You always need somewhere to store your books right?
Bookshelves are the most popular way of keeping your much loved possessions safe and on display for everyone to see. But how do you start with organising that book shelf?
There are so many different ways in which you can organise them and sometimes it drives me up the wall! I always think I’ve found the best way to do it, then I think of another way and spend another 8 hours re-organising it again. It can be a pain, but I also find it exciting.
Your books always look new! You may find some you had thought you lost or even just forgotten about and it may push you to read the books which have been sat there for a while (because we keep buying news ones, am I right?).
So… I am going to try my best to give you some ways of organising that piece of art I call my bookshelf and hopefully help you guys out. With Isolation taking over everyone lives, and lots of spare time on our hands. Why not try give your Bookshelves a new look
1. COLOUR
So this one does take some time to do but also looks the most impressive. You can get creative with this, have them in rainbow order, black through to grey all the way through to white, if you have enough books (which I am sure some of you do) you can have a shelf for each colour one with red, one with blue etc. Or you can even mix them on each shelf having mini rainbow per shelf!
2. ALPHABETICAL
This is definitely the most popular option: putting your books into alphabetical order! You can do this by author’s first or last names or by book titles. I would probably recommend using the author’s names because you can put all their books together (which is a big thing for me, authors books have to be next to each other!) It makes it easier for you to find who you are looking for. It’s like having your own mini library right in your room!
3. SIZE
This is also another way of making your shelf look pleasing on the eye; stacking your books in size order! With the largest to one side gradually progressing to your smallest. It does make it harder to find the books which you are looking for as most of the time author’s books do tend to vary in size depending if you have the hardback or paperback versions of their novels, but it is very cute to look at! This also helps because it separates your paperback and hardbacks for you, I know some people already do this in organising the bookshelves but doing it in size order will do that for you, and keep a beautiful staircase effect.
4. ‘HAVEN’T READ YET’ SHELF
For me, trying to pick which book to read next is a real struggle, although that will not stop me buying more! So making yourself a shelf which is specially catered for books you haven’t got around to reading just yet is a great way of making it easy for you to pick which one comes next! Having my ‘read’ and ‘to read’ piles together sometimes confuses me and I have forgotten which one I have and haven’t read, and I always get distracted by another book sat next to the one I planned to read and then some just never get read sadly. Doing a TBR (to be read) shelf is a great way to stop yourself from getting distracted and concentrate on the books you’ve always wanted to start but have never gotten around to!
5. AUTHOR’S BOOKS TOGETHER
This one is probably the easiest to do (but sometimes the most satisfying). Putting all the authors books together, for me it makes it easy to see which books I have from that author and saves me accidentally buying the same book twice. At a quick glance you can see if you need to buy anymore of their books. It is good if you have a few favourite authors to because you can display the collection together, you can also go one further and list them by date published too, this helps with books which are part of a series; you know exactly which book to read next!
6. SEPARATING THE FICTION FROM THE NON FICTION
If you like reading both, be sure to keep them apart. An autobiography shelf is always good for when you want to read something a bit different, you know exactly where to find it.
7. BY GENRE
If you like reading a lot of different types of books why not organise them by genre? Fantasy shelf, romance shelf, YA shelf etc. There are so many different genres out there now so why not put them together? This would help if you feel in the mood to read a specific type of novel. We all have our mood swings!
8. YALC SHELF
My personal favourite, I have a YALC shelf. Each year I meet so many authors at our event and get plenty (if not too many) books signed, I love having a shelf for each year of YALC, I know exactly who I met and when I met them. It is great to keep all your signed books together, so you know which ones are just that little bit more special.
9. STACK THEM
Most traditional bookshelves stand the books up next to each other to find as much as possible on the shelf as you can. But if you have room to do so why not stack them too, this looks lovely! It breaks the shelf up and it adds a bit of quirkiness, you can always add some book related things including a nice mug with all your bookmarks in them or a frame with a nice book quote or postcard of your favourite novel in it to mix things up. It adds a bit more diversity to your shelf and just makes it a little bit more exciting to look at.
10. A BIT OF EVERYTHING
Or you could just choose a bit of everything and mix it together. Why not put them in alphabetical order but in size. Starting with A, in size order, then B in size order etc. Or a YALC shelf but with all the books you own by a specific author on it. You can mix and match as many of them as you like, personalise it as you wish there is no right or wrong way of organising your shelf as long as you are happy and you know where everything is then why not try to change it up every now and again!
Let me know if there is any other way which you organise yours. I would love to have some ideas for the next time I have a change around!
Until Next Time!
Kellie x