Organizing Your Home Library

If you love books, chances are that you have numerous books and publications in your home. In most cases, this means you have them in various locations, such as on shelves, beside the bed, in the children's room, and maybe even stacked on a table or the floor. It's important to keep your books stored in an organized fashion, not only to keep them protected but also to make it easier for you to enjoy them. If your books are scattered all over your home, it's time to create a home library that you can enjoy and be proud of.

Getting Started

Just as with anything else, getting started is often the most difficult part of creating and organizing a home library. Start by gathering up all the books throughout your home, including any that you might currently be reading. Once you have them all together, you'll be better prepared to come up with an organizational strategy that will work well for the kinds of books you enjoy. As part of the process, you might also find some books that you've already read and do not have a desire to keep. Separate these books out so that you can donate them to charity, your local library, daycare center, hospital or nursing home so that others can continue to enjoy them.

Sorting Your Books

Once you have your books collected, you can start by sorting them into fiction and non-fiction piles. If you have children in the home, you should also separate out any of their books, since in most cases it's preferable to provide them with their own bookshelf. Once you have all the non-fiction books sorted out, start dividing them further by topic, such as home improvement, crafts, nature books, and history. Do the same with your fiction books, dividing them by overall genre, such as science fiction or romance novels. You can then further sort each genre by author.

Designing Your Library Shelves

After you are done sorting your books, you'll be able to see how big of a bookshelf you will need in order to house them all. Full height bookshelves can be a great choice, since they provide plenty of storage space but only use a small amount of floor space. If you have a lot of books, you can place multiple full height bookshelves side by side. This can be a great way of covering an entire wall if you have a lot of books. For children's books, you can either provide them with their own short bookcase or designate some of the lower shelves for their books. If you have a spare bedroom in your home, this can be a great place to form your home library. Your home office can also be a great location for a library. You might also be tempted to utilize basement space for a library. While this can be a good use of space, you'll want to make sure that the humidity is kept low, to avoid damaging your book collection. Arrange your books on the shelves, keeping them divided into the categories you created. Always allow a little bit of extra space in each category, so you'll have a place to store new books that you purchase in the future. You're sure to find that you enjoy your books much more after they are neatly organized in your new home library.