Let me be clear that when I say battle, I mean with myself.

But it’s not the first fight on this specific topic, and it won’t be the last.

My battle is purely with myself, though, as I do not think what anyone, not even Mari Kondo herself, thinks of my home or my stuff, but about how it makes me feel.

And to be clear, KM never did say you can only have X number of books (she said she herself prefers no more than 10, which people took out of context).  She DID say in her experience that if you don’t read a book soon after acquiring it, you likely won’t, which is arguable.  My biggest issue is her statement on rereading- I read ALL THE TIME, but that’s another post for another day.

My library corner circa 2020.

But I’m not even talking about what to keep.  I’m talking about how to arrange them.

If you ask a group of 10 book lovers how they prefer to store their books, you will probably get 10 answers.  Alphabetical by title.  Alphabetical by author.  By topic.  By size.  By color. 

To date I have been following this super complicated (well, easy to do, complicated to explain) system.  All books on a shelf must be roughly the same height.  Then the books I like/treasure most are at the top.  Books I don’t like or haven’t read yet are at the very bottom.  All are grouped by series and author when the size restraints allow.

But this causes visual disturbances that, I will admit, disturb me.

Lets take for example my biggest beef with Sarah J. Maas (other than her frequent use of the phrase “he was mine and I was his”).  I have first editions of the entire Throne of Glass series, and they have serious pride of place.  BUT all of the covers are various harmonious dark tones UNTIL YOU GET TO THE LAST ONE.  Which is bright yellow.

My bookish little heart doesn’t want to break up the series.  But it bugs my eyeballs.

Recently, as an experiment, I decided to put my single shelf of trade paperbacks (the shorter paperbacks) in rainbow order.  While it broke up my reading copy of the Game of Thrones series, I really don’t hate it.

The paperback shelf is in color order, the shelf below it is not.

But will I do the rest of my books?  That remains to be seen.  I believe I can make them less jarring without messing up my system, but I have not yet tried.

And is there something to be said for a system that lets you easily locate something but that maybe doesn’t look as good?  I think so.  Not every location in my house needs to be instagram worthy.  It just needs to fit with MY personal vision for my house.

And that’s a lesson that you can apply to just about any area of your house.  If the way something looks bothers you and you have the means, then change it.  But if it’s working for you and helping you meet your vision for your home who cares if your books aren’t in rainbow order.