The Sweet Reasons I Still Organize My Kids’ Books By Color
When it comes to polarizing housekeeping topics, using paper towels, requiring a “shoes off or on” policy, and determining how to organize books top the list.
Arranging books by color is a particularly controversial issue. Some people are scandalized by the thought of not organizing books by author or subject matter, others wonder how they could ever find the book they want when they’re sorted in rainbow order, and many are still indignant that books could be treated as (*gasp*) decor.
But as a book lover with a fairly extensive library of my own, once I started organizing books by color, I couldn’t stop and wouldn’t have it any other way. I first did it in our living room library, where I (even more sacrilegious) turned a set of books backward so that instead of their dark green spines showing, the white part of the pages showed. (Don’t worry, I penciled in the volume numbers on the paper so we could still easily get the books we were looking for.)
It gave me so much joy to see all our books in rainbow order, every single time I caught a glimpse. I’m not going to lie, I would also often just stare at my rainbow collection because it made me happy. So I didn’t stop there. I tackled every bookshelf I could “rainbow-ize,” including the bookshelves in my kids’ rooms.
They loved it. They, too, enjoyed how aesthetically delightful their bookshelves became. They could always find the book they wanted for a bedtime story or their quiet-time stack. And they knew where to put them back! Creating a purposeful arrangement out of a category of items had more than just a fun visual effect; it gave a distinct impression of order and uplifted the entire room.
We recently moved and every old way of sorting, organizing, and displaying things got reassessed as we set up our new home. We haven’t been able to unpack our books yet, but the kids’ books got put back on their shelves in rainbow order again.
Rainbow ordering kids’ books, whether they’re board books, picture books, or chapter books, turns a bookshelf that could look disheveled into an intentional space. It creates visual interest and conveys order. On top of all that, just like in our old place, my kids can go straight to the book they want.
Because everything is sorted in such a visual way, they’re able to keep the organizational system going. And since easy maintenance is the hallmark of a successful organizational system, I’d say “rainbow-izing” books is a win all around.