Yesterday on Facebook, a friend suggested that I write about library fines and how to avoid them. He happens to be married to one of my best friends, who—like me—was not exactly born organized. For people like us the key to survival is to come up with systems and then stick with them. Or we just might discover our keys in the freezer one day. Seriously.

So how can we organize library books and avoid fines? I see this as a three-step process:

Step One: Designate an official “Library Bag” such as the one above. (Isn’t it cheeky?) Find an official spot for it, preferably out in the open so you don’t forget where it is. We keep ours on a hook in the mud room. You might need more than one bag depending on the size of your family and how many books you check out.

Step Two: Visit the library, check out some books, and put them in your official Library Bag(s). Now this is key: when you get home from the library, dig out the receipt and write the date that the books are due on the calendar. Do it right away before you forget and lose the receipt. As an extra precaution, put the receipt in the book bag.

Step Three: Designate a special location in your house for library books. We keep ours on the lower shelf of the living room coffee table. Your spot could be a bookshelf, a basket, or the library bag itself. Although with the latter you might forget you even have library books until you look at the calendar and realize they’re due and you haven’t even read them. I think it’s best to have the books somewhat out in the open.

Train your children (and yourself) to put the library books back in their official location. Whatever you do, don’t put a library book on a shelf with your personal books. It took us a year to find a book from school once because it had slipped behind other books on the shelf. Luckily, our librarian was very understanding.

So there are some ideas for organizing library books. Hope this helps! How about you? Do you have more ideas for keeping library books organized and avoiding fines?

{ Here’s a tutorial for making your own Big Books Bag at eighteen25 }