How to Organize Books in Your Home

Easy, Creative Ways to Display Your Reading Collection

Sep 23, 2009

Are there piles of books getting dusty and cluttering up your home? Here are some ways to organize your treasured classics.

Keeping books organized is a challenge for any reading enthusiast. If you keep buying books, you keep needing more and more additional space for them. So what are some ways bookworms can keep from finding themselves swimming in a sea of books in their homes?

Sort, Sort, Sort

Take an objective look at the books in your home. Are they crammed in every available spot? The first thing to do is choose a "Book Organization Day," put it on your calendar, and force yourself to set aside this time for dealing with the books in your home. Collect every book in your house and stack the pile up in the middle of the largest room you have. Make three piles, labeled with the following notations: Books to Keep, Books to Sell, Books to Donate and Books to Store. Sort through all of your books until there are piles next to each category.

How Much Book Shelf Space?

Which books you are going to keep and display is dependent on how much available space you have in your home for displaying books. While the shelves are empty, dust them! Determine which piles of books you'd like to see in different areas of your home. Have an antique library cabinet? Choose your most beautiful books to display here.

Consider using a certain type of shelf for a certain type of book. Gardening books would look nice grouped together on a worn painted shelf, for example. Also, an area in a bedroom for "Books to Be Read" is always nice – your reading pile could find a home on a side table or with decorative bookends.

Embrace the Urge to Purge

If you have many, many books, you are going to need to select a certain number of them to remove from your home either through a yard sale, book swap party with friends, donation to the library, or online auctions. There are also online book swapping sites – you can get rid of books you don't need anymore and bring some new ones home! If you have old children's books no longer used in your home, consider donating them to a hospital or pediatrician's office: they're always looking for kids' books. If you have some books you simply don't know what to do with, consider recycling them with your paper recycling versus throwing them away.

Once you have made the decision to organize and sort your books, you will find that it's a great feeling to be able to enjoy your books without considering them clutter.

The copyright of the article How to Organize Books in Your Home in Home Management is owned by Mary McCarthy. Permission to republish How to Organize Books in Your Home in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.