Category Archives: Organizing

Last week we discussed the bones of the structure that will be your Home Library.  By this part of the process you should have the layout and the building of your shelves completed.  As you sit there staring at your hard work, you realize the shelves seem to be missing something.  The Books!  Yes my dears, we need to add those lovely books to those shelves now!

But first we need to get some basic stuff done first.  We have to decide what books go on those shelves and how we will organize them.  Are you strictly a young adult book reader?  Are you into the romance books? Or are you like me and have an eclectic taste and read from many genre’s of books?  Since I read from many different genre’s, we are going to use that as our example. Make sure you have an open area of floor space to work in because if you are like me, you have a ton of books to sort through!

When you have all of your books piled high around you we will start the sorting process.  First we are going to sort the books by genre.  Start piles for the different genres that you have.  For example — romance, young adult, erotica, urban fantasy, non-fiction, etc.  Don’t forget to make separate piles for your signed books, review books, and ARC copies if you have kept any! Then lets get up and stretch our legs for a bit. 

Now that you are staring down at your beautiful stacks of books you are probably thinking what the heck have I gotten myself into? Don’t worry lovelies!  You are on your way to bliss. Trust me.

Now comes the more difficult decision of the process. No I am not talking about purging and getting rid of any of those beauties — even though you will have to do that at some point.  I am talking about how you are going to actually arrange them on those shelves now that they are sorted by genre.  I use to arrange mine by author but this was a hard way to keep up with.  I found myself constantly adding new authors, adding more books by the same author and eventually I had to keep moving my books around when a shelf filled up with too many from one author.  However the plus side of doing it by author is the ease in finding a book when you know who the author is.  You just look for the author and then find the book.  You could even take this a step further and copy the libraries and do each author alphabetically. Another way to do it is by series. If you have a lot of books that are series, you can go by the series and then at the end add your single novels.

The way or organization  that has worked for me and is the way that my library is done is like this including a few extra steps:

1. Sorted by books read and not read. ( with the ARCs and signed copies in a different pile)
2. Sorted by genre.
3. Sorted by author.
4. Sorted by series.
5. Single novels sorted alphabetically.

So far this has been a pretty easy system for me.  Let me take you a step further and explain a visual.
I have one bookcase dedicated to just signed books and ARCs that I have kept.  Then I have a few bookshelves dedicated to just books I have read and will reread again and again.  Finally, the rest of the bookshelves are dedicated to books I have not read.  Again, each section of books is sorted by the list above.

Whew! Are you needing a break yet? Go on. Go get your caffeine fix, smoke break or potty break out of the way. I’ll wait.

Now that they all are sorted, we need to start putting them on the shelves.  If you have a mix of hardbacks and paperbacks you might run into a problem of height.  Personally, this does not bother me but if it is a bother to you then you will have to adjust your system to adapt to this quirk.  Some people also choose to sort by color — which I forgot to mention above — but again you will have to adapt that to your system as well.

Now that they are all up on the shelves, step back and admire your hard days work.  If you are like me, you will probably either need more shelves or have to purge some of your books depending on your obsession with books.  My obsession is pretty bad so I just convince my husband that I need one more bookshelf each month! 😉

Now we need to sit and admire the look of our library.  Don’t get to comfortable though! Next week we are going to work on creating a hard copy of your library.  The lists will begin and the monotonous work of creating a list to keep track of what books you own and what books will eventually make it into your home library!

Every reader imagines a personal home library.  Whether it be something fancy, simple, contemporary or modern, we all imagine having one to call our own.  When I started book blogging, I had one small basket beside my bed that held my library books.  I actually started reviewing library books before purchasing any or receiving any for review.  While that was two years ago, my own collection has grown into a massive home library.  Some would think one or two shelves would be enough, but I have EIGHT bookcases and they are double stacked — some triple stacked — full of books.

Today we are going to cover our base plan of creating a home library.  Whether you dream big, or have to stay small within an apartment or budget, you will find that creating your own home library can be fun, cheap and beautiful.

Do you want rows and rows of bookshelves?  Are you able to dedicate an entire room to transform into a home library?  Do you live in small quarters and only have a limited amount of space?

You have to remember to make whatever you have available work for you.  Some people do not have an entire room that they can dedicate to just books.  I did not have a room, but I did have a formal dining room that we never used.  We always eat in the breakfast nook by the kitchen, so this was just wasted space. I turned this into my home library with bookshelves lining my walls.  Lets give some hints for both small and large rooms!

Large Rooms–
1. Dedicate entire walls for tall bookshelves.  These can come in many colors, finishes and styles.  Whether you like the feel of wood, prefer metal or like mismatched pieces, having a bunch of shelves is essential. 
2. If you have space leftover above your bookshelves between the top and the ceiling, USE THAT SPACE!  Whether it be for more books, your coveted ARC copies you keep or signed books, every inch of space is useable!  I even have my scrapbooks above one shelf that contains all of my author goodies and swag that I have received.  I display the swag I have received in those spaces above for everyone to admire and enjoy!
3. If you are fortunate enough to have a large enough room, create a sitting area as well.  Now you don’t have to use up precious wall space for this! You can simply have a favorite rocking chair and reading lamp centered in the room.  What could be more fascinating? Reading a book or just sitting their admiring your pretty collection?

Small Rooms–
1. Are your books sharing space with other rooms? Consider wall mounted shelves over bookcases that sit on the floor.  You could always start from the top of the walls and go down.  Plus you could be one of those fancy people who have a wooden library ladder to make a striking decoration piece!  Walls can be your friend! 
2. Shoved in a closet?  Use smaller book cases for bottoms of the closet.  Go ahead and push those shoes out of the way and into an organizer.  You can always use the shelves for your racy and naughty books to be hidden away from prying eyes that don’t need to see them. It could be your own personal and secret hideaway for your books!
3. Again make use of what space you have! Under the bed? Sure why not! Get some pretty decorated boxes with lids.  Add your books to them and slide them under things.  Imagine a hope chest or trunk you have sitting in your room and add the books.  It could be your own little treasure chest!

Next week we will talk about organizing your shelves and creating master lists of your books.  I hope you have enjoyed part one of this feature!