7 Tips for Stacking Your Books

This may seem like a controversial book organization method. But believe me: it works, especially if you have limited bookshelf space.

If you place books on your shelves normally, you may be able to stick around 20-30 books on a single shelf. However, if you include book stacks on a shelf or two, you can have 20-40 depending on how many books are in a single stack. (I say 20-40 because it depends on how big your bookshelf is and how many books you can fit in general on one shelf and in a stack.)

Here are 7 tips for stacking your books.

Tip 1: Try to stack all the way to the top of the shelf.

You may not be able to get books stacked all the way to the top, due to different book sizes. However, I do recommend the attempt, at least, to stack all the way to the top of the shelf.

Tip 2: You may not want to stick super tall books in a stack.

If you don't have super tall books, then you can skip this tip and move onto the next one. however, if you do have super tall books, I don't recommend putting them into a stack. There may be a bunch of empty space on a shelf where books could have gone that the book's height took up if you place it in a stack. If you have to stick a tall book into a stack, try to use up any extra space.

Tip 3: Stack from biggest at the bottom to smallest at the top.

This may seem like an obvious tip. However, it deserved to be in this post. It can be difficult to find a good balance if you just randomly stack books. This can be done, but it'll take a lot of time. So, to save time (and to make it easy on you), stack your books biggest at the bottom to smallest at the top.

Tip 4: Understand that it may be a bit difficult to get books at the bottom of the stack and to put them back.

Again, this is another obvious tip. However, like Tip 3, this also deserved its own spot in this post. To get to the books at the bottom (or to put them back), and to prevent all the books on top from toppling, you may have to take the books off of your shelf.

Tip 5: If a book is wider than your other books, it may fit better underneath other books.

This tip really depends on the individual book. However, if you're like me and have some wide books, it can be hard to fit them into a stack. Even if it's shorter than some books, it may be best to fit it closer to the bottom so it doesn't mess up the stack's balance.

Tip 6: Try to have hardbacks at the bottom of the stack unless they're smaller than some of your paperbacks.

Again, this may seem like another obvious tip. However, due to the weight of hardback books, it may be best to have them closer to the bottom of the stack. As I mentioned in the tip, if the hardback book is smaller than some of your paperbacks and would mess up the stack's balance, then you can stick it closer to the top.

Tip 7: Depending on the sizes of the books at the bottom of the stack, you may be able to stick a book upright (i.e. not stacked) on one of the bottom books.

I sort of alluded to this in Tip 2, but I decided to elaborate on it a bit. If the book at the bottom of the stack is taller than the books on top of it, there may be some empty space there. Utilize this space by sticking another book or two upright on top of it. This way, you're using all the space you can to store your books.