I love books! I love to read them and I love to decorate with them. Books are a wonderful way to personalize your home. They bring your own interests and personality into your home in a warm and unique way. And that is important because your home should reflect who you are; what you like and what is important to you.
I remember going into the home of two librarians. Separating their entry from their living room was a wonderfully simple (and white!) bookcase filled entirely with books. As you walked around the corner into the living room, it too was lined with book filled shelves. It was an incredibly warm space and I remember thinking how wonderful and how telling it was to stand there looking at all the different titles. The books were organized according to subject matter and it was easy to see that he had a love for sports and she was interested in gardening and spiritual things.
Books can add a wonderful sculptural element to a room and can also bring in beautiful color!
Placing books in horizontal stacks, adding decorative objects like framed photos, a clock or a vase can help add interest to your bookshelves. Featuring a special book by placing it by itself or on a stack of books or using a unique object for a bookend is another way to add your personality to your bookshelves.
But books can also pile up and it is easy to run out of space to store all the books we accumulate. They can add to our clutter. One of the keys to being organized is having a home for everything and it is no different for books.
To begin organizing your books, first go through and remove any books you do not need or want to keep. Donate them to a shelter or your local library. Part of staying organized and eliminating clutter is being able to let go.
Separate the books that you are going to keep and place them in piles by subject matter. Then in each category, place the books on shelves according to color. You may want to remove the covers on some of the books. Once you have the books placed in your bookcase, you can play around by removing sections and placing some horizontally and opening up spaces for decorative objects if you have the room.
When I am organizing my reference books it is important that I can find what I need easily so I group them according to subject matter. In each category I put like colors together.
Arranging books by color keeps everything looking neat and orderly!
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Remember ... have fun with it and bring in your personality!
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Tip of the day: When tackling any organizational project, start small. Go through one stack or one shelf at a time. A little each day or even a little each week will make a difference. |
Sheri this is so helpful. I love this line : "Part of staying organized and eliminating clutter is being able to let go."
ReplyDeleteI will be remembering this as I go through my many books and other things. You continue to inspire and help me. Thank you.
This is the project for me. Thanks for the tips, they will come in handy as I am moving my books out of my bedroom today. Your right, letting go is essential.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Lots of helpful tips. I organize a lot of books by color too, and it always makes me smile. Happy to be following you...
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