I love books. I love the feel of the pages between my fingers. I love their weight and texture. While Kindle
intrigues me, it also saddens me {and reminds me of Planet of the Apes} because it suggests that one day, books will be extinct.
So I hoard collect them.
There's more on the floor, but I refused to take a picture of my books being treated that way!
Can I get rid of half of them? NO. But, I can rid my shelves of the twaddle {as Charlotte Mason was so fond of saying} and from there, organize. That’s precisely what I did this past week.
Several years back, a friend came over and we organized my books into categories. It was heavenly. Somewhere between a move and a couple more babies, I lost that organization. So, this week my mom came over {thank you, Lord, for moms who like to organize!} and we worked tirelessly through my library, sorting and organizing into such categories as Biographies, Educational, Readers, History, Bible, etc.
This was the result:
I just sat in my rocker and admired the beauty of well-manicured bookshelves.
I also did my cookbook cabinet. It was a scary-bad mess similar to my library, but on a much, much, much smaller scale {remember, I am NOT a foodie}.
Most of the cookbooks are hiding in there somewhere.
I removed all the loose papers, stood the books up on end, and removed the stash of Christmas/Easter/Given-to-us-for-no-good-reason candy I keep “hidden” in there. The candy hit the trash {as it always does about this time of year} and the loose papers hit my Meals Binder {yes, someday I will get around to posting about all my binders…I promise!}
This might convince me to become a foodie!
Frankly, the next day I was feeling the aftermath of all this hard work, but the feeling I get every time I open my cookbook cabinet to get a recipe and every time I go downstairs to get a book is worth every ache in my tired, pregnant body!
So, what have you been decluttering this week?
I love the look of a well ordered bookcase or two. That is one of my favorite focal points in my living room – my bookcase.
Every few years, I go through my books, and always find some that I decide I’ll never read again, or didn’t like, and I give them away. This gives me room for new books as I come across them.
Looks Great Amy! My cookbooks take three shelves of a five shelf bookshelf – a tall one! I guess I AM a foodie – LOL!
I keep all that candy all year long and then use it for those that knock on our door at Halloween! We have always had to give it out cause the one year we were out that evening and didn’t we had our house egged! Hubby decided that some candy with a tract was better than huge bills – and now we are in a rented house it would be worse!!
This way the only money we spend on the day is for the gospel tracts – the candy is FREE!!
Nice job! I have to agree that I would not be able to get rid of half of my books either. We, too, love books!
.-= Debbie´s last blog ..It Is Amazing How Much You Miss What You Get Used To =-.
LOVE IT. Can I have a library card?
I’m still digging out the spare room.
I had a pile for donation in the foyer. Finally took it to the place. No sooner do I come home than I start a new donation pile. Now I have to tell people as they walk past it that this is a “new” pile and the “old” pile has been donated. That doesn’t make any sense! As if the age of the pile makes it more visually appealing when you walk in the door! So now the “new” pile is on it’s way today.
.-= mama4x´s last blog .. =-.
I have the same thing going on, but I keep a trash bag behind my bedroom door where I put everything. When it is full, I move it to the garage, then I donate when I’ve got several bags. It still baffles me how I continue to have a multitude of things to get rid of. Seems kind of sad to have that much stuff.
I’ve become a prepper lately and I want to have more ROOM. I want all the closets to be roomy. I want all the cabinets to be roomy. I want all the storage to have room. I want to get rid of stuff and get a little more MARGIN in my visual life. GOTTA. GET RID. OF MORE!
.-= mama4x´s last blog .. =-.
Your bookselves look GREAT Amy! I looove when things get organized!! And I spotted your MOMYS cookbook in your cabinet
Oh, and I giggled out loud when I read your “planet of the apes” comment! Makes me sad too!
.-= Grace Wheeler´s last blog ..How We Used To Do Chores–Chore Cards =-.
Today I decluttered for about 15 minutes (thank you, Flylady). My husband and I have a 5 mo. old and friends and family have been so kind as to donate used baby items to us. Gifts like that tend to pile up, so today I decluttered some baby clothes, burp rags, etc. that I did not love or use. Yay!
