We routinely move with over 6000 books. Last move we had the movers shelve many of them, just to get them out of boxes. First step to ordering them was just getting them spine away from the wall.

It reminded me of a funny part in Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, where it says that the housekeeper was good at randomising stuff.

if the painters cared about reading maybe they wouldn't be painters.

Sorry, what a bummer. However.... look at it as playtime. Play with reorganizing them by color, by category, however you want them. Think of it as an adventure because if you are anything like me when reorganizing shelves, you'll discover a few books that you've forgotten about and want to read.

You need an in-house librarian. And lots of wine.

We have a lot of books too and I decided to catalog all of them. So I used this app called BookBuddy+ and slowly but surely I have cataloged way over 2,000 books and I am about 1/2 way done. But it’s nice to know they are cataloged and I learned that I have multiple versions of several books. So it’s time to take a few of them to good will.

Just box the books up and send them to me. PM me for my address. I won’t be bothered by the task of organizing them.

When something similar happened, I reluctantly used an app to help … and it saved my marriage. We used the libib app, scanned in the books into the appropriate sections and then printed that out in alphabetical order. We used our living room to stage the books, so we were motivated to get it done. We stacked books by alphabet and tucked them away.

My normal bookshelves look like that! You're so amazing that you are that organized! I'll be praying for you as you reorganize them because you are one of the reasons why I do what I do with my children. ❤️ (And I've done that pretty well, by the grace of God - They're amazing kids.)

First world problems! It actually may be a blessing in disguise. Moving is one way I've always reacquainted myself with old treasures. Take your time!

I would love to check those book shelves and see the titles

Take heart! You have sifted through the History of the World... you’ve got this! Or just make the kids do it 😉

A great opportunity to visit books you have not been able to visit.

Vandals, Romans, Goths. All assault the libraries.

OH man. I feel you. When we move we are SO careful to label our book boxes. China - maybe we write fragile kitchen. Books, we catalog. you'd swear we had our own dewey decimal system

Did you pay extra for that? It’s not a normal part of painting service.

We are military...have been for 20 years. We’re preparing for what I pray is our last move. I almost can’t stomach it. 11 months ago we moved to Houston. I just got my books arranged the way I wanted when our neighborhood was put under voluntary evacuation because of Harvey flooding. I literally cried as I began stacking my books on the top of the shelves in hopes they wouldn’t flood (we didn’t).

But if you HAVE to sort through and organize something in your house, books might be the most fun! 🙂 Okay, if it were a hundred books rather than thousands, it would be fun. I also would be completely overwhelmed by that! Even with projects of far less magnitude, pushing through that "overwhelmed" stage to get a system going is the hardest part, at least for me. Asking a friend to come over for a few hours to help me get started can really make a difference. Someone not intimately involved with the situation can often think through it more clearly. Plus, having someone else come to help forces you to keep going! And there's the whole moral support and/or misery-loves-company factor. 🙂 Surely you have a friend or two who would not-so-secretly enjoy the idea of helping you sort and organize books! (Not that enjoying the idea of something always translates into enjoying the practice [said every homeschool parent ever on at least a few occasions], but once they are there with you, they're trapped...) 😀

I use my phone to snap pics of things so I remember order

That would definitely earn a ‘do not recommend’ from me!

On the other hand, for me there’s nothing so satisfying and exhilarating as shelves and shelves of books.

Inspired by the encouragement to enjoy the process and enjoy spending time with them.

Been there done that 😭. I had built-ins with adjustable shelves and someone overloaded a top shelf and when it came down it took all the lower shelves down too. I ended up having fixed shelves put in. My built-in was a whole wall and floor to ceiling and full of books. Headache now but it will be great when you get done.

I feel you!! We just moved — 2 masters degrees, 1 PhD, and 18 years of homeschooling...I thought I had everything sorted and labeled correctly, but there are books I still haven’t found .

That looks like my wall Susan.