Tidy Books Bookcase Review

Since Spud was a baby, I have always encouraged the use of books, when he was a baby, they was soft baby material books, they was picture board books, chunky books that sometimes did not even have words, board books that had one word, a variety of books suitable for his baby stages. As Spud got older, we moved onto a variety of books suitable for his age and now we have slowly built up a good collection of books, over 150 at the last count.

When we was given the chance to review a Tidy Books bookcase, I jumped at the chance, smiling from ear to ear, I would surely be insane not too. Dancing around the room, I excitedly told Spud what we would soon be receiving and took the time to show him around the Tidy Books website. We opted to review the Tidy Books lower case blue bookcase and jumped with glee when it arrived on our doorstep!

Before I start the review properly, I want to inform you all of the previous 'book case/shelf' system we had. Spud as I mentioned above, has over 150 books, these books were in plastic storage tubs and on a old cheap shelving unit placed against the playroom wall at an angle. Due to the angle the shelving unit was placed at, we could not use the bottom shelf as the books would slide off, and due to the shelf being so close to the wall, big books was just impossible to fit on, without falling off, so these resided in the plastic storage tubs.

The box was quite deceiving, it was slim and not that tall either. The image of the beautiful bookcases I had awed over so many times popped into my head, and I thought maybe I had received a smaller version of what I had seen on the website. I wanted to tear open the box with excitement, and Spud really wanted me to do it too, but knowing that such a precious item was inside, I carefully took my time at getting the contents out of the box.

Inside the box, I found the items to put the book case together, including all the pieces, some instructions, the bits and pieces such as screws and even an alan key meaning I didn't have to worry about asking the neighbours to borrow one!

My regular readers will know I am a single Mum, so when it comes to putting things together, I have to either rely on help or trust myself, I trusted myself with putting the bookcase together, but I must admit if the instructions wasn't as clear and informal as they are, I don't think I would of been able to do it. Thankfully the instructions were informative, really easy, clear to follow and understand.

When putting the pieces together, I took notice of how the material was strong, Tidy Books advise 2 people assemble the bookshelf, but I was impatient and didn't want to rely on anyone to help us, the wood used to make the Tidy Books bookcase is very strong and I trust in their 5 year guarantee you receive with the bookcase. I also noticed how strong, bright and bold the colours of the 3D lowercase alphabet were and how appealing they was to me, children are even more appealed to colours, everything is going great so far!

I got the bookcase put together in just under 40 minutes, I stood it up against the cold radiator for the purpose of this photo, and moved it to a flat wall surface as I did have to rely on help to drill the bookcase to the wall of the playroom. One reason for this is because the drilling to the wall part does require 2 people, and secondly I don't have a drill! My Dad, Spud's Grandad popped round a week later and helped put the biggest smiles on our faces!

The bookcase is very slim and takes minimum space in the room its placed in, in this case Spud's playroom. Due to the bookcase being drilled into the wall securely I feel safe for Spud to be able to retrieve his own books and put them back, a step up from the old book shelf system we had!

Finally we had the most perfect, strong, bright, appealing and very child friendly bookcase drilled into the playroom wall. Now it was time for the part where Spud could help, filling the bookshelf! As mentioned Spud has over 150 books, we took the opportunity to sort out his books and give his older ones which he is now too old for to the local charity shop. The Tidy Books lowercase bookcases can hold up to 85 books of all shapes and sizes!

Spud is just a tiny bit bigger than the bookcase and can very easily reach the top shelf. Now instead of missing loads of books because they was all packed into storage tubs or on a shelf showing only the bind, Spud has started picking different books to read on a daily basis, and constantly re-arranging his books.

The Tidy Books bookcase can also help children with learning the alphabet and their phonics, I'm 90% sure every day when Spud goes to his beautiful bookcase, he says each letter (the alphabet) and the phonic sounds of them too. Reading has become much more fun and Spud has discovered so many more books that he forgot about, instead of reaching for the same ones, he now reads something new everyday! Children really do judge a book by its cover!

We received the Tidy Books lowercase blue bookshelf for review out of choice, however Tidy Books have a number of colours and styles available including natural, white, pink and capital bookcases. Priced at £125 they are a tad more expensive them other bookcases, but they are truly worth every penny and each one comes with a 5 year guarantee too!

To find out more about Tidy Books and to view their full product range, because they do more than just their beautiful bookcases, check out the official website here.

Until next time,

Jada x