Today was book day. Actually, I think yesterday may have been book day. Somehow I seem to have gotten off by a day. In any case, today was the day I finished work at a decent time and immediately turned on happy tunes and tackled my bookshelves.
As a reminder, here’s the “before” shot. I had books on every one of the shelves in the tall section, and then a bunch more on two shelves in the wider section.
The shelf in the middle where the magazine holder and Ott light are sitting also had books stacked in there, which is a bit of a problem as the light switch for the room is inside that shelf. (The shelves were put in a few years after we moved in.)
The books on the shelves in the wider section were very difficult to access and often ended up totally hidden behind stacks of things in that corner.
My first step was to do an initial fast sort into three piles: “Keep,” “Give,” and “?”. I thought “Give” sounded better for me emotionally than donate, as “give” makes me think of gifting these things to others who will really enjoy them. The question-mark pile was for the ones I couldn’t make a fast decision on, and seeing where the other two piles ended up gave me a sense of how many more I really should get rid of.
Once I finally got all the question-mark pile sorted as well, I was pleased to see that my Give pile was nearly as big as my Keep pile.
Top pic: Give pile. Most significant here is the set of Rodale quilt books (bottom of the back). Those were my Mom’s and I’ve been hanging onto them since she passed away in 2009. They reminded me of her so I had a lot of sentiment around them early on. I realized this week that the sentiment was pretty much gone—I have other quilty things from my Mom (most significantly, my sewing machine) and I can let the Rodales go now. I hope someone finds them really helpful.
Lower pic: Keep pile.
Yep, it looks big, but not nearly as big as the stack of books off the shelves in the first place!
The ones that were toughest to figure out were all my art quilting and hand-dyeing books. I started out thinking, “Have I gotten everything I need out of these books? Will I be doing any of this again anytime soon given my schedule?”
But when I pictured myself getting rid of them, I realized I wasn’t quite ready to get rid of that part of me yet—that part of me that enjoys exploration, experimenting, and playing. So I kept them. They make me happy.
Finally, I re-sorted the books that are staying and put them back on the shelves.
Look how neat and organized. And I can get at my light switch again. Those two wide shelves in the back can now be used for something else.
And there’s room … because I will keep buying books—I know me too well!
Next: Patterns. That should go fast. I don’t plan on keeping much. Stay tuned.