Bookshelf Organizing Fail... x5

So in the past two months, I have attempted to reorganize my bookshelves a total of five times.

First attempt: This attempt was sort of half hearted-I kind of just put the books randomly on the shelves.

Second attempt: About a week after the first attempt, I realized that I actually had twice as many books as were on my shelves; they were all piled up next to my bed and in random places around my house! So yeah. I, again, just stuffed them on the shelves. In stacks. In front of the other books.

Third attempt: After a week and a half of ignoring the dismal state my bookshelves were in, I decided to totally reorganize them. By genre. Like, children's books on one shelf, series books on another, about fifteen Nancy Drew books on the next, then sci-fi, adult books, etc. Which wasn't the best idea because my books are unevenly distributed by subject and lots of them fit in more than one category.

Fourth attempt: Two days later, I realized the flaws with my previous method. Then, I decided I would just organize them by where they fit. Which worked great. For about two weeks.

Fifth attempt: Yeah, two weeks later, I went on a major book-buying spree and spent about eighty dollars on books from Barnes and Noble, various garage sales, and two resale shops. I bought a total of ten books. Which is pretty great, considering that maybe eight of them had never even been opened before... But anyways, I had to once again reorganize my bookshelves. Currently, they look quite neat. But I plan on buying more books over the summer, and I don't want to give up ANY of them, so...

Wish me luck.

~Ellen