The Great Bookshelf Upgrade

It has been a goal of ours for several years to put built in bookshelves in our living room.  We are book people.  We like to read. We like books and like to keep the ones we buy for the most part.  So when we had an unexpected bit of cash to spend on the house, I knew what we would be doing. It took a while to get them installed because the contractor we chose was insanely busy. So basically one year after we told him to go ahead and build them, we got them installed. I have to say it was worth the wait.  They look great and he put a ton of details in them so I'm quite sure we have added value to our house should we decide to sell.  However, I love them so much I don't think I'll want to sell anytime soon.

It took me about a week to sort the books in the house and get them back on the shelf. I am not sure that I have finished putting things the way I want them, but I'm happy enough to post pictures to share.

So here is the project from start to finish.  This is what it used to look like.  The cabinets were not bookshelves but as you can see, we had them packed to the gills.

The removal of books is complete.  They are now in boxes with the knowledge that I will have a lot of sorting to do when the bookshelves arrive.

And the final finished product yet to be filled with books and such.

And here it is filled with stuff.

February and I hit a bit of a snag

The month we had two things that have caused chaos at our house.  The first is that we were awaiting the installation of new bookshelves for our living room.  We had two smaller pieces of furniture – neither of which were actual bookshelves – that were holding about 70 percent of our books.  We expected that the built ins would be able to hold about 90 percent of our (non-children’s) books that were either on the shelves or in boxes, baskets, or piles scattered throughout the house.  In addition to this, it was my husband’s month to host the monthly poker game.  As a last minute change, I agreed to host the monthly Bunko game at our house to resolve a scheduling conflict with another host.  So there has been a lot of upheaval, moving, cleaning, etc.  I have decided to put my big de-cluttering effort on hold for the greater goal of having a presentable house for hosting two events.  A very wise Bunko gal gave me this liberating nugget, “Your house does not have to be clean.  It only needs to look clean”. 

The exception to this de-cluttering slow down was the office.  Our home office is connected to the only bathroom downstairs and since the boys poker game is held downstairs, people would by necessity have to see our office.  The office has long been used as our junk room or dumping ground for stuff we needed to deal with but wanted to simply get out of the way.  So we focused our energy of cleaning up and clearing out the office by the end of the month and we made it.  We took at least 6 bags of trash or recycling out of the office.  And I filed a stack of papers that was at least 24 inches tall.  At the bottom I found some class action stock paperwork that I needed to have completed by 2009.  This is what the ReSpace blog refers to as the cost of clutter.  I’m pretty sure we were not going to get much out of the class action deal but one does not willingly pass up a few bucks for the effort of filling out a form.  Unless you can’t find the form.  Lesson learned.

The bookshelf units were installed in late February and it took a little over a week to get them stocked.  In the process, we rounded up books from all over the house and sifted through our collection rather methodically.  Just because we have all this space doesn’t mean we need to fill every square inch.  We selected 61 books to go to our local used book store as well as 4 books on tape.  We also had 4 books that went in the recycle bin because who really needs a 1996 Almanac in 2011?

So the total for this month is 5 items donated; 65 items to consignment; 1 large piece of furniture sold ($200 buys a lot of organizing supplies); and numerous bags of trash and recycling which I didn’t count as items but I guess I could have.  So even though I wasn’t sticking to my one item a day quota, I did manage to meet it with 71 items.  The running total is 206 items.  Next month I will need to get out my spring clothes and get lean and mean.  I still have the great luggage clean out to come as well.

Justify Your (Stuff’s) Existence

The game of Justify Your Existence is something my husband I started when I moved into his house.  I had a small one bedroom apartment that was completely full.  He had a house that was complete but not packed to the gills (yet).  The first thing we did was try to combine the two kitchens.  And that’s when we noticed that something was definitely going to have to go.  Enter the game of Justify Your Existence.  We started going through things by category and figuring out what was worthy of staying in our combined kitchen.  For example, we pulled out all the casserole dishes.  We had large, small, glass, and ceramic; dishes with lids and dishes without lids.  We had ones that came with a server cradle for putting on the dining room table.  In all we had 10 different casserole dishes.  We decided that we needed half as many.  So we ended up keeping the one with a lid and the serving cradle as well as a various sized dishes with lids.  We repeated the process with the pots and pans, small appliances, and many other kitchen items until we got to the point that we could fit everything in the kitchen without having stuff crammed into every cabinet.

We have since used this technique to cull many items over the years.  I like the fact that it forces you to pull out all the items and look at them as a collection and then ask yourself “do I really need this many of this item?”  If you are a person who has stuff scattered amongst different closets, rooms, and the attic, having everything spread out on the table or floor is a good way to really see what you have and pick out the best and most functional representations.  If getting rid of half of something seems too overwhelming, try 25% or even 10%.  My next post will detail a recent episode of Justify with our absurd number of suitcases, duffel bags, totes, etc.

De-cluttering - the first 31 days

The first month of de-cluttering has been great. I love the liberating feeling that I get from purging stuff. I have a fondness for organized closets, cabinets and drawers. Although I feel like I’m always fighting my genetic predisposition to keep everything. My parents are both keepers of things; however, neither is a hoarder.  In fact, as far as pack rats go, they are pretty neat and orderly. My desire to have an orderly house overrides my desire to keep everything. In undertaking this project, I hope to keep what matters and only what matters and to make this a part of my everyday thought process.

I managed to purge a total of 135 items from the house.  I have a feeling that this month was easy because I had so much to clear out. I fear that this month represents a superficial purge and a bigger challenge awaits as I dig deeper.  I think I’m going to have some hard decisions about things that are sentimental. 

The items I purged went to consignment, Goodwill or recycling:

Consignment or trade – 60 items including books, kid’s clothing, kid’s shoes, big plastic toys, women’s clothing and shoes.  I’ll find out in a few months how much my purge yields when it sells.

Goodwill – 68 items including toys, kitchen items, home décor, holiday decorations, kids clothing, kids shoes, women’s clothing and shoes.

Recycling - 7 magazines (this is just the tip of the catalog/magazine iceberg)