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It is a truth universally acknowledged that any furniture in possession of a flat surface must be in want of clutter.
At least in my house... What about yours?
For years, hubby and I have been mystified by the phenomenon and are now very careful about any new furniture purchases. If one of us spots an interesting piece of furniture that would look fabulous in our home and the other one of us says 'flat surface'-- we know immediately what that means-- and we don't buy it.
This summer, I decluttered every flat surface in sight. Feeling quite pleased with my efforts, I searched in vain for a parking place for one last bag of vintage books I had discovered hidden under a load of desk funk.
Can you guess what now occupied all the newly decluttered flat surfaces? Yep, books! Vastly preferable to clutter but for a self-professed library girl, I sure have accumulated a passel of books since starting this blog.
At least in my house... What about yours?
For years, hubby and I have been mystified by the phenomenon and are now very careful about any new furniture purchases. If one of us spots an interesting piece of furniture that would look fabulous in our home and the other one of us says 'flat surface'-- we know immediately what that means-- and we don't buy it.
This summer, I decluttered every flat surface in sight. Feeling quite pleased with my efforts, I searched in vain for a parking place for one last bag of vintage books I had discovered hidden under a load of desk funk.
Can you guess what now occupied all the newly decluttered flat surfaces? Yep, books! Vastly preferable to clutter but for a self-professed library girl, I sure have accumulated a passel of books since starting this blog.
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Stack of library books and mags by the front door.jpg)
one end of my desk....jpg)
The other end of my desk-- and no I'm not writing a children's book. Hubby checked it out from the library on my behalf... poor deluded man..jpg)
More of a curved surface but flat enough for hubby's stack of project books from the library..jpg)
More books and a few of my little boy's hats. The hats have since found a better home and there is now a stack of books in the middle..jpg)
From my thift store shopping sister-in-law-- do people give you books all the time? I love it but just need more shelves!!.jpg)
A new set of books for my child and free mags from the library..jpg)
Even the little red wagon is not immune! These books came from the county library's spring sale and from a school library sale. Most are discards. I always feel the need to give discards a good home, don't you.My little stack of vintage treasures were about to end up in the wagon as well until...
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I walked into the office and had an epiphany while gazing in despair at our overcrowded bookcase. Can you believe there was a stack of phonebooks taking up precious space? Huge city phonebooks-- like from Dallas, Tulsa, Oklahoma City ect. All years out of date and we don't even use phonebooks anymore. So in a trash bag they went-- What a great feeling! (I'll be posting about these little books-- one is a Robert Louis Stevenson Reader and one is a beautiful edition of Little Princess.)
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I've spotted even more potential real estate on the bookcase. All these gardening books can be stored in a bin in my 'outdoor closet' (outbuilding) since I rarely need them for reference. Can't wait to tackle reorganizing this bookcase! So what is on every flat surface in your home: clutter or books? Do you have potential real estate that can be reclaimed on a bookcase?
Funny, I had been planning a post similar to this. Wait until you see!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you're in for some fun reorganising your shelves. I love seeing other people's bookshelves!
ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteOh, my! I'm a huge stacker, too! Sometimes books even go on the floor around my bed because the bedside table is too cluttered with other stuff.
You know, this reminds me of another book I read about organisation styles. There are some people who are just natural stackers, apparently. Let me see if I can find it . . .
I love your Pride and Prejudice reference. ;)
ReplyDeleteStacks and clutter and junk and toys all over the place drive me crazy, and yet . . . you should see my house. I want to move and leave it all here and start over with Much Less Junk (but I'll bring all the books with me).
Thanks Kathy! I'm a big P&P fan-- and funny lines from the book will pop into my head for no apparent reason (even while driving) and make me laugh. So mashing this line up with clutter really tickled me.
ReplyDeleteClutter makes me crazy too and normally it stays in check-- but with blogging this past winter/spring it got way out of hand-- blogging is so much more fun than housekeeping! I vote for less junk AND a bigger house-- with a wee bit more living space BUT a ton more storage!!!
DeLynne-- if it is what I think it is I can't wait to see it!
ReplyDeleteBooksploring-- Me too! I'll be posting more photos of my project and other shelves around my house.
E-- typically I am quite organized-- well, I am very good at organizing and I love to organize--I just do it sporadically. ;o)
Stacking is best the way to go-- more books fit on a shelf that way-- and in odd places, stacks are neater and more attractive than scattered willy nilly.
All flat surfaces in my house have at least one book sitting there patiently waiting for its turn on a shelf. Sadly I ran out of shelf space years ago. Fortunately my son is going to college in a few weeks so his shelves will be cleaned out, and all flat surfaces that used to be his will house my overflowing books; after all where else do you but books?
ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI like to fit books into shelves by letting some stand and stacking the rest like bookends--or making others stand on top of the stacked ones. I get more out of my limited space that way!
I'd take a picture to show you . . . but I'm having a disorganised week! ;-)