Brrrr…it’s cold in most of the country. We spend more time indoors. What’s your favorite indoor activity? I bet reading immediately sprang to mind!
Is your book collection organized so you can find just the right book you’re in the mood to read? Excellent! Or like many folks, are books scattered around the house? Do you even know what books you have? Do you regularly purge unwanted books or let them continue to occupy valuable space and collect dust?
Now is a great time to organize your books. Here are 11 tips.
- By category, then alphabetically by author’s last name.
- By category.
- By author.
- By title.
- By author, then by title.
- Chronological, such as U.S. presidents for history buffs (Washington, Adams, Jefferson and so on)
- By color – or even limited to certain colors for a particular look. This may be a viable option for highly visual people, those who prefer aesthetics over practicality or the few who have a photographic memory.
- Put books where they’re useful, like cookbooks in the kitchen. (You’d think that would be obvious but you’d be wrong. I’ve organized people who kept cookbooks in the living room. Not surprisingly, they weren’t used.)
- Add a few decorative items on bookshelves to add design interest.
- Mix it up – separate some books by category and some by favorite authors.
- There is no right or wrong way. But there is just one way – the way that works for you. It’s about finding what you want when you want it. If your system doesn’t work, tweak it until it does.
My largest book organizing project was 17 years ago with my first client. In his library he had between 1,000 and 2,000 books. They were out of order. There were duplicates and triplicates. His library was completely nonfunctional. It took time, but after donating many of them and organizing the rest according to my client’s preferences, that massive job got done. My client was thrilled to have a functional library that looked great too!
For my personal collection, I mix it up. Fiction books are arranged in alphabetical order by author’s last name. Books in other categories (such as organizing, business and design) are separated by category but not in any order. Some books are vertical. Some are horizontal. Small framed photos and pieces of art add to the overall look. I donate books that no longer interest me. My book collection is functional and attractive. With a little time and effort, yours can be too.
Downsizing and organizing your books is worth doing. Then, when planning your next vacation, you can quickly grab the ones you want to read – much better than wasting time searching around the house or wasting money buying more at the airport.
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