4 Suggestions for Using 2 Bookshelf Organization Methods at Once

Now that I got all of the tips for organizing your bookshelves out of the way, I thought I'd make this post for a few extra suggestions.

These suggestions will focus on how to use 2+ organization methods for you books, and which ones I think work best together. As I've said in previous posts on bookshelf organization, how you ultimately organize your books is up to you.

With that said, let's get into these suggestions!

Alphabetical by Genre x Alphabetical by Author's Last Name

This is a suggestion I mentioned in one of my posts. However, I wanted to go a bit more in detail with it. Essentially, you organize your books by genre, and within each genre, you organize alphabetically by the author's name.  You look at what genres you have, and then organize each genre alphabetically from A-Z. For example, you would organize your genres this way: Classics, Contemporary, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, and Young Adult. Within each genre, you'll then organize by the author's last name.

Color x Height

Organizing by color and height are definitely two of the aesthetically pleasing bookshelf organization methods. Let's say you decide to organize by the rainbow, plus any black and white books you have. So you know that's ROY G. BIV, and then black and white. Within each color - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, black, and white - organize the books by height. Organizing this way can be a bit tedious and time consuming, but it will be aesthetically pleasing to see your bookshelves organized this way.

Unread vs, Read x Chronologically by Publication Year

Organizing your books by unread versus read is a great way to organize your books, but it is very broad: other than the two specifications, there's nothing else to go on for how to organize your books. Organizing your unread and read books chronologically by their publication year can be super helpful. Yes, it may take a little while for two reasons: (1) you have to actively look for the publication year, which is usually on the copyright page just after the full title page, and (2) you can have multiple books published in the same year. But organizing your unread and read books chronologically by their publication year can help you see what books you may want to prioritize on your TBR over others.

Book Format x Alphabetical, Publishing Company

Organizing by book format essentially means that you're distinguishing between paperback and hardback books. However, like with organization of unread and read books, there's nothing else to organize by for book format. If you organize alphabetically by publishing company (Fall River, Penguin Classics, and Thames & Hudson are 3 examples), that can help you see what books fall well. And since many authors use the same publisher, you can keep their books and series together.

These are just four suggestions for how to organize your bookshelves with two different organization methods at the same time. There are multiple ways to go about organizing your books. There's no "right" or "wrong" way for this, since you're organizing your own books and no one else's. It's all up to your own personal preferences.