It is amazing how quickly bookshelves go from organized to chaos. Of course, when you add new books faster than you’re culling your shelves, that’s inevitable. But still. It happens so fast! Now that I’m home, doing the Farm Wife thing, I can give my shelves the attention they need.

My first step was to take down the Christmas village that took up residence November 2022, ha. It was so cute and gave me great joy whenever I’d turn the twinkling fairy lights on. So, I let it stay. Until I got the idea to redecorate and make it more year-round cozy – but still twinkly. Always twinkly. {I’m considering adding another strand of fairy lights, because you can’t have too many}.

With the top of the bookshelves freshly redecorated, it was time to tackle the books themselves. In addition to rearranging and reorganizing, I also deselected some volumes. As much as I love books in general, I don’t always love specific books – not enough to reread them, and occasionally not enough to read them the first time. Fear not: books removed from shelves will find new homes, either dispersed among my reading buddies or donated to the Library book sale.

It was an all-morning project {with a few loose ends to tidy away after a much-needed lunch break}, but I am so pleased with how it turned out. The addition of battery candles adds an extra layer of cozy, and I love having everything turned on when we’re having tv time at night. I considered adding a houseplant or two, because I love that look when I see other people’s shelves, but I kept having nightmares about water + books. So the plants get to stay on the end tables for now.

How do you organize your book shelves? Mine are roughly grouped by “type,” but it’s far from a formal system. I do have 2 whole shelves of Jane Austen-related books {not counting a few nonfiction titles on the nonfiction shelf. That one still needs some work}, which I’m particularly fond of. I also mix things up regularly, depending on my mood or how cluttered/space needs. I do like this current set-up however, so it’ll probably stay for a while.