Start the New Year by Organizing Your Bookshelf!

OK. Let’s get real here. All you want for Christmas is 2020 to be OVER. You want to say hello to a new COVID free year! Well, what comes after Christmas? The day we’ve all been waiting for...New Years’! What’s a better way to ring in the new year by getting out with old and in with the new? And since this is a book blog, what’s a better way to get in with the new than organize your bookshelf?

So here’s the expert way to TOTALLY Auld Lang Syne your bookshelf!

STEP ONE- Take EVERYTHING out!

Yeah, Yeah. We know. You think we’re completely crazy. You‘re probably thinking What the heck? Shouldn’t you take out books first, or organize them??

Well, here’s why. This way you can color code them, sort them by author name, alphabetical, series, etc. Also, this way you can take out books that you don’t want anymore. (Or have grown out of, if you don’t like to read books over and over again!) Try stacking the books in rainbow order, or by author names before you place them. But ALWAYS remember to do it SHELF BY SHELF! Or else it’s a big mess, and trust me you DO NOT want that!

STEP TWO-CHOOSE WHAT WAY TO ORGANIZE/WHICH SHELF YOU WANT TO PLACE CERTAIN TYPES OF BOOKS

Like I mentioned in Step One, you NEED to organize your books. But you also need to do this SHELF BY SHELF! This way you can do multiple kinds of organizing. For our bookshelf, the bottoms has always been paperback chapter books, that we love, and don’t want to give away. (Even if they MIGHT be too old for us!) This also includes series that are short and sweet. (Ivy and Bean, Junie B. Jones, etc.) We make it a rule that NO HARDCOVER goes down there UNLESS it is part of an all-paperback series, being the only hardcover there. In our most recent Bookshelf Clean-out we color-coded the bottom shelf in rainbow order.

The second shelf is by far our most beautiful one. It contains our graphic novels and our hardcover books. Now, as you can see below (in the pictures) there are two ways to put books. Stacking or Side-By-Side. Stacking makes it look really cool, but it’s hard to put back books. The Side-By-Side way makes it look really nice, (especially with hard covers) but it’s hard to find space. So here’s what we recommend. Do it BOTH ways. Shelf By Shelf. For example, we wanted the second shelf to look really pretty, so we did the second way. But, for our first shelf we wanted it to look cool and colorful, so we stacked them! Another great tip is to use bookends to sort out the genres. We also did some rainbow for the second shelf too, just to look coordinated

STEP THREE-SERIES

The third shelf is SO IMPORTANT, that it deserves its own step. Series. Now, this isn’t like the short and sweet books we talked about for the first shelf. These are the big series. The Jane Austen and Harry Potter. The Mother-Daughter Book Club, and Spy School. These are the boxed sets. You can find anyway to arrange them as long as they are IN THE BOX! When they’re out of the box, well, that’s another story. What we did (see below) is keep them in the box. Now, if you don’t have the box that they came in, we have ONE tip for you.

BE CREATIVE!!!

You can do this last shelf any way you want! And remember, our steps are JUST a template. Maybe you want to mix it up, by putting graphic novels on the bottom. Or by putting ALL the series together! (Including the short and sweets’) Whatever you do, do it your way!

STEP FOUR -KNICK KNACKS

Ok. You’ve finished with the books. But what about the last shelf or the top of the case that’s just sitting there, gathering dust? That’s for your mementos and knick-knacks! For example, on ours we have a message board, globe, trophies, signs, and little figurines. What’s on your bookshelf?

STEP SIX-GIVE YOURSELF A BIG PAT ON THE BACK

You deserve it! And so does your bookshelf. It’s probably been waiting for a long time, trying to remind you to clean it out! You’re probably glad that you did this too. Looking at it with a guilty look for days helps NO ONE. So, it was time you finally cleaned it out!

What are you waiting for? Go get started! For inspiration - see our magical before and after below

Love, your favorite book twins,

NEERJA AND NIDHI

P.S. Show us YOUR bookshelf in the comments below!

BEFORE

AFTER