In an effort to streamline our family room we removed a built-in bookshelf. So I am combining the contents into another bookshelf. I've gotten rid of the stuff I didn't want but still have inherited items, travel mementos, too many books and too many family pictures.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to arrange a bookshelf so it doesn't look jumbled up and cluttered?
I like this article http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/03/how-to-style-a-bookcase/
I would first go through the books and get rid of anything that you (or your family members) aren't ever going to read again. And how much enjoyment do you really get out of having all those photos out in frames? Personally, I prefer most of my photos on the computer or in albums, so I can sit down and look through them when nostalgia strikes :) Or maybe trade them all in for one digital photoframe with a nice rotating "playlist"?
The digital frame is a great idea, or else having a few nice frames and committing to switching the photos out once a month to rotate all your favorites through.
I am a former book buyer (who is now a heavy heavy library user). I never buy books because I just don't have the place to store them (and now there's no place in my budget for them either). That said, I still have lots of books...I constantly am trying to pare them down. Every time I go through the bookshelf I get through a few more...but it's been a long process for me. One thing I've been doing is for books I think I might read or might read again, I go look on the library website. If there are 10 copies and not a waiting list, I figure I could get it pretty much instantly should I ever want to read it and so get rid of my own copy. I'm trying to limit my bookshelf to be full of titles where I can say "I read that, I loved it, I pull quotes out of it all the time and regularly reach for it to show to other people."
MsDasha, The digital frame is perfect! Thank you so much!
If you really want to keep bookshelves looking clean
don't put anything on them but books.
use flat bent metal bookends (the library kind)
and don't put all kinds of clutter on the shelves in front of the books.
don't lay books sideways ontop of other books.
put the oversized books on the top shelf horizontally.
If your bookshelves go straight to the floor.
try not to put books on the bottom shelf put storage boxes.
If you have 'unbooks' like manuscripts, magazines, paper, ephemera, quarterlies
store them in magazine boxes with the spines facing out.
As for the books. limit yourself to books you may want to take down and look at for some reason and books it would be difficult to replace.
Toss old textbooks (don't try to donate them - none really wants them), any nonfiction references books that are now replaced by the internet - like encyclopedias.
Give fiction you aren't going to reread to people and groups you know: senior center, shelters etc.
Think about donating your yearbooks to your local library.
35 years a bookseller and i still have to remember some rules everyday.
it is so easy to just keep bringing in more books without culling old ones.
You can replace some of your deadtree books with ebooks. Many out-of-copyright, public domain books are available, free, through places like Manybooks. Ebooks live on your hard drive, do not take up wall space, and do not have to be dusted.
It was a wonderful feeling when I took shelves of Victorian classics (Dickens, Eliot, etcetera) off to the library, as donations. I have several thousand deadtree books in my house and I would LOVE to cut down the number by replacing them with ebooks. As soon as I finish sewing up all my cloth scraps (quilter's clutter) and scanning and OCRing my dissertation research papers, I hope to scan and OCR a lot of my yellowing, crumbling sff (science fiction and fantasy) paperbacks. Even if they aren't PD (public domain) yet, it's not illegal to convert them for my own use.
Sky, I'm glad you like the digital frame idea! When you've got your shelves nicely organized, post a photo!
I recently downsized one bookshelf out of three in my livingroom. The most important strategies were the following:
(1) I got rid of any books that I'm never going to read again, I honestly would never get around to reading, or I would be able to easily find again. "Find again" meant online, say thru the Gutenberg Project, or at the library, or at a thrift store, or by borrowing from a pal. Titles included "Huckleberry Finn," several volumes of Shakespeare, the blessed National Geographics, and some Booker/Pulitzer/Nobel Prize and National Book Award winners from the past several years.
(2) I sorted the remaining books by category, with one half-shelf devoted to two authors whose works I'm totally in love with and have nearly complete collections of. Categories include "reference," "archaeology and anthropology" (an interest of mine), "plays" (I had a lot more than I thought I did!), "parenting," "bibles and religious studies," and "books of the mass-market paperback size." Each category took up a shelf or a half-shelf, leaving room in between for mementoes like family pictures or antique objects.
I'm left with books that truly I would read over and over again; reference books; and some books I haven't yet read, and may donate once I'm done reading them. And I'm very, very careful about buying any more books now. I don't have room for many more at all, and I don't want to make room for more.
I did what Zora was talking about. Older classics out of copyright I replaced with digital versions and most all of my books I had sold or given away. Any reference books or books that i knew I would read again I purchased digital copies. I still have one small shelf with a handful of books but it definitely cleared up most of the clutter.
I used to be a book hoarder. I've now sold a few books to Powell's Books (online). It's a gradual process. I'm slowing getting rid of many books I bought when I was in Jr. High (44 now, it's time to let go!) and high school. I still have a ton of Stephen King books I'm not ready to let go of yet, but there's a really nice library book store run by volunteers that always needs more books, and I like helping them raise the money by giving them sellable used books that Powell's won't take. They'll probably end up with the King books in a few months.
One technique for clearing the shelves is to stick the books in a box. These should be books you're pretty sure you're not going to go looking for. After they've been sitting under your stairs, or wherever you put them, for about a year or six months, take the entire box and donate it to a library book store or homeless shelter. Just make sure they're NOT full of mildew or mold. Any smell means they're no good. Toss them.
Family pictures can be put into photo albums. You don't have to do scrapbooking *however* when you do put them away into an album, but be sure to write some notes down about who is in the picture, where it was taken and why. That way other relatives or close family can know what's what when it's time when they find the pictures.
My husband and I love books. We secretly hope to someday open our own library, LOL. But, even so, we still cull book clutter from our shelves a couple of times a year. In fact, I usually keep a box in our den year-round just for tossing books, movies and CDs that we don't want to use anymore. Then, when we go to visit my parents or some friends, we take them to the big used bookstore there and trade them in for credit. Then we get new books, movies and music that we will like. Invariably, we come home with less than we went with, so there is an actual net reduction in the amount of stuff we have, but trading something you don't like for something you do like is always a good thing.
To make your shelves look neater, try arranging your books from tallest to shortest, or by binding color. While this isn't library-approved organization, it does make your remanining books LOOK neater. If you'll notice, a lot of thrift stores work on this principal, grouping clothes--especially shirts--by color. While it does make things easier to find--because when most people shop for a shirt, they're shopping for a specific color--the reason why they do it is to make the store look neater. People are more likely to shop at a neat store, and you also have less theft and people make fewer messes/cause less damage when a store is neat. The messier anything is, the less likely people are going to treat that area with respect. You can also get better prices for things which are neatly organized in a store; if a store is messy, people expect prices to be lower and will not spend as much money.
Something I still want to do, because I'm not a person who is fond of pictures, is scan all of my pictures and organize them using some sort of photo album software, and then throw all the hard copies away. A CD takes up a lot less room, and you can store it in a fire-proof safe or safe deposit box, so you don't lose them if something happens to your house. You can also store vital information with them--names, dates, relationships, etc.--and pull them out quickly to make into slideshows or print them for montages for class reunions or funeral services.
Although my mother has a neat wall in her bedroom, where she has a framed copy of one picture of each of our ancestors--as far back as the pictures go. When we move to a different place, I would like to get a copy of all of those pictures, plus add pictures in from my dad's side of the family, and arrange an entire wall in a living room or hallway with family pictures, and have them arranged so that they form a family tree (have my great-great grandparents' picture at the top and work down the wall until a picture of myself and my husband is at the bottom).
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