How to arrange a bookcase
Posted by Jess in
Day to Day
In our list of major projects to accomplish before the kidling arrived was the small task of getting rid of all our mismatched dorm-ish bedroom furniture.
Our house was starting to look like an IKEA catalog anyway, so we went with the momentum and chose the BILLY bookcase series. This was mainly because we also purchased a new wardrobe system and needed the overall height and color matching in the room.
We went from the sublime to the ridiculous; an overstuffed short bookcase to a tall one with apparently too much room. Now what? In usual fashion, I went online and read and read and read.
Here's the key takeaways I learned from the experience.
1. It's overwhelming at first! The best starting point is to first sort your hardbacks from your paperbacks.
You'll be putting them in separate places on the bookshelf anyway, so sort them now and you'll instantly feel less overwhelmed.
1a. NEW STEP, EDITED IN AS AN AFTERTHOUGHT: Now is a really good time to clean out your book collection. Textbooks, particularly household and technical books tend to get outdated very quickly. Do you need them still? Are they still relevant? Can you find the info on the Internet instead? Case in point: While sorting, I stumbled upon a book that was a gift to me while house-hunting, "The 100 Common Mistakes First Time Homebuyers Make and How to Avoid Them." Yes, I read it cover to cover, and it was useful. However, it's been five years, and the market has completely changed. And anyways, should I ever need to buy a house again, I won't be a first-time homebuyer. This two-inch, three-pound book could be donated to help out some other first time homebuyer.
2. Anchor your heaviest books at the bottom.
Tom Clancy fans, your books have a home! In my case, it's the complete set of Harry Potter and Sword of Truth series that took the bottom shelf honors.
3. Next, arrange your leftover hardbacks by height and color, putting the tallest in the middle of the pack and working out. This will balance the arrangement. Do the same with your paperbacks, in a separate space. If you have books that just don't seem like they go with everything else, that's actually good. A little variation helps. I decided to take my over-sized really thick paperback books and stack them, they also make great bookends! (don't forget the really thick hardbacks are on the bottom shelf.) In the picture below, note that the hardbacks and paperbacks are totally separate, and on separate shelves.
4. Baskets are great for battered, dog-eared paperback novels.
I always got made fun of for my insane basket collection. Now I get to go, 'ah-HA!' There's two universal truths about paperback fiction novels. 1. They are usually all about the same size, and 2. They are usually so unsightly from being read that you don't want them in sight (or, in my case, you are ashamed of your inability to resist picking up a new copy of "The Princess Bride" just because it came in a new cover). A great way to hide your ugly paperbacks and even add some variation to your bookcase is to put them all in baskets on the same shelf. It's also a good way to quickly find a good book - just pull the baskets out and see what looks good to grab for a road trip!
5. Finally, put your lightest items and any decorative displays on the topmost shelves, and anywhere else that looks empty. This balances out your bookcase. You may think it will look more cluttered. In actuality, having too many empty spaces will make the bookcase look more cluttered than having all available space used up. This is the essence of balance. And, by putting decorative items at the top, you'll never have to strain to reach for a book - the books are all at reachable levels. When you DO need more room for books, you can just get rid of some decorative items to make room for them.
As you can see, it's actually quite formulaic and simple. However, even with these tips, it still took me all night to arrange this shelf to my satisfaction! I placed items and took a few steps back. I moved more items. I re-arranged, and re-evaluated. Finally, I was happy. We even got extra winter blanket storage by putting baskets on the very top shelf. You'll also notice that I chose to keep the back piece off, to let the color of the walls come through. I have no idea what that did to the stability of the bookcase. Let's hope I never have to find out...!
The finished bookcase:
Five weeks already
Posted by Jess in
Zoë
And so our regularly scheduled programming returns with a five-week status update. Zoë is doing awesome, currently weighing in at 10 pounds, 11 ounces. She's smiling and laughing, enjoys her crib, and generally seems to be a happy kid overall.
I'm back working again, though it's proving tricky balancing work and a newborn. We're on a great pseudo-schedule, which is our attempts to keep things running as smoothly as possible. We go to bed at 10PM, so she goes in her crib (and coo's herself to sleep, it's adorable). Anywhere in between 1:30 and 4:30 she'll wake up hungry. Matt gets up, changes her diaper, and hands her off to me for a feeding in her room while he goes back to bed.
Then, she wakes up for the day anywhere between 6 and 7:30AM. Once again Matt gets up, changes her diaper, and this time brings her to me in bed for a feeding while he gets up and showers. Then, I had her off to him while *I* go shower.
The four of us (Reboot included) hang out on the couch for a bit while we gulp down some coffee, and then Matt's off to work while I do... well, whatever it is I do all day.
Here's some quick notes from the trenches:
- If you ever need to replenish your gift-bag stockpile, have a baby. You never want to be out of gift bags, so you watch your pile. The second it starts to get low, crank that kid out.
How will we know when we are ready for another child? I'm figuring I'll set up a meter rigged to my gift bags. When I reach for a bag, the meter will go down. When it reaches a certain level, an alarm will go off telling us we need to have another baby.
All I'm saying is that we are so fortunate to have such incredible friends and family!
- I owe huge props to my friend Cindy, who called me one day to see how I was doing.
Cindy: "In addition to finding out how things are going, I also wanted to call and tell you that today is Sunday."
Me: "Huh?"
Cindy: "Today is Sunday. I remember I found it immensely helpful when someone called and told me what day it was."
