by: Samantha Leonard | Samantha Leonard Designs
You’ve seen it on TV. You’ve seen it all over Instagram. The trend of organizing your books in ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo, violet) order. As an interior designer and organizer, would I recommend this? Let’s talk about it.
If you have a child, rainbow order is a great way for them to practice & learn colors and allows your child an easy way to put their books back where they belong. I also don’t know many four year-olds that have a collection of books that warrants discernment between mystery and romance. (LOL)
However, if you are an avid reader who loves series and different types of genres, ROYGBIV may not be helpful to you. You may want to keep your JK Rowlings separate from your Colleen Hoovers. (Please do not make me separate my Harry Potter Books!) In this case, your best bet is going to be organizing by series, author, or genre.
Is there a middle ground? Absolutely! In fact, the middle ground is where we are in my 3 year old’s collection of books. We keep her series together, her board books together, and all other books are organized in rainbow order.
When she wants a Fancy Nancy book, she is not going to dig through every single book on her shelf to get to her favorite character series. They are all together in one place. But when she wants to read Ferdinand, she will typically remember that book is red and will go towards the red section of the ROYGBIV books. We even separate any seasonal books from the rest, so they are easy to pull out at the appropriate time (i.e. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, etc.)
My own books are situated by author & series because that is an easy way for me to find what I need. I love the fun aesthetic of rainbow order and have used it as an organizer, but only in the right situations.
As long as you are enjoying your books and giving them the proper display they deserve, the order you choose does not matter. Can you find what you need? Yes? Then, you are doing great!
Cheers to your next read!
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