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Jan 24, 2023 · A well-organized bookshelf can become the centerpiece of any living space, and the good news is there are so many different ways you can organize your books (both aesthetically and for function). Whether you have a massive library or just a few classics you want to show off, we've found some of the best ways to organize any book collection .
- Overview
- Organize your books by genr
- Sort them alphabeticall
- Arrange your books by colo
- Organize them by subjec
- Sort your books chronologicall
- Put rare or valuable books in a noticeable spo
- Organize your books by how much you like the
- Display the books you use the mos
- Sort them by siz
If your books are starting to pile up all over the place or you find yourself perpetually digging through stacks looking for that novel you’ve been meaning to read, it may be time to reorganize. Luckily you have a ton of choices when it comes to how you organize and display your books. There are no right or wrong ways to do this, so feel free to tr...
Separating books by genre will make it easier for you to find books fast.
You might have one shelf for romance novels, another for poetry collections, and a third for experimental fiction. By separating your shelves by genre, you’ll build a mental map of where everything belongs. You also won’t need to worry about putting books back in the perfect slot, since a book that belongs on a given shelf can go anywhere on that shelf.
This is a particularly good solution if you tend to go through phases in your reading where you get super into historical fiction one month, then move on to nonfiction science books another month, and so on.
This may not be the best choice if a majority of your books fit into one genre. If you have 6 shelves worth of literary theory but only a handful of Greek plays, there won’t be a ton of variation from shelf to shelf.
Sorting by the author’s last name is a classic way to organize.
If you have an especially large collection, sorting by author will make it a lot easier to locate a given book when you want it. Looking for a book written by James Joyce? Just find the “J” section! It doesn’t get much easier than that.
If you struggle remembering names, this isn’t going to be an ideal solution. You’re probably going to end up spending more time digging than you’d like when it’s time to grab a certain book.
This may not be the best choice for you if the idea of Raymond Chandler mystery stories sitting on a shelf next to Noam Chomsky’s political theory strikes you as a strange combination.
For a visually-striking look, organize your books by color!
You could put all of your white books on one shelf, red books on another, followed by yellow, and so on. Alternatively, you could go for a “spectrum” look where your red books bleed into orange, yellow, green, blue, and black. This can make for a stunning display, and guests are sure to be impressed when they see your library!
This is also a super good idea if you have a great visual memory and you don’t have a lot of trouble remembering what book covers look like.
While the rainbow-style of color organization is undoubtedly the most popular, you can absolutely play around with it. You could put patches of white books around your shelves, throw in some vertical stacks of red books, and throw some randomized rows in there.
For a narrower collection, arranging the books by subject makes sense.
If you’re a huge poetry buff, you could separate your Romantic collections, postmodern books, and objectivist poetry. If you’re super into historical nonfiction, give World War 1 its own shelf, the Civil Rights Movement another shelf, and books about the United Nations in another area.
Sorting by publication date is a cool way to present a collection.
People don’t do this very often, but it may be neat to see history visualized on your bookshelves. You can start with the classics and work your way forward to keep the older books at the top of your shelves, or work from the present back so that your most modern books are the most visible.
This is an especially interesting way to arrange your books if you’re a huge fan of history, or you own a lot of historical nonfiction.
If your collection contains a ton of books from one period of history—like most of the books you own were printed after 1950, for example—this will be kind of tricky. You can do it, but you may need to reference the inside of each book’s jacket to double-check the publication date, and this may not feel particularly intuitive.
If you have any rare or unique books, put them at eye level.
This way, when guests are perusing the titles sitting on your shelves, they’ll see the most interesting books you own immediately. Organize the rest of your books from most interesting to least interesting, with the dullest books in your collection sitting at the bottom. This should also make it quite easy to remember where specific books are, since you’ll have an intuitive sense for where you would have put each text.
If you just can’t find a way to sort your books where your most interesting titles are the most visible, this is a great way to do it.
You can even place a few plants or knick-knacks on your top shelves to separate unique mini-collections you own and want to highlight.
You might have the first edition of each
book up top, leaning against a plant, followed by a stack of Jane Austen novels from the early 1900s. By separating your books, they’ll stand out even more on the shelves.
Put your favorites up top and your least favorites at the bottom.
This is going to be totally subjective, but it may be fun to spend an evening taking the books down and appraising how you feel about it. Did a book radically change your life? Top shelf it goes! Do you only hold on to that dusty old etymological dictionary for reference purposes? Keep it on the bottom shelf.
If you have a really large collection of books, this may make it hard to keep track of where things are. However, you could combine this with a genre or subject style of organization to make it easier.
For example, you could stack all of your poetry on the left side of every shelf, with your favorites on top, followed by nonfiction in the middle of each shelf, and fiction on the right side.
Put the books you use most often at eye level to grab them fast.
Reserve the bottom shelf for books that you’re extremely unlikely to revisit in the future. This is an especially good idea if you don’t have a huge collection, since it won’t take you very long to scan each shelf for the book you’re looking for.
For modular or asymmetrical shelves, you can sort by size for a unique take.
Put all of your largest books on the shelf with the most vertical space. Place all of your smallest books together on the smaller shelves. Your collection will have an elegant Feng Shui where your shelves feel balanced and cleanly arranged.
You could also arrange them by height from left to right. Put your tallest books on the left side of each shelf and work your way down to the smallest books. This will create an interesting cascading effect on each of your shelves.
You can still do this if your shelves aren’t modular or asymmetrical. Use a combination of vertical stacks of book and horizontal rows to group books of nearly-identical sizes together. This will have a unique aesthetic effect where your shelves look simultaneously uniform and varied.
- Separate your hardcovers and paperbacks. Divide your hardbacks and paperbacks for a cleaner, more streamlined look on your bookshelves. It’s also a great way to organize if you’re a visual person.
- Arrange your books by color. This organization strategy is ideal if you’re the type of reader who tends to associate certain stories with their covers, or if you’re just really into the idea of statement bookshelves.
- Don’t be afraid to stack books. Keeping all your books in neat rows is a thing of the past. If you want a handful of select books to stand out, stack ‘em.
- Organize books by genre or subject. Group your mysteries together, your travel memoirs, your 18-century English literature novels, your cookbooks, and so on.
Jul 22, 2022 · Unless they are coffee table books, one of the best places to keep your books is on a bookshelf in the main area of your house. Here's the right way to store them. Do place a bookshelf near an interior wall with enough space to allow for some air circulation. Placing a shelf next to an exterior wall may cause the temperature to fluctuate too much.
- Caylin Harris
- 36 sec
Organize books on different shelves. Try placing thinner books towards the top of a bookcase, and heavier books on the bottom on a bookcase. Organize books on the same shelf. Balance out a shelf with thicker books interspersed between collections of thinner books. Book Measurement. You can organize a book collection by book measurement.
Feb 10, 2023 · Here, several experts explain how to organize books, whether you value aesthetics or a librarian-approved system. Learn how to organize books by color, genre, height, author, and more. Whether you have a few books or an entire home library, figuring out how to organize your books in a way that works for you can be a challenge.
The Best Way to Organize Your Books is the One That Works for You! At the end of the day, there’s no right or wrong way to organize your books. It depends on a few different factors, like the books you own, the space you’re in, and whether or not you have shelving to store them.
