IN THIS POST
– How to Declutter Your Bookshelf
– How to Clean Your Books
– How to Organise Your Books
Whether you have a small bookshelf filled with your favourite paperbacks or are a proud owner of an impressive home library, you need to take some out twice a year or so to properly clean and organise your books.
Wondering how to go about it? Well, let’s divide the task into three easy steps for a better understanding and convenience. First of all, you need to declutter your bookshelf, by donating or giving away the ones you have no use or space for. Secondly, you need to learn how to clean your books without inadvertently damaging them. Lastly, you need to devise the best strategy for how to organise your books in a way that only makes it easier for you to find your favourite title but also encourages you to read.
Without further ado, here’s our ultimate guide on decluttering, cleaning and organising your books.
How to Declutter Your Bookshelf
The first step to organising your books is to declutter them.
The best way to reduce the size of your collection is to make a list of all the titles you currently own. For this purpose, you’ll need to empty out all of your bookshelves and boxes where you have stored your books, put them all in one place, and then figure out which ones you should keep and which ones you should give up.
Although painful, this is perhaps the most important part of organising your books.
To make it a little easier for you, we would suggest giving away the duplicates that you may own. More often than not, avid bibliophiles have more than copies of the same book. So, unless you own a special edition of a certain book, it is recommended to donate or gift the multiple copies currently collecting dust on the bookshelf.
Moreover, if you are one of those people who buy a lot of books but don’t get a chance to read them all, then you might want to do away with the titles that you know you won’t be reading anytime soon.
How to Clean Your Books
Now that we know how to declutter your books, let’s discuss how to clean them.
Tips to clean pencil marks
When it comes to cleaning used books, those pesky pencil marks can certainly give you a headache.
The easiest way to get rid of these marks is by removing them with a good quality eraser. Just make sure that the eraser you use is soft, otherwise, you may end up accidentally tearing or discolouring a page. Refrain from using erasers behind the pencils or ones that are already blackened due to frequent use. Moreover, instead of rubbing it back and forth on the page, hold the book in one place and only scrub in one direction.
Tips to clean ink
If someone has written in ink on the unprinted areas, you can try removing it by dampening a cotton ball with some nail polish remover and gently rubbing it over the markings. However, if the ink has affected the printed portion of the page, you can try using a thin-tipped ink remover to get the job done. However, be very careful while doing so because you may end up damaging the actual printed words.
Tips to clean crayon marks, oil and grease stains
Cleaning children’s books is not an easy task, especially if they have a tendency to show off their drawing skills in crayon on the printed pages.
If there are excess crayon markings, you can try scraping them off as carefully as you can with a small scalpel or a knife. Since crayons are made of wax, you can also draw it out by heating up the page. The best way to go about it is to cover both sides of the page with a paper towel and then warm it with an iron on a low setting.
You can use this method to get rid of oil and grease stains as well.
How to Clean a Book Cover
Want to give an old book a brand new shine?
Well, you can start off by wiping it with a soft piece of cloth to get rid of any dust particles that may have accumulated on the surface. A brand new colourless shoe shiner can also be used for this purpose.
In case you have a leather-bound book, you can take a small amount of petroleum jelly and gently rub it on the cover using a soft cloth.
How to Clean a Book’s Edges
Take a soft toothbrush, preferably a new/unused one, and gently scrub the dirt off the spine and edges of the book. If the cover has any stamping or embossing, you can use the soft bristles of the toothbrush to scrub them as well.
Also, don’t forget to properly clean your bookshelf before placing back all the books.
How to Organise Your Books
Here are a few smart and simple ways to organise your books.
In Alphabetical Order
You can arrange the titles in an alphabetical order starting from A to Z or vice versa. This is one of the most common ways to organise a bookshelf with a lot of books.
Paperbacks vs Hardcovers
Separating paperbacks from hardcovers and limited editions is also a good way to organise your home library. Depending on the size and type of your bookshelf, you can arrange the special editions in the top-most row, followed by hardcovers and paperbacks.
Colour Coding
If you want your bookshelf to look aesthetically pleasing, then colour-coordinating your books might be a good idea. In case you’re having trouble figuring out how to organise books by colour, here is a simple way to colour code your home library: put all books with similar coloured spines together and then arrange them according to their shade, from dark to light.
By Genre
Arranging titles according to their genre (action and adventure, mystery, fantasy, etc.) is also a fairly popular way to organise books on a bookshelf. If your bookshelf has several shelves or compartments, you can even try labelling them to make things easier for yourself.
Fiction and Non-Fiction
Separating fiction from non-fiction is a neat way to organise your home library. This tip is particularly useful for students and young professionals, who might own a large collection of academic books as well as other non-fiction material.
If you have two bookshelves, you can dedicate one for fictional work and the other for non-fiction.
Put Your Favourites on Display
Everyone has at least one book in their possession that they love the most. You can organise books on a bookshelf by displaying the ones you read most often at the very front on the centre shelf. Meanwhile, the books you don’t read too often can be placed at lower or upper shelves.
To-Be-Read
Putting together all the books you haven’t had the chance to read yet is also a smart way to organise a bookshelf with a lot of books.
Height and Size
You can also arrange the books in your home library according to their height. Whether you are stacking them in a vertical or a horizontal manner, arranging them as per their size will make your bookshelf look neat and well-organised.
By Authors
Another way to organise a bookshelf with a lot of books is to arrange the titles based on their authors.
Organising books by alphabetizing the author’s last name is a method used by most libraries around the world. If you think you’ll have trouble finding your favourite or most-read books using this method, you can put together authors of the same genre together and then arrange them as per their last names.
Although all of these methods work perfectly fine for most people, you always have an option to create your own system while organising your books.
If you have more ideas on how to declutter your bookshelf as well as cleaning and arranging your books, feel free to share them with us by sending an email on blog@zameen.com.
Meanwhile, you can also take a look at some DIY bookshelf design ideas that are both budget-friendly and easy to put together. Moreover, don’t forget to take a look at some creative ways to upgrade the décor your home library.
To learn more about decluttering and organising your home, head over to Zameen Blog – the leading home décor and property blog in Pakistan. You can also subscribe to our newsletter on the right to receive the latest updates about construction and real estate trends in the country in your inbox.
