It's More Than Just a Book Shelf

Everyone has at least one book shelf in their house, apartment, or dorm. I’m sure right now it’s holding books, and a couple knick knacks and photos to hold the books upright. But, if you’re looking for a way to change up the feng shui of your living space, your book shelves are great places to start.

Your first step should be collecting all of your books into one place, that way you can see how many you have. If you think you have more than you need, go ahead and sort through them. If you’ve read them and you don’t plan on rereading them, give them to a better home. If you haven’t read them, but you don’t feel like you ever will, that’s a sign to get rid of them also. Keep the books that you treasure: The stories captivate you and make you want to read more.

Once you’ve gone through all your books, assess how much space you actually need for them. Odds are, if you sorted through them effectively, you don’t need more than one shelf to hold all of them. Now the magic can happen. Sort them by color, size, author, title, or however you see fit. Keep them in small groups according to your categories. Then set them off to the side.

Now you need to find things in your home that you don’t like where they are now. Depending on what room the book shelf or shelves are in, this will help you determine what items will be best to add into the space.

Below are a few different things that work very well on a bookshelf and really help organize and personify your space.

• Plants

If you have cubicle bookshelves like I do, a lot of them have open fronts and backs. This allows for a lot of light to become available for the plants. Smaller plants can go in cute pots and planters in the cube spaces, and taller ones can go on top. You can add in your books around them and it creates a very at-home feel.

• Clothes

Clothes are perfect items to go into any size book shelf when it’s in your bedroom. This provides so much extra storage, and doesn’t seem out of place. Smaller items can go in individual bins with books in between, so the clothes act as bookends. Larger items like sweatshirts and jeans can be folded neatly and placed on the shelf. This allows for easy access and each item is right in your line of sight.

• Stuffed Animals

No matter how old you are, there will always be a few stuffed animals that you want to hold onto. These can now be displayed on your shelves as well, dispersed amongst the books. Place a small stack of books against one wall of the shelf, then a treasured animal, and then add more books onto the other side. You can continue this as far across as you need, and now your books are separated by physical representations of memories. Right now I have a Hugsy stuffed animal (Joey’s penguin from Friends) holding up five books in one of the cubes of my bookshelf.

• Papers

Now, I don’t mean to stack a pile of papers onto a shelf, because that’s just a recipe for disaster. Instead, measure the height and width of your shelves and see if a magazine holder or paper tray can fit there nicely. This will help organize your office or workspace and give you more room on your actual desk to complete work. Add some books in between the two organizers to break them up. It also helps if you organize them on how they relate to the papers you’re filing. For college students, textbooks and required readings can go next to the syllabus and old tests. Writers can keep their published books amongst their drafts and ideas to inspire them.

• Board Games

If you have shorter, more long shelves on your bookcase, this can be a perfect spot to both store and display your game collection. Much like the clothes, it provides an easy grab because you can see all of your options in front of you. This shelf can go in a media or entertainment room, or even stored in a closet to help with organization.

• Movies and Videogames

The days of DVDs and Blu-Rays might be coming to an end, but it’s likely you still have some in your home that you don’t want to get rid of. These are as easy to organize as books, except they’re a lot smaller so you can fit more on one shelf. Depending on the size and set-up, video game consoles and DVD players can be placed in between rows of movies and videogames. If the piece of furniture is short enough, a TV can go on top. That way, everything is all in one place. Add in the board games and you now have your own entertainment center.

• Drawers and Bins

If you have a lot of smaller, miscellaneous things that you can’t get rid of, consider organizing them in cheap bins on your bookshelves. With color coordination and books spread out in between, this creates a put-together look that also doubles to hide less-aesthetically-pleasing items in your home.

• Photos and Albums

This is an obvious, but classic decor choice. By sorting all of your photos into albums, you can get rid of those shoe boxes holding them all. Pick a few favorites to place in frames, and organize all this, plus some books, around the shelves. To add some dimension, stack books on their sides and then use them as the bookends for the upright photo albums. Having a few frames out as well will make you and your guests feel more at home as well.

It’s easy to fall into the same-old routine with the items in your home, so by going against the norm and revamping everything, you’ll keep it looking fresh and modern.