It’s officially the first week of April! And even though many parts of the world are still covered in snow, it’s never too early to get a head start on your spring cleaning. As someone who hoards the things I love, my bookshelf is always in need of a restart and a good clearing out, which puts it at the top of my spring cleaning to-do list. Here are some tips on how you can get your bookshelves back in order!
Empty your shelves. That’s right, you need to take every single book you have off of your bookshelf to account for how much you really have.
Sort your books by genre, author, most-read, or whatever label makes the most sense for you! Make piles on your floor, and sort every book you own into one of them. This will make it easier to see how much of a certain type of book you own, and help you determine which piles are the most important to you.
Make the easy choices. As you’re sorting your books into piles, make a separate one for books you haven’t touched for over a year. Are there books you don’t even remember buying? Books you want to interest you, but anytime you go to pick it up you end up choosing something else? Books you remember hating as you read? Get rid of these books first.
Make the hard choices. Once you’re ready to start putting your books back on your shelves, make sure you are conscious of each decision. That book you loved from five years ago, are you going to ever read it again? What about the book your mother gave you, but you have no interest in reading? Any book you keep should be a book you firmly are interested in owning…don’t put back anything that you have questions about.
How many books do you have in your home? Are you a book hoarder like myself? Let me know in the comments below!