It’s that time of year isn’t it? Something about spring makes me want to get rid of stuff.
Last week I went through everyone’s clothes (even my hubby’s!), took inventory, and got everyone ready for summer. We also went through the playroom and I weeded out LOTS of stuff when they weren’t looking. They haven’t even noticed! But there is a lot more room in there and less of those stupid little useless toys that don’t seem to do anything but make a mess (I’m talking to you, Barrel of Monkeys).
Next up – the kitchen!
.-= Deb´s last blog ..Not Inadequate =-.
This week I cleaned out ALL of my craft stuff. Talk about a project. It took me 2 full days with NO kids around to “help.” At 36wks pg…this was NOT fun. But I am so glad it is done!
Today I cleaned out my summer clothing stash. Yep, over half of it gone! Thanks for the inspiration.
looks great! I love organization….I do….I just never seem to make the time in my own home. Why is that?? Guess that is just how it goes
.-= valerie´s last blog ..Modesty and our boys. =-.
Wow! You gals are doing awesome! You are definitely keeping me going as I tend to look around and see how much I still have to do rather than focusing on how much I’ve done already.
It feels so good to get things in order. We moved in January and I still haven’t sorted through my books. I put the ones we need for the year on a shelf and that’s it. In this particular house we have a room called the library. So grateful. It is an office sized room lined with book cases. Though I have more room for books I do want to get rid of the “twaddle”. I’ve never been one to buy it in the first place but somehow over time it accumulates. I am off to our local homeschool convention in 2 weeks so this is motivating me to purge prior to adding new stuff.
Your finished pictures gave me the inspiration…looks great!
.-= Sandi@A Mother’s Musings´s last blog ..Beautiful Day =-.
My dream is to someday have a REAL library! (complete w/ one of those sliding library ladders! lol)
So, I’m really glad to see another family has as many books as we do. The little one likes to pull out all the book and watch them fall to the ground so our shelves never stay too organized. Every once in a while the look great though! You did a fantastic job!! Makes me want to sit in a comfy chair and read!
.-= Christine (iDreamofClean)´s last blog ..Cleaners You Can Make At Home (Guest Post) =-.
Yes, the littles do not help the book situation at all. It is down in the basement, so that helps some since they spend most of their time on the main floor, but when they do go down there, it ends up a mess!
I love it! Another thing you could do, within your categories, is then put the books by color. I saw this on another blog and it looks fabulous!
I got rid of 20-something cookbooks that I never open, and pared myself down to about 7 plus my big family cooking notebook (3″ binder!) of the things I actually DO cook. I am not a foodie either.
And is that a very, very old ‘Dinner’s in the Freezer’ cookbook I see? (with black comb binding?) I have one of those too.
.-= Dawn´s last blog ..Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School =-.
Nope, not a Dinner’s in the Freezer…not sure what it might be that you saw.
Our last big interstate move, we did get rid of nearly 50% of everything we owned. It was bliss! We’ve added two more people since then, and it’s an on-going process, but deciding to clear out half of everything really does work.
For donations, I use a large re-usable shopping bag (ours was a freebie at a community fair last year). It stays in the vestibule of the house, filling gradually, and then one of my minions–erm, the beloved children–moves it to the car for drop off next time we’re headed downtown.
We’re getting ready to get rid of another 50%… selling off every speck we can from a rented storage unit, with the goal of getting rid of the unit altogether. Why am I paying money to go visit stuff I don’t use??
.-= Liz C´s last blog ..In Which I am a Church Lady =-.
Good for you! I’m getting ready to tackle the kitchen today.
I do find; however, I have to “hide” the things I am giving away because the children will sift through it all if I’m not careful!
Oh, my, YES.
It’s particularly bad with clothing. The bag does get hung up on a hook that’s out of the eyeline of my 5yo (the biggest “retriever”), which helps a lot. She and the 2yo would drag everything back in, otherwise.
.-= Liz C´s last blog ..In Which I am a Church Lady =-.
LOL! I laugh because you had enough guts to actually post a picture. I couldn’t do that. Your shelves look like mine. I wish I had a friend who would come help me, or my mother was close enough to come and keep me company while I worked on my stacks of books.