If you don’t have a lot furniture or money to buy new furnishings, there are some other ways you can decorate your home. Besides plants, books are a terrific way to add character and some substance to your personal space. In other words, create a private library at home that you can use or simply just look at.

If you have acquired a lot of books over the years — be it paperback, coffee-table books or novels — you can use them all to create the perfect home library.

Here’s some steps on how to begin:

  1. Gather all of your books and put them in the middle of the floor.
  2. Start sorting your books into piles of rough categories: reference, cooking, fiction, history, etc.
  3. Within each category you may find several subcategories.
  4. Look at the “undecided” pile and see if any of those titles fit better into a subcategory than into the rough categories.
  5. You are now ready to shelve your books.
  6. Try to keep rough categories together, with subcategories on their own separate shelves. Group books alphabetically within each subcategory by author.
  7. Don’t worry about keeping books in size order, but if you are doubling up on your bookshelves, try to keep the paperbacks in front.
  8. If you have a lot of smaller paperback books, stack them on their sides, face up, with the spines facing you. This will prevent bending.
  9. If you find that one some books are larger and heavier, place those categories on lower shelves.
  10. Bring in a comfy chair to curl up and read in along with a few pillows, and some simple, inexpensive artwork for the walls.
  11. Finally, think about which volumes you want on view. Your library says a lot about you, and visitors often like to look through other people’s books.

Now that you’ve get your own personal library set up, grab a cup of your favorite hot beverage, put on your slippers and comfy sweats. Sit back in that chair you hauled in, choose one of your favorite books and kick back for a while.

Every once in a while you can avert your eyes from the page and look around at what you have created — your own place to relax and take a breathier after a long day.  Take solace in knowing you’ve got your own personal library at home and you can check out a book anytime you like without having to worry about returning it on the due date or being fined if you don’t!

When you get a new book be sure to add it to your library’s collection and watch it grow before your very eyes. Before you know, it will be huge with offerings from A to Z — literally!

You can even invite friends and family over to look at what you have done and don’t be surprised if they want to borrow a few of your books!