Organizing a Book Stash

Recently, I reorganized my bookshelves, which included a total overhaul of how I organize my fiber arts books. Previously, there were a couple of knitting shelves, a spinning shelf, a weaving shelf, and a bunch of other books crammed in wherever they could fit. Then there were even more books all over my house...what can I say? I like books!

Organizing reference books has always been a bit of a challenge for me, especially when it comes to textile books. I want to be able to quickly locate garment design books, for example, or my stranded colorwork books. Some books clearly fall into one category, while others could fit into two or even three categories. 

With my recent reorganization, I used new and bigger bookshelves (these), so there was space to split books up into the following categories and sub-categories:

• Spinning
• Books about wool and textiles (mostly books about fashion and/or shepherding)
• Felting
• Surface Design
• Knitting
  • General knitting techniques
  • Memoirs and other tidbits about knitting
  • Garment Design Books
  • Stitch Dictionaries
  • Stranded Colorwork
  • Lace
  • Machine Knitting
• Color Theory 
• Weaving
  • Band weaving
  • Rug and tapestry weaving
  • General weaving books
  • Saori weaving books
• Basketry
• Sewing
• Dyeing

And those are just the books! In the cabinets at the bottom, I've stored some of the more unruly-looking things, like magazines, binders, and notebooks. 

​So far I have been using this system for a couple of months, and it feels a lot easier to use. Not only are books easier to find, but they're more likely to get put away when I'm done with them. Plus, because there's a little bit more space than I need, it just feels more organized. And because the system is modular, it's possible to move, add, and adjust shelves over time. 

Do you have a ton of craft books? How do you organize them? Let me know in the comments!