Guest Blogger: Organizing Your Books

Tonight we have a very special submission from my sister-in-law, who is probably the most organized person I know. She's a librarian by day and loves books, so she wanted to share some ideas and tips for making your book collection look great! Please leave us some comments and share your ideas, too. I'll take this opportunity to invite anyone who has an organizing question, idea, or tip to forward them along to be included in this blog! And a big "thanks" to Michelle for this great post.

There are many ways to organize your book collection. There are really only two rules... You should be able to find a book when you need it, and it should look neat!

Often it makes sense to separate Fiction (stories) from Non Fiction (facts), but it really depends on your personal collection. You can make up your own subject breakdown using the categories that make the most sense to you and that fit with your collection. If you have a large collection, alphabetizing by author might make sense, but if you're not someone who remembers authors, you could also alphabetize by Title.

For aesthetic reasons, it can also be nice to display certain special books in areas that lend themselves to that. On a coffee table, or a side table. You could even arrange books by size and/or color if it worked with your decor. There are many examples of this on the internet, one of my favorites can be found here: http://blogs.hgtv.com/hgtv/design/archives/2008/04/organizing_books_by_color.html

Frequently used cookbooks should go in the kitchen, if possible, or near to it for easy access. Cookbooks you use less often can go with your other books.

When you've exceeded your book storage space, it's time to go through and let go of some of the titles. Libraries, used book stores, and thrift stores will take your gently used books in good condition. They will rarely take text books or other dated materials such as travel books; it's best to simply recycle those with your newspapers and magazines. It's good to leave your shelves with a little room to grow, and you can always put mementos on the shelves if you have a lot of extra room. (Wendy's note: Hands Across the Water is a great charity that will take books and send them worldwide. They have drop boxes in certain areas.)

As long as you're happy with it and you can find that copy of your latest book club title, you've done a great job!