Organizing any area of your home can pay off a lot in the form of a beautiful and welcoming space, but great organization goes beyond simple aesthetics. A well-organized space lends itself to ease of use and accessibility of your favorite items, and your home library is no exception. Whether you have one bookshelf with a handful of your favorite titles or a collection that gives your community library a run for its money, there’s no doubt that organization can make the most of your books and your home’s interior design.
Declutter First
As with any organization job, the first and most crucial task is decluttering. Book lovers may hate the thought of parting with any book, but having a collection full of titles collecting dust isn’t a great way to honor your love for reading and isn’t the best use of your valuable storage space within the home. For this reason, be sure to thoroughly go through your books. Any titles that you didn’t enjoy, won’t read again or simply know you won’t get around to can be donated or sold to a used book store for credit. Be very honest with yourself throughout this process. Remember that you can always buy or borrow a book again in the future if you decide it really was a good fit or you are now interested in reading it.
Decide Your Organizing Style
Every book lover has their own preferences and needs when it comes to the level of attention to detail with an organized bookshelf. Some care more about aesthetics and general organization, while others need meticulously alphabetized authors and titles. Your preferences may also change based on the size of your space or book collection. The most aesthetically pleasing organization options are often the least meticulous, and vice-versa. Some organization options in order of most aesthetically focused to the most meticulously is as follows:
- Rainbow Order: Arranging books by spine color can offer a visually striking display, and can be especially fun in children’s rooms. Mainbow-order organizers suggest that it’s especially helpful for kids’ books when the child is more likely to remember a color than a book title.
- Size & Format: Taller books and shorter books are placed with like-sizes for a balanced and neater arrangement. The downside is this may make finding books more complicated since you are unlikely to remember book sizes, but series titles and like books will be sure to end up together, making at least that aspect easy.
- Book Type & Genre: Keeping mysteries, fantasy, history, cookbooks and self-improvement books all mixed up on the shelf may make it hard to find your interest when you’re ready to read. Grouping fiction and non-fiction books together, and separating further if you have a large collection can combat this.
- Alphabetical Order: A classic organizing strategy for a reason, organizing books by author’s last name can allow you to easily find series titles together and all your favorite author’s books in one space. Just like with your local library, the downside is the time spent organizing the collection to keep everything alphabetized as time goes on.
