Space-Saving Children's "Bookcase"!

Hi All!

Having a growing family in a home that is definitely NOT growing means that I'm constantly trying to ferret out "hidden spaces".  In other words, I'm constantly trying to find new ways to store things without taking up too much valuable space in our home.  My ideal is that whatever new idea I come up with does not make the place feel cluttered, and, if possible, is visually appealing. 

My newest obsession was trying to find my son a bookcase.  In the nursery, we have some books on the floor, some on top of his dresser, and some in a hanging wall basket.  Other than the ones on the floor, L. can't reach any of his other books.  I noticed that L. would sit and look at the books on the floor, and every morning I'd try to put a new set of books on the floor and cycle through his books that way.  Yet I know that once baby #2 comes along, cycling books maaaaay become less of a priority. 

Our son's nursery is also partly my husband's home office.  As a result, we have a printer stand in the office portion, that I thought we could move into the guest room once we finished our DIY closet shelving project.  (A future blog post for sure!)  I found this children's bookcase that I loved:

Source

But, we're in the middle of that project right now, and my vision isn't quite panning out.  My big problem is that I don't think we'll be able to move the printer stand into the guest room, and as a result, won't have the additional floor space that this case requires.  What I loved about this book case was that it was compact and that the books are facing out so that you can see their covers.  I also liked that it was kid sized, making it more accessible to my son.  My theory was that if  L. could see and reach the books available to him, he'd be more likely to engage with the books by either looking at them on his own or bringing books to whatever adult is present to read to him.  Usually that's me.   =D

I started to scour places around the rest of my house to see where else I could put this bookcase.  I spotted this corner of my dining room:

 

This is a little area that's underneath a counter that looks into a kitchen.  You could put bar stools here at the counter and have a sort of breakfast bar.  But in the 3.5 years we've lived here, we never did that, and have no plans of doing so.  The only thing this area used to have is my cats' automated feeder.  At the moment, my cats are on a diet, so the feeders are hidden only to appear at mealtime.  But the feeder issue did give me pause as to adding the bookcase here.  At some point, my cats will hopefully lose the crazy extra weight they put on, and I can put the feeders back out.  I didn't want to find a new place for the feeders, yet I still wanted the bookcase.  What to do, what to do?

Well, then I had an inspiring trip to Target!  A word of advice to you lovely readers:  if you have kids, perhaps try shopping without them.  Usually I do all of our household shopping during the week to free up our weekends for fun stuff.  But this also means that I'm zipping through the stores as fast as I can with L. in tow so that I can get through the shopping with a minimum of toddler meltdowns.  When I go shopping on my own, I can peruse at my leisure, and think creatively for solutions to problems.  Well, that's what happened on this trip to Target!  I noticed that Target has a new section of children's storage and decided to check it out.  And here's what I found:

Um, perfect!!!  I loved this idea!  Not only does it have pockets that I can store books in, it hangs on the wall and as a result is off of the floor!!!  Book storage and cat feeder storage all in one space!!!  I was ecstatic!  (What can I say, I love organizing!) 

I did end up making one little change to the organizer.  Both ends of the organizer had these smaller pockets that was the perfect size for L.'s little bath books:

But...I don't have that many smaller bath books, and so didn't need 8 tiny pockets.  I noticed that all of the pockets were created by sewing a line down the middle of the plastic to divide it in half.  So, I got my scissors and cut out the thread (and some, ahem, plastic on the first pocket I tried) and created two bigger pockets from the four smaller pockets:

I also bought Command Wall Hooks to hang this organizer instead of using the ones that it came with.  I didn't want to damage the walls in case this "bookcase" didn't work out.  As soon as I could the next morning after L. woke up, I put up the toy organizer and filled it with books.  I wanted to hang the organizer while L. was awake to make sure that I hung it at a good height for him to be able to reach into the pockets.  Check it out:

Isn't it lovely???  =D  =D  =D  I absolutely love this little "reading nook" that has sort of just appeared!  And, the organizer holds about 20ish books!  Lots for L. to go through, though I will still be cycling books periodically.  It's also done a nice job of clearing some floor space and dresser space of the ever growing collection of children's books that we now own.  And did it encourage L. to engage with more of his books?  Why don't you see for yourself?

                                               

This has actually worked out so well, that we've had to institute The Rule of Three:  a book may only be read  three times in a row.  At that point, L. has to either choose a new book, or find something else to do.  A little rule that goes a long way to saving Mom's sanity.  =D

So, one more little before and after, because who doesn't love a little before and after? 

Before!

After!

 

 

 

 

One additional perk to this organizer is that it saved me a few bucks over the original bookcase I was looking at.  The original bookcase was $25.  The organizer above was $8, and I bought a value pack of Command hooks for $9.  I saved $8 and still have two Command hooks left over to use for future projects.  Sure $8 doesn't sound like much, but for this girl on a budget, I'll take what I can get!  ;)

What creative storage solutions have you whipped up lately?  Share, pleasey!  I love to beg, borrow, and steal ideas!!!