Whether you’re in an office, or at home; if you own a bookshelf it’s probably cluttered with books, DVD’s or other objects wasting space. I’m sorry to say it, but you might have to get rid of it. Firstly, you should take everything off the bookshelf and organise everything so it’s in a nice order. For example, put all DVD’s together, all books together and so on.


Now it’s time to clean your actual shelf. If you’ve not cleaned it for years, then this might be a little trickier than if you clean it regularly. All you’ll be needing is a damp cloth and some cif (if it’s really dirty). Use the damp cloth to clean all the dust and dirt off the shelves. Dust should be easy, but there could be scruffs that need removing which is where the cif comes in.


Now that the shelf is clean, it’s time to sort through everything that was on the shelf. You won’t want to get rid of everything, but you will need to dispose of some things by either binning them, giving them to a charity of selling them. DVD’s are easy because you will most likely remember whether it’s worth re-watching them. If it’s a bad film, and quite an old one then you should bin it or give it to charity. If it’s a bad film and new, then you might want to sell it or give it to charity. On the other hand, if it’s a good film but you can’t see yourself watching it again then you should sell it. If it’s good, and you know you will watch it again then keep it.


In my opinion, it’s harder to sort through books. They seem to have more of a personal value than a film, which means you will often end up keeping a book you don’t even like for unexplainable reasons which result in an increased amount of clutter. Charity shops love books, so any that you don’t need you should donate to charity. If it’s not been read for a year or considered to be read for a year then just get rid of it. If you plan to read it, or have recently read it then you should keep it. A general rule of thumb is that if there’s so much dust on a book that you can’t see the paper in its original colour then just get rid.


When your shelf is dried, get your books and DVD’s back onto your shelf. You’ll find a lot more space and manoeuvrability to either store other things or put a plant on the shelf.