Your bookshelf is perhaps one of the most challenging things to organise and set right. There are two kinds of people according to me one who LOOOOVE books and one who don’t care much for it. Irrespective of which side you belong to, editing a bookshelf is still a huge mindset issue to tackle.
I owned over 500 books and when I KonMari-ed my entire home, books were the last item I tackled because I knew it would be a tough one. Having been through the process which made me reduce my collection to literally 20 books (yes!!) I can easily say that I would totally recommend this to anyone who is choosing to go minimal. Now with two kids aged 5 and 7 years, we are at a stage where they are able to edit their books frequently and most often they do it themselves.
While KonMari-ing your kids' books, here are a few things that you need to keep in mind
- Do your kids love reading the books or are those books you wish your kids read?
- Are the books going to be re-read by the kids or by you for them?
While editing your kid's bookshelf we often find that the parents with good intention imposing their desired list of books for kids to read. With kids above 7 years and self readers, we have found that they clearly know what they would like to read and are able to clearly edit their pile of books.
A simple way to get started on this journey is to
- Allocate about an hour and pull out all the books your child owns.
- Then go through every single book and categorise what you want to keep ( will be stuff that they would want to read again or have not read still)
- A pile of what they have outgrown which can be donated or put away in case of a younger sibling and books that are not in great condition.
- Spending a few seconds and going over each pile and truly listening to your child's thoughts on the books that they want to keep will help you create a space that will be inviting for your child to reach out to.
- Forcing and trying to put in books you wish they read, will be thought to resist but to make this process a success I would highly recommend refraining from doing this.
- Put back in the shelf the books they have decided to keep and lets now hope they love reading and do more of it!!
Give it a try and tell us in the comments below how that went. Does the bookshelf feel like a happy space again?
And if you are looking for recommendations on what your kids should be reading or doing
Head to the KSP Summer Fun Factory for your curated list of activities to keep your kids entertained while they are indoors this summer. From books to apps to storytelling to yoga and kitchen skills, we have it all.
Mansi Zaveri
Parul Gupta
Janani S Koushik
