Tips On Organizing Book Shelves

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How To Organize Your Book Shelves

Most people believe that there are two choices when it comes to organizing book shelves.

 You either organize them for home decor, and you have to stuff your paperbacks and other “ugly” books elsewhere, or you organize your book shelves for use, and you have to be embarrassed about the way they look.

 There is, however, a way to organize your book shelves in a way that makes them both nice to look at and functional!

First Get Rid of Clutter!

The first thing to do is to sort through the books and decor items that currently reside in your book shelves.

Unless they are sentimental or valuable, books that you no longer read (and have no desire to read) need to go!

If you have books that you have had vague plans to read “sometime in the future,” but it’s been years and you haven’t made time, get rid of them!

If you have vases and other knickknacks that sit on your shelves with your books, ask yourself if they are really necessary. If they simply sit there collecting dust, get rid of them or put them elsewhere if you really love them.

Your bookshelves should be for books.

Decorative items may sit at the top of the shelf units, but anything else just collects just and takes away from room to store your books (remember the purpose of the book shelves in the first place).

Paperback Books

Paperback books are ugly, and they don’t add to the decor of the room. They are, however, inexpensive, and convenient to read. Luckily, there are great ways to store your paperback books with your presentable volumes.

There are storage tools made especially to hide paperback books on your shelves. They look like elegant volumes of books, but they are all connected. They open at the front, and you can peruse your paperback books easily. The problem is that these paperback book disguises have to be ordered and can be expensive. Also, they don’t give enough room to store very many paperback books.

A less expensive and more convenient solution is to purchase containers like lidded wicker baskets or canvas storage boxes. Look for more shallow containers instead of tall ones, and be sure that your container has a lid.

Arrange your paperback books in one layer inside the container so the titles are facing upward, and they are easy to read. You can either arrange the containers all on one or two shelves, or you can spread them out with one container on each shelf. Use your judgment as to which arrangement looks better with your decor.

Arranging Your Books

Since you will be arranging your book shelves for functionality, forget sorting the shelves by color or even worse, alphabetical order. Both of these long-used methods don’t make much sense when you want to find a book.

Book shelves in elegant, wealthy homes are not arranged by color. They are usually arranged much like a library – divided by fiction or non-fiction, and then arranged alphabetically.

Unless your library is very extensive and you have a card catalog system or some other inventory list, alphabetical arrangements aren’t likely to be convenient for finding books you want to read recreationally.

Some suggestions you might find useful in arranging your books are:

• By Mood – If you like to read books based on your mood, you can arrange your books by the general theme of the book. You can classify books as comedies, tearjerkers, self-help, learning books, photo albums, etc.
• By Subject – Try arranging your book shelves by the subject of the books. Divide them into subjects like current affairs, mysteries, romance, history, true crime, etc. This type of arrangement makes it easy for you to find books that you want to read, and then you can grab the next one when you return your first book.
• By Authors – If you have several books by the same author, you should keep those books together. If you read them often, you should put them in order from earliest to latest. For example, authors who do a continuous book series should be organized from the first to the last in the series. Similar authors should be grouped together. Stephen King goes next to Dean Koontz, and Joseph Ellis would go near David McCullough. It is easier to choose from books grouped in this way, especially if you find yourself drawn to a small number of authors when you purchase books.
• By Family Members – Book shelves that store books from a big household deserve to be sorted by members of the family. Each family member should get at least one shelf, and heavier readers should have more shelves if possible. This is a great way for each member of your household to easily find books they want to read. It also encourages children to branch out to other shelves to read books that their siblings or parents enjoy. More adult books should be kept on higher shelves, and children should get permission before taking books from other shelves. This also helps you out when it’s time to clean. You can make it the responsibility of each family member to dust and maintain their own shelves!

Cleaning and Maintaining Your Organized Book Shelves

Now that your book shelves are nice and organized, you’ll want to keep them looking nice and clean. The two easiest ways to dust and clean your book shelves is to either use a feather duster or a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment.

If the shelves are glass or wood, you can do a quick job of cleaning by pushing the books up by the top to expose just enough of the shelf to wipe under the edge of the books. It’s not necessary to remove the books for a thorough cleaning every time you dust.

If you find your shelves overflowing or notice that you are purchasing more books than you are reading, consider selling some of your books on eBay or half.com. The buyer pays shipping, and you’ll get more than you would at a garage sale.

You can also donate your books to several local charities. A good rule of thumb is to get rid of one book every time you buy a new one.