There are bookshelves, and then there are bookshelves that make you question just how many books you actually own.
We recently added a new bookshelf at Chapter One HQ, and this thing is an absolute beast.
My wife found it on Marketplace, and after spending a few weeks sitting in our garage, we finally cleared a spot for it. While I was at work, my two older boys helped her get it into the office and set it up.
It barely cleared the ceiling.
Which, naturally, means we now have plenty of room for more books.
At least that's the excuse we're going with.
The Great Bookshelf Organization Debate
Once you have a bookshelf this big, another question appears pretty quickly: How are we actually going to organize all of these books?
There are plenty of ways to organize a home library, and every reader seems to have their own system. Some arrange books alphabetically by author or title. Others separate everything by genre, keep favorite authors together, or organize books by series.
And then there's the visually satisfying option: organizing your bookshelf by color.
Of course, there's also the system many of us actually use: put the book wherever there's still room.
There really isn't a wrong way to organize a bookshelf. The best system is the one that makes it easy to find the books you love—and leaves enough space for the books you haven't bought yet.
A Bookshelf Is More Than Storage
One of our favorite things about bookshelves is how personal they become.
They're a record of books you've loved, books you're planning to read, books someone recommended, books you couldn't leave at the bookstore, and books you've been telling yourself you'll get to eventually.
A well-used bookshelf doesn't need to look perfect. In fact, we think they're usually better when they don't.
So now we'll start filling ours up and figuring out where everything belongs.
The bigger question is how long it'll take before we're saying: “We're going to need another bookshelf.”
— Chapter One Tees
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