5 Ways to organize your books on your bookshelf

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As i am going to move into my new apartment this month, I thought it could be cool to share with you ideas on how to display your books. This post is dedicated to ways you can actually organize books on a proper bookshelf but if you rent a tiny apartment (around 20 sqm) like I do, you may wan to be a little bit more creative with the ways you organize everything. Today, I will simply share with you the ways I loved to organize books in my old apartment but if you would be interested in way to put it all in a tinier one, let me know in the comments. Just to make that clear, I am a minimalist with only 2 bags of clothes but 7 big boxes of books: now, you see how hard it can be for me to organize it all! But I do believe that with a little bit of effort, everything is possible. Ready?

By author

Definitely, the first way you can organize books is by author’s names. As a librarian, it is definitely something I know well. However, libraries are usually bigger than your apartment and what we can do in there may not be relevant to your own needs. The problem with organizing books by author’s names is that it can look untidy pretty fast. Why? Simply because you put big books next to smaller books, red books next to purple books etc. Thus, even though it is convenient to rummage through the shelves, I would not advise that method in smaller places like mine.

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By publisher / color

I put these two together because they usually go together. Organizing your books by publishers or collections may be a great way for you to give the illusion of a tidier shelf. The books published by the same publisher are usually quite alike and you will thus end up placing all of your black books (Hello Penguin Classics) together, all of your white ones etc. I think that is is great compromise between doing something both aesthetically pleasing and convenient.

By language

Same problem that with author’s name, but if you are like me, this can be more than convenient. I do speak 5 languages and read in 4 of them. Thus, I love my books to be organized by language so that I know where everything is. If you want to give a tidier look to the shelf, you can always organize each category of books (English, French…) following the publisher/color system. Thus, you will have as many independent systems as languages.

By size

Probably the least convenient of them all, but definitely the cutest. It is especially great if you tend to buy “beautiful” books you never read because rummaging through a shelf organized by size is super long. However, it gives the cleanest look and makes the apartment look ten times more organized.

By genre

This one is of the “convenient but not cute” type. Basically, you put all the mystery books together, the romance books together &c. It can get cute if you tend to buy all of your romances, mystery books &c. from the same publisher as the covers will look alike. However, if not, it can look as disorganized as an “author’s name” system.

I really hope it gave you a little bit of inspiration as I know that organizing books in both a convenient and aesthetic way can get hard (especially in a tiny place). I really think that the “publisher” type of organization is the best if you can’t really pick one: it looks clean but is still manageable for you to rummage through. If you have any other idea, I would really love you to share it with us in the comments. As always, I wish you the best of all days,