If you love books as much as I do, you might have several bookshelves throughout your house – all which could use a little TLC. Organizing bookshelves can be done in many ways.
Organize Your Books
Some of my favourites are:
1. By colour. I know this doesn’t seem the most logical, and it’s not – but it’s very eye-catching, and a great conversation starter! Organize books by colour, shade, etc and you’ll always have a rainbow to look at! However, if books are all different sizes, it might not flow as well as you’d imagine.
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Unless you can identify books by the color of their spine, it probably isn’t the best way to organize them, but it is an option – and kids might like it!
2. Alphabetical. You can organize books on your bookshelf alphabetically, either by author’s last name or by book title. If you’re organizing them by book title, you might want to leave out common beginning words such as “the” and “a”, and alphabetize based on the second word.
One good thing about organizing alphabetically by author’s last name is that all of the books by your favourite author can be found in one spot. This way is probably the best way to find a book fast.
3. Genre. I like to organize books by genre, because sometimes you’re just in the mood for a certain type of book. Divide by fiction, fantasy, reference, mystery, young adult, romance, and cooking books. You can have sub-genres such as baking, grilling, and International cookbooks, too. This is a great way to organize when you’re looking to find a type of book fast, instead of a specific book.
4. Chronological. I have to admit I haven’t really tried this one much, but if you have a lot of history books, it can work well. Organize by time period, and your friends will totally geek out when they come to visit. Or, maybe they won’t even notice because they aren’t those kind of geeks, but still… it was fun while it lasted.
5. Stacks. You can also organize books in stacks by genre, colour, alphabetically, by genre, or chronologically. I like stacking books because it’s more of a decor item rather than “just books”, and you can set things on top like a small vase, basket, or trinkets here and there.
The difficult part about having books in stacks is that they aren’t as easy to remove as when they’re upright. If you aren’t switching books out a dozen times a day, I guess it doesn’t really matter, but it’s something to consider when organizing your bookshelves.
How do you organize your books?
Laurie P says
by color…..that could be fun lol
Judy Cowan says
All great tips. We don’t have much of a book collection anymore, we have gone almost completely to e-books since we live in a small space.
Stephanie LaPlante says
I’d like to stack mine alphabetically…but my house is nuts.
Jayne says
I sort by genre and than by author. My DVDs are similar…all the Disney movies are together and than subdivided by live action or animated. After that, the Narnia series, for instance would go in the “C” section with all three movies in order of release date. Star Wars is my exception because I go 1-6.
Fast and Furious, though, goes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 3, and 7 because that’s the chronological order for the films.
M.Clark says
I prefer to organize books by genre first, and then within each genre, alphabetically by author’s last name. Organizing by color is nice, I organize my clothes that way.
Marissa says
We put books by color and size in my kids bookshelves, which works great as they are just learning to read, so color is their go to. I’ve thought about getting some decorative paper and covering some of my less read books so they coordinate with the living room decor for the inlay shelves… but then I’d have to cover the books, and that sounds like a ton of work!
Thanks for sharing your tips!
Marissa
Currently On Reading List…
Susan says
I tend to organize my books by genre (although I always admire those shelves done by colour)!
Meg A says
I organize by category but, also put a few books on the coffee table for display/to read.