Bookshelves: Before and After

A few months back I got on a major reorganization kick. I was just feeling cluttered, in every form of the word. I did a major closet overhaul (though, that’s still in progress), and I have piles upon piles upon piles to go through and sell/donate. I also got fed up with my home office. For some reason, I wasn’t using it. I’d do work on my couch downstairs or at the table instead. Why on earth was I not using my home office? It bothered me. SO, I decided to clear it out. I thought that maybe if I decluttered it would help rejuvenate the space in a big way.

When I first set up the bookshelves in my home office, I loved them. They weren’t too cluttered, and I thought they looked awesome. Well, fast forward a few years, and over time, things have been added to them, and they just got busy looking, and not pretty, in my mind. I was simply sick of them.

SO, I removed every single solitary thing from the shelves and dumped it all on the floor (see picture below for the mess I made), and I mindfully put things back. I have to say, I’m thrilled with the outcome. It’s so much more clean and open. See below for the before and after shots, along with some tips and pointers I have if you get inspired to rejig your bookshelves.

Before

The Mess

After

How to Rearrange Your Bookshelves

Remove everything from the shelves, and I mean everything. I know it can seem like a cumbersome task, but it’s best to start fresh.
While everything is emptied out, grab a wet cloth and run it over each shelf, as I’m sure dust has piled up over time.
Decide what look/theme/color story you’re going for. If you don’t have one in mind, that’s ok, but maybe take a look at Pinterest or through magazines and online to see the vibe you’re wanting. I wanted mostly white for mine with just little pops of color, and I wanted it to go with my preferred interior design style, which I’d say is a mix of modern, contemporary, clean, and slightly eclectic, with pops of color throughout.
Start by placing the bigger objects, and work around those.
Then go to the books. Gather all the ones you want to put on the shelves, and decide if you want them color coordinated, size coordinated, or not coordinated at all.
When placing the books, place some upright and some flat to provide a bit of dimension. As well, put some on the right side, some centered, and some on the left side, unless the look you’re going for is perfect symmetry, in which case, you’ll want to line things up.
Now it’s onto the little tchotchkes and things. Scatter them about – some on top of books, some next to bigger pieces, maybe some even alone by themselves on certain shelves. Again, it depends on the look you’re going for.
The good news is nothing is set in stone. If you don’t like what you’re doing the first go around, remove it and put something else in its place or nothing else in its place. It took me a few hours to ‘finalize’ the look of mine. As I’m an extremely indecisive person, I played around a ton with different variations of things until I landed on the final outcome.
Finally, have fun with it. I had such a blast doing mine. Granted, I was drinking wine, good tunes were on in the background, and it was actually a really fun Saturday afternoon activity.
P.S. Pin the below image so you can refer back to it whenever you get inspired to do your shelves!