Bookshelf Organization {My House}

I am not a fan of clutter. I know that may come as a shock to anyone that has been to my house in the past say three years. With kids come clutter. I blame them. But I really don't like clutter. When we bought our house, I instantly didn't like the bookshelves that surround our fireplace. They were just screaming to "catch" things, to become a sight for sore eyes. 

At first I took the approach of keeping them empty because I thought it would be way to busy to have things on them. Then Ian took over the shelves by the front door. They became his dumping grounds for anything and everything. To deal with this, I threw a bunch of books on the shelves. I was glad to have the random stacks of paper gone, but still wasn't thrilled with the bookshelves. 

I forgot to take a before shot, but this gives you an idea of what I was working with. Random crap everywhere. 

I kept trying to think of ways to help the shelves. My biggest idea was painting or decorating the wall behind them somehow. Then a couple weeks ago I stumbled across an article about organizing bookshelves in Better Homes & Gardens (It may shock you that I get this magazine, but it was a free subscription so I signed up) and it reignited my flame for doing something with these bookshelves. 

Literally a day later, my favorite organizing blog - I Heart Organizing - did a whole post on organizing shelves. It was then and there I decided I needed to do something about the shelves. 

Basically I started turning books on their sides and stacking them and looking for things around the house to set on the shelves with the books to make it look cool. I am very happy with how it turned out. It looks so much more put together. 

And I like that some sentimental things are able to be on display. I don't have many sentimental things in my life, so its nice to see some of the things that I do have. 

And another angle of the bookshelves all done up. I seriously love looking at them now. They make me happy...and make me feel like a semi clean, organized and decorative person!

 

P.S. Sorry for the crazy bright shots. I swear I didn't use a flash. Our windows face the wall and apparently on bright days, look like a flash.