Monday, March 26, 2012

How To Arrange Your Bookshelves






Going thru my photos, I found these from the wall opposite the shelves from this library that I haven't shared before. So let's take this time to talk about how to arrange your books.

Some people arrange their books by how they look best, others categorize by subject. If you have a smaller collection, arrange by look. Those with a lot of books and actually go back and reference them, categorize into subjects that make sense to you, then arrange them on the shelf until they look best.

I say subjects that make sense to you because each collection is different; some clients see fiction, non-fiction, art. Others see local author fiction, foreign fiction, mystery fiction, non-fiction science, non-fiction true-crime... you get the point. There's no right or wrong.

Pull the books down cleaning as you go; vacuum the spines, and wipe with a damp cloth (but not the cloth bound ones, vacuum those completely). Wipe down all the shelves with a damp cloth, then get books back on the shelves arranging until they look as best. The final step is to add decorative accessories.

How do you arrange your books?

2 comments:

Masako said...

Hi Laura, as inspirational as always, and it gets better and better !

About how I arrange my books, there are four shelves: one where I put all my favourite novels, one for more "intellectual" reads, the third one for the books and magazines I use for college. In each of these three shelves, I classify by editions, language and size. And the last for paper, notebooks etc.
PS: love that you asked so I can talk about this, it is not a really common subjects among my friends :P

Sorry for my bag English and please keep posting :)

Masako

laura said...

"intellectual" reads LOVE IT! yes only those who see their things a certain way can appreciate the level of organization here. i appreciate it!!