Practical ways to organize your books

Organization

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Whether you have a few collections of books or you are an avid reader with a lot of them, books are one of those things we like to hold on to.

Some books are of sentimental value to us and, as such, are difficult to get rid of.

Whatever your collections of books are comprised of, one common problem we face is how and where to store them.

In this post on practical ways to organize your books, we will be talking about some ideas and tips for organizing your books, especially if you have a small space and don’t have room for an entire wall of shelves or a mini library to store them.

Without further ado, first things first;

Choose your favorite coordination style

The first step in practical ways to organize your books is deciding what kind of arrangement you like most for your books: Alphabetically, genre, author, chronologically, etc.

Group books in each category into piles. This would make the rest of your organizing easier.

You can then arrange these books in your bookshelf by these categories; that way, you know where to look when you want a particular book. 

Do a thorough declutter

Books are one of those things we find difficult to let go of because of their sentimental value.

However, it is important to do a thorough decluttering of your books before organizing so you know the books you are keeping are ones you have chosen to hold on to.

Go through each book you have and honestly ask yourself if you should keep it or let it go. It would amaze you the number of books you need to get rid of that you have been hoarding.

Use furniture with bookshelves attached

This is useful for people with small spaces. With multipurpose furniture, you can have little bookshelves attached to almost every kind of furniture.

You can buy a couch with a bookshelf built into its arm or side, a bed with bookshelves, a tv stand with bookshelves, and window seats with bookshelves. The list is endless.

Getting brand new furniture just because you need storage for your books might be unrealistic and unreasonably expensive, so this tip is best suited if you are moving into a new space and getting new furniture or you are doing a makeover and getting rid of old furniture.

Make books you are using at the moment more accessible

The fourth point on practical ways to organize your books is to make the current books you are reading more accessible.

Place books you are reading or would be revisiting in places you can easily reach, like the lower shelves. It saves you time and effort when you need to retrieve them.

Make a to-read section

Another great tip is to set aside a section in your bookshelf for the books you haven’t read yet.

When you buy new books, arranging them together with the rest of your books would make it difficult to track the books you haven’t read yet.

With this section, you know where to look when you are looking for something you haven’t read yet.

Arrange them horizontally 

To create more space to accommodate more books, arrange some of the books on your shelf horizontally as opposed to the regular vertical arrangement.

You can combine vertical and horizontal arrangements to create different patterns that are pretty and unique.

Stack them or use them as pieces of decoration

Have a bunch of books and don’t know where to keep or store them? Stack them!

You can even use your book stacks for other purposes, such as a stand for your monitor.

You could also use your books as statement pieces on your coffee table and nightstand.

Use floating shelves

Install floating shelves on the wall for more storage and an aesthetic organization for your books.

Take a look at the walls in your space and see which one would be an excellent site for your books. This could be a wall in your living room or bedroom; usually, a place where you actually sit to read. For instance, a kitchen wall wouldn’t be an ideal place to place your books, even if it looks aesthetically pleasing.

One of the things I love about shelves is that you can stack them. You can place one or two or stack several of them to provide even more storage for your books.

Rent out your books

Are your shelves bursting with books you are finding hard to let go of? Consider renting them. You can lend them to bookshops that rent them to other readers freeing up some space for you.

You can always get any of the books back whenever you want them back.

This has so many positives, as you can help provide affordable access to books for other people and contribute to a more sustainable way of consuming books.

Consider borrowing instead of buying more new books

If you love reading books, chances are that you are constantly buying new books. And if you find yourself running out of storage space for your book, consider renting books instead of buying new ones.

You can signup for a membership at your local library and rent books for free. That way, you can rent books when you want to read them and return them when you are done.

This would save you money and storage space.

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Ready to organize your books?

There you have it! You have come to the end of this post on practical ways to organize your books. To summarize, some of the tips we talked about are:

  • First, choose your favorite organization style
  • Do a thorough declutter
  • Use furniture with little bookshelves
  • Make books you are using more accessible
  • Make a to-read section
  • Arrange them horizontally
  • Stack them or use them as little pieces of storage
  • Use floating shelves
  • Rent out your books
  • Consider borrowing

I hope reading this post has given you a little push to tackle your books. Books can be used as excellent decor solutions, and you can use your creativity to achieve that.

Just remember when organizing that there isn’t a single ‘’right” way of doing it.

Study your space to see which tips would work best for you in organizing your books. Get some ideas from Pinterest pictures and have fun Organizing!

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