Books, CDs, DVDs…What to do with them all?
I have always loved reading. As a young kid I read several books a week…I loved everything early American, so nerdy! I still read one or two books a month.
Books serve us in so many ways:
– taking us away from our reality
– helping us improve our vocabulary
– helping our minds be more open, to what has, and is going on in our world today
So when my clients want their books organized I get excited!
Organizing books has been a fun part of my business. Many of my clients have large book collections, These books aren’t special books, but they’re special to my clients. They’re not antiques or limited or first editions, they’re just normal everyday books. Some of my clients have books in three or four places in their homes in libraries, offices, bedrooms and dens.
What we do is organize them into categories that make sense to the client, after all, they have to find them. Here are some examples of how we might approach your library:
- Fiction by author
- Nonfiction by topic, for instance we may do European history, American history, American politics, finance, math, science humor, raising children…
- Biographies, autobiographies and memoirs by subject
- Poetry by poet
- Travel books by geographic area; country, state or city (it’s easy to locate books on Paris by looking at Europe and then looking at France)
- Cookbooks we keep in the kitchen if possible
- Special interests might include a collection of books on women’s studies, which would be organized by category within the women’s studies larger category
We also try to put certain categories in specific places within the house. One of our client’s main living floor has all of the fiction, nonfiction, autobiographies gardening and nature books, home decorating books and art books. In their office there are books to read. In the bedroom are the books that are currently being read. Once the book is read we incorporate them into the main library. When the main library is full it’s time to go through the books and see which ones are no longer important to the client in order to bring other books into the library.
We use this same approach with videos, DVDs and CDs. CD collections are usually done by genre, classical music, jazz, folk, rock and then within those categories we alphabetize by artist. Some clients want them alphabetically too. Duplicates get pulled out for donation.
There are many types of systems for tracking your books DVDs CDs. Usually you scan the ISBN number on the back and it creates a record of what you own. It is super helpful when you’re buying books, CDs and DVDs to avoid duplication. Locating your books is so much easier if you have them In some type of database, and if you loan items out to friends you can manage that as well.
If you have books, CDs, DVDs, wine, trains…whatever collection you have we can get it organized and inventoried for you!