Getting the arrangement right

April 30, 2026 by
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I have the majority of my cookbook collection on five bookshelves all in one room. The other day I had the urge to rearrange the room (it’s a spare bedroom), so everything got a deep clean and each book was taken off the shelf, dusted, and stacked on the floor, the bookshelf was wiped down, and then I put everything back. However, it wasn’t just a matter of proceeding one shelf at a time – I moved all of the bookshelves, which meant that I had precariously stacked books strewn across the floor with almost no room to maneuver around them.

The CookShelf app was invaluable to help get everything back in the correct order (organized by author) – it was easy to sort by author, follow along in the app. and grab the book I needed rather than look at each book and try to determine where it belonged. (Did I mention that the stacks were not neatly organized?) Score another one for CookShelf. Also, the app made me realize that I had neglected to add some recent acquisitions to my Bookshelf, so I was able to remedy that as well.

I usually reorganize the bookshelves once or twice a year as my collection grows and changes. I tell myself I need to let one book go if I acquire another one, but I don’t always follow this rule. My husband thinks I’m mad to move half a ton of books that often, but like Goldilocks, I’m always in search of the “just right” arrangement. Also, it provides me an opportunity to handle every book so I can think about whether I really need it. Usually the answer is yes, but I was able to find a handful of volumes this time around to donate to the local charity bookshop. The shelves are all slightly less crowded – for the time being. Do you go through a similar exercise with your cookbook collection, and if so, what’s your process?

Category: Antipasto

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10 Comments

  • janecooksamiracle  on  May 1, 2026

    Couple of years ago I sorted my cookbooks by colour 🌈 looked really lovely and decorative.
    Couldn’t find ANYTHING 😀
    Last month I sat on the sofa and, using EYB, read out the titles A-Z whilst my daughter ran from side to side putting them in the new order 😀

  • kprovost  on  May 1, 2026

    I like to keep my baking books separate from the cook books. I also group them by author if they’ve written several (Half Baked Harvest, Nigella, Ottolenghi, Molly Yeh, etc) The problem arises when Otolenghi comes out with a baking book! Which collection to put it with?

  • LeilaD  on  May 1, 2026

    Alphabetically by series (by title if not part of a series) and then whether or not it fits on that shelf or if I have to move it up one. It’s a little ad hoc, but I know where everything is.

  • Sloober  on  May 1, 2026

    Most of my cookbooks are by color, but i have around 2 shelves of books that are pretty small that are on a seperate shelf than the others, because my OCD doesn’t allow tiny and big books next to eachother on the same shelf, lol

  • hillsboroks  on  May 1, 2026

    I have also separated my baking books from my cookbooks and have gone another step to put all the pie books together, same for cakes, cookies, general baking, foreign baking, bakery books, savory baking and a few other smaller categories. My cookbooks are arranged somewhat the same. I have a large section of Pacific Northwest books because that’s where I live and the rest of the American cookbooks are grouped by region. Then I sorted all the European cookbooks into countries and put all the books by the same author together so my UK region has a bunch of Diana Henry books as well as some other British books and these are right next to sections for Scottish books and Irish books. French cookbooks are next to Italian and Spanish cookbooks. Then come the Middle Eastern books. I have all the Asian books sorted the same way so I can go right to my Chinese, Japanese or other Asian cookbooks In every section of my cookbook library an author with multiple cookbooks books has all of their books together. But if they do a baking cookbook it goes in the appropriate area of the baking books. This system has worked for me for years and I rarely have to spend much time looking for a book amongst my 600 or so physical books.

  • DromJohn  on  May 1, 2026

    kprovost, your dilemma is solved.
    https://www.eatyourbooks.com/library/265331/baking—the-meaning-of

  • mmkay.cooks  on  May 3, 2026

    Mine are all arranged in different groupings, and alphabetized within their grouping.
    I’ve got a section where the books are arranged by region or country.
    A section where the books are arranged by the type of cooking, ie grilling, baking.
    Another section for books that are dedicated to a specific type of food, ie salads, finger food/appetizers, soup.
    Then I’ve got another section for the books that are mostly instructional. Then I’ve got one shelf dedicated to binders and the books that are bound with those plastic spiral systems, plus a couple of odd small ones that get lost easily.
    Pretty much everything else is grouped together arranged alphabetically by author – those kinds of cookbooks that don’t really adhere to any of my other group definitions.

    That arrangement, plus this site, helps make everything very easy to find for me. It makes sense to me but can understand why it would be confusing for anyone else, heh.

  • sanfrannative  on  May 5, 2026

    I go by color…I can find everything easily that way and it looks great! I think of cookbooks by their color–I think that’s why it works for me. An interior decorator we hired even took some inspiration from a photo of it.

  • ASHCOSHWEIN  on  May 6, 2026

    I have an idiosyncratic way of organizing my cookbooks. They are organized by themes, such as breakfast, bread, beverages, chocolate, baking, ethnic, celebrity chef, etc., and then alphabetically either by author, title or other designation (such as type of cuisine in my international section). It drives my husband crazy but I am the one who uses them and have them organized by the way that I would look for them. My cookbook collection is kept in 4 bookshelves in my dining room.

  • helen114761  on  May 7, 2026

    I tend to have all the books by one author
    I have a savoury and a baking shelf in the kitchen ( about 25 books )
    everything else is elsewhere on the living room book shelves
    EYB has been brilliant for finding the actual recipes!

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