Our Little Library

Old Books Became an Inspiration

While weeding through some of the kid’s books, we realized that some of them were in great shape. We just aren’t the kind of people to do a yard sale… don’t get me wrong… we love going to them, we just aren’t going to have one shortly. When we want something gone, we want it gone, so we either find a home for it or take it to a second-hand store.

With a box full of mostly great books, we sat there for a minute trying to figure out what to do with them. My kids had outgrown them, most of their friends had too, and so we had no one to give these books to. I was contemplating posting them “FREE” on Facebook, when one of the kids said, “It’s too bad we can’t trade these with other people for their old books”. Well, that got me thinking…

I thought maybe we could organize a neighborhood book swap, I know that people do this with all sorts of children’s items… toys, clothes, and so on… so I did a bit of searching and that is when I came across the concept of the Little Library!

What is a Little Library?

If you’re not familiar with a Little Library, it’s a box that offers books to be borrowed and returned or kept, with a donation of another book. These Little Libraries are usually on someone’s private property and are sometimes a lifeline to children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get to an actual library. I was excited about the idea of being able to provide something of value to our neighborhood and thought it would be fun to do as a family. We asked the kids what they thought… they loved the idea, and so we started planning.

Our Little Library –  Our Little Corner Library

We live on a corner lot and thought it would be nice to give people a place to sit while reading. We built a little area with landscaping borders and rocks where we plan on putting a bench and our Little Corner Library. The bench and library are in the planning stages now, with hopes to have them done before Autumn. Of course, we still have that box of books and have added to it, but our goal is to provide new books as well. That is why I’ve decided to give any monetization from this blog to the Little Library, and you can see more on that here. The same goes for my Etsy shop!

We will make sure to share our plans and pics as we get our Little Corner Library finished! For more information on Little Libraries, check out Little Free Library.

BEM + Fam 🙂

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