How To Organize Your Bookshelf

Call me crazy, but the part of this renovation I was most excited for was setting up my office (and labelling my pantry, I’ll do a blog post on that soon too.) I’ve worked from home on and off for years, but like so many of us, the pandemic took that to new heights. As the months went my, the dining room at my old home quickly merged into a home office. Before I knew it, my “work” had taken up my entire dining room table (not like I needed it during lockdown anyway!). I had a pretty good set up, but it was not sustainable.

In my view, your workspace should be a sanctuary of sorts. It should be somewhere you enjoy to spend time in because, sadly, aside from our beds, it where most of spend the majority of our time. It should be inspiring, but also calming. For me, that means lots of natural light and decluttered. This is the first home I have lived in where I was able to dedicate a room as my office, and I took full advantage of this gift to turn it into the workspace I’d always dreamt of.

starting with a bookshelf…

The bookshelf was the most important piece. Over the years, I have amassed a pretty large collection of books and I have one rule - never get rid of any of them! Even my textbooks! My mom is not thrilled about this rule since it inevitably led to several boxes of books ending up in her storage facility, but I keep reminding her that, one day, I will have a huge library that will need to be filled! When I bought my first home, that was the first thing I thought about. While I don’t have a library (yet), this bookshelf is the perfect start. I have to admit - I also wanted a fabulous backdrop for Zoom calls…

I spent more time looking at bookshelves than probably any other piece in this entire house, as well as an embarrassing amount of hours scouring Room Rater’s Twitter Feed. I would have loved to added a built in unit, but the room layout (as well as my budget) couldn’t accommodate it. I also really loved the modular shelving and floating wall units, but neither of those were quite right either, for various reasons. You can view my final selections here to see some other options I considered. I wanted something sleek and simple, so that the books themselves are the standout pieces. In the end, I settled with this beautiful Beekman Wood & Glass shelf from Rue La La. It was the perfect size, elegant, subtle and on sale. Win!

Setting up the Bookshelf

Each piece is identically and slides directly into the slot. You just pop in the glass, layer it with the top shelf and repeat. Kind of like jenga.

The bookshelf was delivered in two packages that were so heavy that not even the delivery man could help me carry them inside. I was home alone that day, so together we placed the boxes on my garage floor. There was no chance I was going to be able to build the shelf on my own, so I didn’t even bother opening it. I got back to work, but my mind kept drifting back to that bookshelf I had been so anxiously waiting for. It was finally here! I was desperate for Derek to come home so he could help me finally set it up. I had boxes of books piled up against the wall, just dying to be released and placed in their new home. A few minutes later I was back down in my garage staring at the boxes, feeling completely useless but just dying to take a peak. When I opened the box and read the instructions, I was shocked to see that I didn’t need any tools to set this. NONE! No nails, drilling, hammers - nothing! The shelf is perfectly designed like Jenga, with identical pieces all stacked on top of one another. Maybe I could do this by myself after all?

The hardest part of the whole experience was carrying the long pieces of wood up two flights of stairs. Fortunately, we hadn’t yet installed the railing (a tip for future home builders - install the railing last! You’re welcome), so it was a bit easier to navigate my way up. It would not be out of character for me to smash the panel into our newly painted walls, so I tried with every bone in my body, to stay in control. I did each piece one by one and, soon enough, I had built a piece of furniture entirely on my own… almost. It wasn’t until I carried the final top shelf up that I noticed I had built the whole thing back to front - that top piece was actually the bottom piece, the only two pieces in the entire set that were not identical. I was frustrated, and sweating and panting, but at this point, I was determined. So, I undid the entire thing, redid it the right way, and I had a complete bookshelf in under an hour.

Organizing the Books

Then came the fun part. I had obviously thought deeply about how I wanted to organize my bookshelf. Personally, I’m not into the color matching, picture perfect, bookshelves. What I love about books is how real they are and the story they tell. I love it when the pages feel worn. I want to rummage through it and touch, and scribble notes, and highlight sections and share it with others.

My bookshelf is arranged by category - politics, history, novels, tech, biographies, art and film, philosophy, self-help, etc. It’s very much like the “Analogue” version of my Analogue profile.

I added in a few sentimental pieces - a photograph of a Vietnamese tour guide who changed my worldview and whose photo I carry everywhere, my Chinese good luck pig, a copy of my name on the acknowledgements page of Renovating Democracy, a 5,000 year old Roman amphora that Derek discovered while on an underwater archaeology expedition (I kid you not), my kids choice award, and a few other things. Every single piece on that shelf either reminds me of an important lesson, or makes me smile.

Still a work in progress, but I am absolutely in love with how the space is coming together.