I'm loving my streamlined bookcase so much.
Sorting through the books and selling so many of them over the weekend has made a huge difference. To you it may not look that much different, but I know what was there, what has gone for good and how it is making me feel.
I guess I need to go around the books I still have and have one final count of them, just to see how many have left the lodge. I am seriously thinking of having a non-book buying year next year, or maybe allowing myself a set number so that I choose wisely and only buy the most important ones.
Yes, there are important books to me and there always will be. 😀
Next on the agenda is checking once again behind closed doors.
I did most of this before the table-top sale on Sunday and added things from under the bed and from the cupboards to the boxes of things that we took with us. But still hidden away in there are the things that wouldn't have been saleable, and I really don't need all of them anymore. My coursework for example for my nutrition courses and recipe files from the Happy Pear courses that I did. I am going to go through all the recipes printouts and only keep the ones that I know I will use again and again.
I did the first folder this morning, this one was full of all the information that you are asked to leave for the house sitters when you leave them in charge of your home and pets. We have decided that we won't be leaving the dogs with other people again now that they are older, instead next year's holidays will include them in our travels. Ginger will be happy to go to Jason's house, or Jason will be happy to come to ours now that he's discovered that our Thursday market has a brilliant and very large bookstall ... and my son is as into books as I am.
I didn't waste any of the paper and recycled it for my own use as shopping lists or just scrap paper. I'm going to have a lot more of these by the time I have gone through the other folders. I may never need to buy note paper again.
Sue xx
That top bookcase still looks pretty full! I only buy books from our local big Cancer UK charity shop now, they're 2 for £1, cheapest I've seen. I use the backs of envelopes and torn off bits of the letters we get (there's usually some blank space down the bottom) for shopping lists, but I do like a notebook for things to do, general lists etc.
ReplyDeleteOh I agree it is full, but now there are no stacks right up to the ceiling of the top shelf, there are no books on top of books and all the little ornaments that used to be stood in front of the books are gone. I've somehow managed to finally use up all my used envelopes, paper magazine wrappers and other random bits that I saved for shopping lists and notes, so this sorting out is being done just in time. :-)
DeleteI do have some nice notebooks in my drawer for any projects or such-like that I decide to do in future. But my scrap paper pads are going to come in very handy.
We have a nice little pile of scratch paper right next to the phone. (Honest side note: Still don't write things down as much as I need to.)
ReplyDeleteI have pads of paper everywhere as I don't have a home phone just a mobile, so where I go the phone goes and I need to try and have access to paper and a pencil. Making notes is what sets things in my memory ... except for shopping lists, I can write them out, forget them and then go completely blank when I'm in the supermarket.
DeleteYour bookcase looks lovely and neat, Sue. I need to go through paperwork and shred some of the old stuff but I keep putting it off. I really need to be in the right frame of mind! Any old excuse..... ;)
ReplyDeleteYes, the amount of paperwork we get these days definintely needs going through regularly doesn't it. I don't bother shredding home stuff, but all the company stuff has to be shredded, that's virtually a part-time job in itself.
DeleteYou're doing so well, Sue. You could make a career or it, I think. xx
ReplyDeleteThank you, I once sort of did. Re-organising the stock rooms and refitting the shop floors of charity shops, the ones that I actually managed and the others in the areas controlled by my Area Manager,
DeleteI need to go through my bookcase in the living room. It contains family history books, frugal living books and what seems to be a great deal of papers right now. It's a right mess. Yours looks very well organized.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It's been whittled away at so many times over the years it's now getting neater and neater ... I wonder what I will do with myself once I get it just right?
DeleteI love to look at other people’s bookcases both for the books and for how they are arranged. You’ve done a great job and have spurred me on yet again to clear out more from mine. Catriona
ReplyDeleteGosh yes, so do I. I I hoping to fit the books on my bedroom bookcase into the cupboard if I can completely empty it soon and then they will be mostly in one place, well except for the cookbooks in the kitchen area.
DeleteOuch!!! I'm not sure that I could stop buying books for a whole year unless I could persuade my family to give me books for presents.
ReplyDeleteWould you allow others to buy you books based on heavily dropped hints?
Maybe I would need to find competitions with books as prizes.( Thanks for the one that you sent me recently just in case my card hasn't arrived yet. I'm fascinated by the historical information in it but not enthused by many of the recipes.)
It would be a wonderful challenge to read especially if you wrote about books that you'd like to buy.
Would you be allowed to get said books at the end of your challenge?
I always give up buying books during Lent but that is a long enough period for me.
Sue
It wouldn't be a challenge as such more of a decision, and no I would not like other people to buy me books even based on 'heavily dropped hints', if they got it wrong I would be mortified.
DeleteI'm glad you got your little book safely, yes the information is good isn't it and a couple of the recipes are actually very tasty.
Beachcomber wrote the above by the way.sorry to miss that out
ReplyDeleteYes, I guessed it was you, thanks for leaving your name Sue/Beachcomber ... you have as many alias's as me!! Only comments with names are being published now so I do appreciate it when people remember. xx
DeleteYour bookshelves put mine to shame in fact you've inspired me to sort mine out over the weekend. xxx
ReplyDeleteIt's eye pleasingly neat at the moment isn't it. I need to repeat the mantra 'Do not buy any books, do not buy any books' over and over and try and keep it that way. ;-)
DeleteWell done. I should go through my books and donate them. I mostly read from the Kindle app on my phone. But there are books that I do love and want to keep for rereading.
ReplyDeleteI sorted out a file drawer in my desk this past week and found loads of sticky (Post-it) and other smallnote pads that we have picked up at shows, fairs. I won't have to buy any the way it looks.
Kay from Nebraska (central USA)
I do have a couple of hundred books on my Kindle App, but I much prefer real books.
DeleteThe bookcase looks very organized. I admire the way you stay on track once you have made a decision. I am still downsizing my book collection too, listing some of the more valuable ones on ebay and taking quite a few to my booth. But I am still buying books! Mostly, thankfully, for 10 cents at a local thrift, and when I have read them they go right back!
ReplyDeleteI think I will always buy books; I just need to have a little break from buying the quantity of books I buy for while. A year off can only be a good thing. :-)
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