Organize More

Is your bookcase getting the better of you? Do you spend hours trying to find a beloved work because there is no organization to your shelves? Perhaps your spouse has forbidden you from buying any more books, because there is not room to store them. If you are in this situation, here are some tips you can use to organize your bookcase and make room for more beloved books.

 Start with a Purge

The first step towards organizing your bookshelf is getting rid of the things on it that you do not really want or need. The truth is that bookshelves are magnets for clutter, and that clutter is only going to be worse if there are items on there that you do not need.

Start by deciding what types of books you want to keep. Perhaps you would like to have a nice collection of biographies, or maybe your passion is for classical literature. If you decide about certain genres before you begin purging, it will be easier to get rid of unneeded books.

If you have not thought about a book or looked at in a year or more, it may be a good candidate for the toss box. Of course, there are those classics that should be in every home library, but realistically, you do not need to keep it just because it is a book. That manual for the car you had in 1977, after all, has no use for you today.

The books you are going to throw out need to go straight into a box or storage tote. This way you can easily carry them to the Goodwill store or your favorite used bookstore. By donating them or selling them, you can get cash or a tax write-off, giving you added motivation to remove unnecessary items from your home library.

How to Organize the Books You Keep

Once you have narrowed down your library, you are ready to reorganize it. Having your books in a nice order not only makes it easier to find what you need, but it also makes the bookcase look much nicer.

Start by dividing the books into categories. You might have a section for cookbooks, another section for children's books, and another section for novels.

There is no hard and fast rule about how to organize your books. Use a system that makes sense to you, and stick with it. Keep in mind that experts recommend that you organize your bookcase by the use of the books. This makes it easier to find what you need quickly.

However, if the bookcase is a decorative bookcase, you may wish to organize the books based on how they look.

For instance, antique books may be shelved in one spot, and soft cover books in another. Consider grouping them by binding type or by color if you are organizing a decorative bookcase.

If your bookcase contains primarily books you read for pleasure, consider organizing it by books you have read and books you have not read. This will make it simpler to grab a book when you are ready to read.

Most homes have more than one bookshelf. If this is the case for you, consider putting various genres in different rooms. For instance, the kitchen bookcase is the home of the cookbooks, and the bookcase in the bedroom would be a nice place to store your fiction reading material. Decorative books belong on display in the living room, while children's literature should be in the children's rooms or playroom. This will make it much easier to find the items you want to read, because they will be in the room where you will likely be using them.

What to Do with Magazines

Magazines are always problematic when organizing a bookcase. They do not stand up well and almost always look cluttered. Consider investing in a few magazine holders. Then, organize them by title or month. You may want to put out the magazines for a particular month, and then replace them with the next month's issues when the month is over.

For example, when Christmas rolls around, you can stock your magazine holder with your December magazines, both past and present issues. This makes it more relevant to the people who might be reading the magazines, and will make it easier for you to find that great Christmas recipe or craft idea that you once saw.

Arranging the Books on the Shelf

Now that you have gotten rid books you are not attached to and grouped your books and magazines in whatever way makes the most sense in your life, you are ready to put them back on the shelf. Do not just throw them up there. You need to carefully arrange them so that they look nice and can be kept neat and tidy even when you remove one to read.

Decorators rarely place all books on the bookshelf vertically. This ends up looking like a big mess because of all of the colors that are contained in a typical home library. Instead, place the majority of your books vertically, but stack some horizontally.

This gives you a way to deal with the oversized books that are likely in your library, and makes the bookcase look more interesting.

Pull all of the books forward so that the spine is even with the edge of the shelf. This keeps the bookcase from looking too cluttered and ensures that you do not lose smaller books towards the back of the bookcase.

If you have room, put something that is not a book on the bookcase to add interest. For instance, you could place a photograph in a decorative frame next to a stack of books. A decorative bowl or vase would look nice atop a stack of books that is placed horizontal on the shelf. View your bookcase as a decorative item in your home, rather than a piece of storage furniture. With these tips, your bookcase can be as inviting as it is practical. 

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