You guys know I love books. I love to read physical books and listen to Audible books. I was on my computer today, Feb 20, and I noticed that it was Clean Out Your Bookcase day, and I got excited.
I do have a variety of bookcases and a variety of books. I have children’s books, middle grade, young adult, and adult books. Maybe it is time to organize what I have.
You may be saying, “it is no longer Feb 20th. I missed the day”. No worries, you can do this any day!
Many use this day to clean, declutter, and organize their bookshelves. You could dust and polish your bookcases and then organize your books in a way that makes sense to you.
There are many ways to organize your books. Some popular methods are by title, author, or genre. Some people organize their books by color. You will see some bookcases with paperback and hardbound books positioned in separate locations. Others don’t prefer to keep the book jackets on the books, whereas I typically like the book jackets.
Many people style their bookshelves with decorative items. The items used to decorate bookcases could be plants, vases, trinkets, and the list goes on based on what each person likes.
I have two main bookcases. The one in my bedroom is huge and contains the books I have not read, my TBR. My bookcase in the upstairs hallway includes books that I have read. I have books on that shelf that I rated from 3 stars to 5 stars, and I have my grandkid’s books there as well. I am thinking of having a separate bookcase for middle-grade and young adult books so that my grandkids can easily access those. I have a bookcase also for children’s books. I see now that I have a lot of organizing to do.
(I only keep books that rate 3-5 stars. Anything below that I take to local used book stores.)
I have decided to focus on the upstairs bookcases today. I have two bookcases on the middle floor of my townhome.
Bookcase #1
Let’s start with the one in my bedroom. I call this my TBR or To Be Read Bookcase.
The before shot…
I cleared the bookcase and piled books on the floor.
The TBR kids and Middle-Grade books…
My adult books TBR…
I dusted the shelves, and I attempted to organize the books. I started out with an area for hardcover books and paperbacks, and I even tried to organize by genre. This did not last long because I ran out of space for specific genres, so I just started to put them in places I thought looked nice:-)
The end result…
It does not look all that different, but it is clean and a bit more organized. I also realized I have books that I had forgotten that I had.
(A reminder of God and my children) |
I love bookmarks. I need to get a few more. See the little dino? That is a bookmark that Maggie made for me, and I love it. |
Bookcase #2
This is a bookcase that is in the upstairs hallway. This case holds many of the books I have read that I rated 3 stars or above. I have kids and middle-grade books on the lower part of the shelves. I would love to, at some point, have a separate bookcase for my grandkid’s books. That way, they will know where to find books for their age group.
The before shot…
The after shot, it is a bit neater…
Middle-grade books on one shelf and picture books on the other.
This saying could relate to many things, but in this case, it means my choice of books.
I still have shelves to address on the third floor that are not specific to books but should be. I may use one of those for the grandkid’s books. Maybe I will do that next Feb 20th. Just kidding, that will be on my list to do soon:-)