Project: Re-Shelf Yourself - Show Me Your #Shelfie!

The human world, it is a mess.

Oh wait, that's a line from The Little Mermaid. We're here to talk about my bookshelves - which are also a mess. Which is why 2019 is the year of Project: Re-Shelf Yourself! (Shout-out to WhaleSnark @ Bookquarium for the name suggestion.)

I have a lot of books, and right now they're a total disaster. One of my goals for 2019 is to organize my home library, and that's where you come in. I need some good advice on how I should go about organizing my books, guys. I'll probably do a series of posts on this one re: specific questions/discussions on how to shelve various genres, so for starters - SHOW ME YOUR #SHELFIE! Tell you what, you show me yours and I'll show you mine. ;)

Here are the shelves in my bedroom:



I've got a tall 5 shelf bookcase on a wall between mine and my husband's closets, and then a series of cube shelving and a short 2 shelf bookcase against a long wall, as well as a retaining wall shelf that runs the length of the room. That last picture is the top of the cube shelving and the retaining wall. I'm thinking I want to get that brown 2-shelf bookcase out of my room to make room for my new library shelving cart I got myself for Christmas (not shown). I also might want to make the tall 5-shelf case the home for my fairy tale retellings, but I'll need to weed them down to get them to fit on one bookcase... :/ (And yes, the first step of Project: Re-Shelf Yourself is going to be putting all those whoozits and whatzits in boxes and totes for the duration so I have room to work!)

Moving on with our tour, here are the shelves in what we'll call the den: 



The first two pics are of four bookcases lined up against one wall, and then there's this weird little spot where the wall juts out and the room widens up, and that shorter 3-shelfer and the tall guy (in the pic with the whiteboard) are along that jut-out wall. Then those beautiful built-in shelves are along the upper wall on the opposite side of the room from the four cases in the first two pics of the den. 

As you can see, there are a lot of kids' toys littering the den right now because we were trying to make it a space where they could play too, but forget that, these shelves are MINE ALL MINE. The toys are being packed up and shuffled upstairs to the kids' rooms (and going through all their toys and the childrens' books is going to be a whole other project for a different day!) so I've got some more shelf space to play with. 

I'm noodling around some ideas of how I want to organize my collection, so my next post will be about organization. 

How do you organize your home library? Are you beautifully organized, or a hot mess like me? Got any hot tips on you organize and categorize your books? Drop me a link to your shelfies in the comments!

6 comments:

  1. I am also a hot mess, but I'm a hot mess without any books - a ton didn't survive my recent move from Portland to Missouri. I've got the essentials, and I have them organized with nonfiction on one shelf, comic books and crochet books on another shelf, writing books on a third shelf, Harry Potter on my headboard, and my TBR in a bag, or slowly piling up beside my bed! Someday, when I have an actual bookshelf full of actual books, I hope to be organized. Until then, the library is my friend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh man, we moved into our house in 2010, and my husband's friends moved my boxes and boxes (...and boxes and boxes and BOXES) of books, and they all swore they'd never help us move again. Pretty sure my books have double (ok, honestly, they've tripled, AT LEAST...) since then, so... Guess I'd better never move again, haha! :)

      My brain seriously read each of those "shelf" words in your comment as "case" - nonfiction on one bookcase, comicbooks and crocket books on one bookcase (hey, I have an entire bookcase of manga - doesn't everyone?) And speaking of TBR... those first 4 pics? Of the bookcases in my bedroom? Yeah, that's all TBR. o.O I know, I'm a little out of control... Just a little, LOL.

      THE LIBRARY IS EVERYONE'S FRIEND! There is a 100 book limit at my local library. Yes, I found out by hitting said limit and having to put books back. :D

      Delete
  2. My library is quite a mess as I am currently moving it from my parent's house (where it had been stored on and off throughout my adult life) to my new house. I'm doing so slowly because I have to purge some of my new husband's books in order to make way for mine. lol. So I had to wait for him to go through the books. But I think I'm ready to get the books moving now! :)

    Good luck on your discussion challenge.

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  3. I reorganized my shelves last year. My fiction is typically alphabetical by author's last name and my nonfiction by subject.

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    1. Thanks for sharing, Donna! Do you various genre fiction? If you do, do you put all genres of fiction all together?

      Delete
  4. My shelves are actually pretty organized, except for the fact that they're stuffed to the gills. Last year, I started sorting one of my bookcases by color and I LOVE it!!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

    ReplyDelete

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