The Visual Bookshelf

Let me start this by saying, I did not come up with this on my own, in fact, I can't remember who to credit or even if it was a TV show or in a magazine. A few years ago, I saw this somewhere and LOVE doing it to every bookshelf I see!

I'm a visual person, and love order, so a bookshelf organized by anything other than color and size just looks messy to me. Now, we do not have enough books in our house to need the Dewey Decimal System, so I like to use the next best strategy; sort by color and size.

It doesn't take long, and what else were you going to do before Dancing with the Stars is on?! First you start sorting your books by color, then by size. Next start placing them on the shelves. You'll need to play with it a little as you may have a lot more of one color than another. To add visual interest, throw in nick-nacks, picture frames or whatever you would like to mix it up a bit. Some books are harder to place than others, so it takes adjusting as you go. I also set all the books flush to make it look even more uniform. I had a ton of tiny paperbacks  that are "hiding" behind the front row of books.

Yes, I know I just posted about the wonders of digital books, but let's be real, we can't get rid of ALL of our books! Some may think it is crazy to sort by anything but subject, and that's fine if this is not for you! For me, I remember the color of the spine of all of our books (visual learner) so I can still find everything easily. I do keep my cookbooks and books I reference for work separate, but this works well for the majority of our books.

As a side note, I am not neurotic, I wouldn't dare try this with my son's bookshelf. Here's what it looks like, and this is how it will stay until HE wants to organize it!

Want to give it a try? Call me up, I'll come over and help! Yep, I was the kid that straightened my friends' rooms' for fun. ;)