Lauren Ducommun

One of the most enjoyable parts of curating books for a home library is organizing them. This is why I tell people I have several bookish hobbies–I enjoy reading books, researching books, collecting books, organizing books, and stylizing books.

Today I’m going to share how I organize some of my books, and some of my favorite products to keep my shelves tidy.

Currently, we have children’s and YA books on shelves in my daughters’ room. In our living room, we keep our literature, history, and some non-fiction books. For quite a while, I had organized our literature books chronologically, and that was wonderful. It was a joy to see the books across the centuries and easy to find something. However, because our shelves are in our living room, it looked a bit cluttered. That is when I organized our literature books by color, as it was more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

I didn’t have it in me to sort our history books by color, as I knew I would definitely never find anything. So the lower shelves are dedicated to our children’s history books, because they’re a little more hidden from sight.

How I Organize Our History Books

In the past, I placed a label directly on the shelves and sorted books by century and general geographical location (i.e. Ancient Greece, 1800s Europe), however, we still struggled to find books. So most recently I’ve sorted into more specific topics (i.e. Ancient Near East, Civil War, Post-War Era, etc.).

Eventually, I want to label all the books on the spine, but because I have some out-of-print books, I’m hesitant to put labels directly on their spine. So instead, I have used movable shelf labels and have stuck labels directly to those.

Book Organizing Supplies

I like to keep things simple, and I’m on a budget, so I have not been able to dive into library supplies like Bodart book jackets. Below are some of my most used book organizing supplies:

Dymo Label Maker

I bought this Dymo Label Maker back in 2014, and have used it for so many projects and book labeling! I buy the white paper tape refills as I like the texture of it, and they last quite a while.

What’s great about the Dymo Label Maker is that I can just sit and type into the machine and print directly. I can also insert multiple lines for labeling the spines, or using one line in a large font for labeling the shelves.

Moveable Shelf Label Holders

These moveable shelf label holders are great because they permit flexibility. They’re easy to move if I add new books to the shelves. Or if I decide to add or change my book categories, I can simply update the label.

Bookshelf Maintenance Supplies

Duster

I didn’t realize quite how dusty our shelves would get! Although, we do live in the country and have two indoor cats. I use a Swiffer duster (the Walmart brand), to dust the tops of the books and shelves. Once or twice a year, I’ll take all the books off and dust behind the shelves as well.

It’s still challenging to get dust off those cloth-bound covers! I have to make sure to dust those first with new dusters, otherwise they collect dust from the duster.

Pest control

I freeze most used books that come into our home–to prevent any outside bugs coming in. However, I still do some minor pest prevention. I use insect glue traps and keep those around the base of my book shelves to catch any roaches or crawlies.

We once lived in a house infested with silverfish. They were everywhere. Since then, I am determined to not have an infestation again. I also want to keep them out of my books. So, I throw boric acid roach tablets behind my books to keep away roaches and silverfish.

Conclusion

The joy of having a home library is that you can personalize it to your preference or family’s needs. I dream of one day having a library shed in which I can have an official organized library. Until then, because of our book shelf locations and limited space, we have to be creative and mindful with how we organize them. This is why I look for book organizing products that are flexible and non-permanent. It’s still so much fun to arrange and re-arrange throughout the year! Comment below with your favorite products or book organizing tips!