Help with SQL Query: Is there a cost-efficient way to join multiple tables to one main table?

I have a main table set up like this: |id |table_to_join | table_item_id | |:---|:-------------|:--------------| |1 |products |123 | |2 |products |577 | |3 |products |344 | |4 |products |1230 | |5 |images |14 | |6 |images |42 | |7 |video |555 | |8 |products |400 | |9 |video |9 | |10 |images |19 | I have three other tables called products, images and videos. Their Primary ids correspond to those of the table_item_id shown in the main table above, which is an indexed column. I would like to query the main table and select those 10 rows, and join those three tables to their corresponding table_item_id to produce one single list showing a variety of different media. I am looking for an efficient query to do something like this, if it's even possible. I had thought of three Joins, but that seems a bit messy, especially if I start adding more than the three tables in the future. I had also thought of using individual ajax queries on each table after it displays on the homepage, but again that seems a bit messy. The query below is sort of what I'm looking for, but I'm not sure if there is a better, more cost-efficient method that best fits what I'm intending to do. Let me know what you think. SELECT * FROM main JOIN products ON main.table_item_id = products.id AND table_to_join = 'products' JOIN images ON main.table_item_id = images.id AND table_to_join = 'images' JOIN video ON main.table_item_id = video.id AND table_to_join = 'video' LIMIT 10