It’s spring time and we all know what that means; spring cleaning has begun! For some reason, which I honestly still haven’t figured out, we all clean during spring time. I’m actually surprised this is still a thing, seeing as last year gave us an inordinate amount of time to do tons of cleaning. But, let’s be honest, none of us spent quarantine cleaning and we aren’t ashamed to admit it.
For my fellow bibliophiles out there, we often neglect our bookshelves. We aimlessly toss our latest book purchase on the top of our already overstuffed shelves or better yet, we put a book back on the shelf in the wrong place because really, who has time to put it back in it’s original spot? Don’t lie, we all do it. Eventually, it ends up throwing our shelves completely out of whack and guess what, now we have to reorganize it.
If you’re anything like me, you constantly reorganize your bookshelves. From time to time it can be difficult to decide just how you want to do it. Seriously, every reader knows that organizing a bookshelf is a commitment and can take hours to complete. Once you start, there’s no going back. If you’re struggling with how you want to set yours up, here’s a list of 5 ways to organize your bookshelf.
Alphabetically
Okay, this is the traditional way most people organize their bookshelves. I myself have done this a time or two with my shelves. If you go this route, you can either do alphabetical by first name or you can do it by last name. It’s all up to you and your preference.
By series name
Organizing your bookshelf by series name can be fun, but also taxing. I personally like organizing mine by the series name but, if you have a bunch of books that are each part of a different series from the same author, it can be challenging. I say this because you have to decide if you want to organize it by the newest series from the author, or if you want to do it from oldest series to newest.
By color
I have never organized my books by color, nor do I plan to but, if you’re into that and have the patience, go for it. I don’t even know the best way to do it other than maybe making your favorite colors the dominating ones to start with. This organizing method is a little OCD-ish for my taste. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I get a little OCD about my bookshelves but, I have never wanted to color code.
By genre
This is another method of organization that may be a little on the time consuming side. Some people prefer to keep their Romance books separate from other books on their shelves. This may be a bit difficult too though because there are different types of Romance. There’s YA, Contemporary, New Adult, etc. So, if you decide to separate by genre, you really have to think about how deep you want to go into this.
Signed copies
Organizing your bookshelf by signed copies is probably one of the most popular methods. Signed books mean a lot to people and because of this, they want to make sure all of their signed books are on the shelf. Some people even say they never read their signed books. That’s interesting to me because all the books I have gotten signed, are books I still pull off my shelf and read.
You also have a bunch of options if you organize by signed books as well. You can do it alphabetically, by the authors first or last name, or you can do it by series if you got all of the books signed.
So there you have it, there are many ways you can organize your bookshelves! No matter how you choose to do it, have fun doing it and I highly recommend making a spreadsheet or some kind of record keeping system so you know what book is on which shelf. Trust me, it will save you so much time when you’re trying to remember where you put a book or where it goes when you put it back on your shelf once you’ve finished reading it.
