above is just our history books. I later moved up language arts, science and art. Now I have an open shelf on our downstairs bookshelves (right next to my desk) where I can store all my notebooks, which is the way I organize info for myself. I have a notebook for each thing I do: my pet food job, my hair clip business, our homeschool PSP, and my "big book of everything" which has tabs to include separate activities that don't need a whole book (rosters for my prayer group, sports, etc.).

By September everything will be in great shape, LOL! Then I'll be ready to start all over again.