There’s no better problem than having too many books. But if those stacks of books around the house are starting to get out of hand, it might be time to dust off your shelves. Just in time for spring cleaning, here are just a few ways to organize your shelves and freshen up your personal library.

Alphabetical (title, author)
Line up your books in alphabetical order, either by title name or author last name. This is a simple and reliable method, especially if you’re constantly adding to your shelves. It might be boring—but if it ain’t broke, why fix it? You’ll be able to locate titles and authors and add new books easily.

Dewey Decimal System
Bring out your inner librarian with this method. To transform your collection into a bona-fide library, you can catalogue and arrange books using the traditional Dewey Decimal System. This technique uses numbers to organize books into ten general groups, which are then further divided into more specific subgroups. This classification system will take quite a bit of time, but your collection will soon be a bona fide library.

Chronological
Consider organizing your books by publication date. This will put Shakespeare near the front and Stephen King near the back. This method might be perfect for readers who buy mostly new releases, as you can simply add books to the end of your collection as you get them. This method may even reveal some interesting patterns or trends within your bookshelf. 

Publisher
Consider organizing your books by publisher or imprint. Once you establish these categories, you can further organize by any other method, like date published or alphabetically. If you’re a current or aspiring book blogger who works with multiple publishers but can’t always remember specific titles, this might be the best method for you.

Color
This might just be the most visually pleasing—and controversial—way to organize books. If you really want to show off your interior designing skills, you can match your books to the color scheme of your office, living room, or bedroom. The possibilities with this option are nearly endless. You might line up books chromatically so they resemble the rainbow. You could also arrange your books in color blocks. If you’re up to the challenge, you can even try to make patterns using the spines of books. Organizing books by color may make individual titles difficult to find, but your shelves will look incredible.

Height
If you prefer aesthetics rather than accessibility, this is another great option. Line your books up from shortest to tallest, vice versa, or can have the heights cascade. You can even make patterns with this method, by alternating short and tall books. If you like to stack books on the floor or on tables, consider lying tall books on the bottom and shorter books on the top.

Genre/subject
If you favor certain kinds of books, try categorizing your books based on genre or subject. Depending on your own collection, you might decide on general categories, such as fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art. You can also get more specific with niche genres, such as dystopian fiction, romance novels, or fairy tale-themed books.

Personalized
You can use a combination of your favorite methods to organize and display your books. You can divide books up by genre and then alphabetize them, or maybe you want to organize your stacks by color and publication date.

How do you organize your shelves? Take a shelfie and show us!