I LOVE to read. I personally read close to 100 books a year and my “to be read” list never gets any shorter. That doesn’t mean I have massive stacks of books and bookshelves on every wall, so how do I do it?
As with every other category, the best way to organize your books is by first collecting them all into one area and sorting them by type. You may have your own categories specific to your own hobbies (for example I have a whole shelf of organizing related books), but here is a good place to start for most book collectors:
text/reference/schoolbooks, cookbooks, magazines/newspapers, fiction, YA or children’s
books, and non-fiction. Some or all of these could be broken into subcategories if you have a particularly large collection.
Now that you have all your books in one place, an easy place to start is with the reference or other hobby-related books. Here are some questions to get you started: Are these still relevant to your life? Will you realistically ever reference them again? If the information is NOT out of date, is there an intern or student you know that may be able to use it? If the reference books were provided as part of a conference or class, is the same information available online? Are you only keeping these books as a “trophy” to prove that you read them? Most people feel less attached to these books, so it is a good place to start.
As you make your way through the other categories check for duplicates, damage, and especially if any of the books were borrowed and need to be returned! Separating out the books you haven’t yet read, so that you can make a point of reading them, is also helpful. If this category contains more books than you will realistically read in a couple years, it may be worth taking a quick look at each to see if they are all still something that sounds interesting to you. Just because you own it doesn’t mean you HAVE to read it. Pass along anything that no longer suits you, so someone else has a chance to enjoy it.
Your collection should now be at least slightly smaller, so now you need to decide where to store them. Choose your most meaningful books to be the most prominently displayed and store them in a way that you will be able to find what you need quickly. Some people like to color coordinate the book spines and others like to alphabetize by title or author. My tip is to do what makes the most sense to you because ultimately storing your things so that you can find them alleviates stress and the last thing you need when you want to enjoy a book is stress!
With your stack of books ready to leave your home, there are a few options on how to discard them. Half Price Books is a national chain that buys and resells books (and games, puzzles, movies etc.) and will donate or recycle anything they find unsaleable for any reason. Another great option is donating your books to a local book fair or charity shop. The St. Louis Book Fair raises money to provide literacy and education grants to local organizations. Here is a link to where to take donations for the St. Louis Book Fair: https://www.stlouisbookfair.org/donate
Once your collection is pared down to what is reasonable for your space, how do you prevent the build up in the future. My number one tip is to get a library card! After spending the time to cull my collection, I made it a point of not purchasing any new books until I have already read it, liked it, and know that I will reference it, reread it, and/or lend it to others in the future. Many libraries will also give you access to audio and digital books as well. The St. Louis County Library uses the Libby app, and all you need to access their full catalog of books is a library card.
Are there any other areas that need a fall refresh in your house?
I would love to help you get your house in shape for back-to-school!
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