Do your stacks of books lack rhyme and reason? Here’s how to begin turning wayward books into a neat, handy, and organized bookshelf:

• Take stock of how many books you have and how much shelf space is available. If you have a lot more books than shelf space, weed through your collection or add more shelves.

• Categorize books based on how you think of them—by topic, era, author, or read and unread.

• Alphabetize the books in each category by author or title, or organize books by size.

• Label sections of your bookshelf. Clear plastic label holders, available from library-supply companies, sit under the books on a shelf and can be easily moved or removed. Print a descriptive term for each section, and then slide it into the holder.

• Set up small libraries in different rooms of your home. For example, shelve cookbooks in a kitchen cupboard. Put a short bookshelf next to the bed as a nightstand.

Tip: Create small labels to separate your book categories. Type the name onto cardstock, print, and fold so that part of the label can be tucked under a few books.

Next: Track Which Books You’ve Read