5 Tips for and 3 Benefits of Organizing Your Books Chronologically

Many of the tips will also overlap plenty with the tips for other organization methods. The explanations and reasonings for each tip, though, will differ based on how you're organizing your books.

Let's get started with the tips and benefits of organizing your books chronologically!

Tip 1: Decide on how you want to organize your books.

You've decided on chronologically, but how exactly will you organize your books? You can organize your books based on when they take place, the amount of time they take place over (i.e. 5 years vs. 10 years), or publication year. Once you decide on how, you can move 

Tip 2: Completely clear off your bookshelf and any space that has books on it.

This way, you're not shuffling books around on your bookshelf. You'll also have plenty of room on your shelf to get your books fully organized.

Tip 3: Set your books into piles based on the year or time.

Let's say you've decided to organize your books based on when the book takes place, and all of your books take place between 1900 to 2000. If the book is a classic - like any of Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte's books - or a contemporary then you can guesstimate that the book takes place around the time it was published. Place your books into piles based on the decade - 1900-1909, 1910-1919, 1920-1929, 1930-1939, 1940-1949, 1950-1959, 1960-1969, and so on. You don't have to organize them based on exact years at the start, but get the piles going until your shelves are completely cleared off. If you need 2+ piles for a specific decade, keep those piles close together.

Tip 4: Once you have your piles set up, start organizing the books on the shelves.

This is when you can start organizing by specific years if possible. If you only know the decade it takes place, put that at the end of each section (i.e. if a book takes place in the 1960s but doesn't have a specific year in the 1960s, put it at the end of the 1960s section).

Tip 5: Tips 3 & 4 obviously change depending on how you're organizing.

If you're organizing your books based on publication year, this will be found on the copyright page, which is usually just after the full title page. If you're organizing based on time frame (i.e. 5 years), this is a little harder to gauge unless you've read the entire book or series; it may also not be specifically stated within the book how many years a book takes place over.

Benefit 1: It is possible to keep series together.

While you may not be able to keep all of an author's books together, you can keep individual series together if you organize based on a time frame.

Benefit 2: You can see how books evolved over time.

Organizing based on publication year can show you how books and writing have evolved over the years, whether it's the past decade or the past century.

Benefit 3: If you have a lot of history and/or historical fiction, this is a great way to organize.

Yes, this organization method is a bit time consuming (no pun intended but at the same time 100% intended . . . ). It becomes so easy with history and historical fiction.