found space

[velvetpage]

I just reorganized large sections of the living room-dining room.

I threw out some stuff, though not too much - I didn't have to empty the kitchen garbage can to finish the job. I moved some stuff upstairs, though again, not much - an old laptop that had been sitting on top of the piano for over a year, and a few things that properly belonged in an office. Everything else, including at least a hundred books, is still in that room. But it looks much more organized and much neater. The answer?

Found Space.

Last year, when Elizabeth was at the creeping-and-grabbing stage, I made screens for two white pressed-board bookcases out of the same fabric that created my curtains. It's a very nice toile that complements my decor. I attached these screens to the bookcases using stick-on velcro. The result is a visually receding storage nook that the baby didn't realize held something she wanted.

Well, I took a look at those bookcases today, and realized something significant. They are deep enough to hold two rows of paperbacks comfortably.

Now, I hate stacking one row of books in front of another. It looks at least as messy as having piles of them around. But these doubled-rows didn't look messy, because they were behind the screens. I immediately set to work moving the vast majority of the paperbacks in the living room onto these shelves. Then I moved music books onto one vacated shelf, various display sets (Narnia and LOTR, specifically) and big leather-bound anthologies onto another, and agreed to go to Ikea tomorrow to purchase more CD boxes to match the ones we already have. I moved everything that wasn't a cookbook off the top of the white bookcases, threw out one set of ugly bookends and replaced them with pretty carved wooden ones from the top of the piano where they were no longer needed, moved some pretty wooden boxes, some framed pictures and a crystal bowl or two onto the piano, and generally straightened.

Still to do: purchase new CD boxes to fill the shelf formerly occupied by my L.M. Montgomery collection. This has moved to a vacated shelf, so they will still be on display. Then we need to organize the CD's and make discreet labels for the boxes (my Christmas music collection will fill one entire drawer, and my classical collection will fill two). When all of that has been done, it will be possible to create a display on the mantlepiece. Every time I've tried this in the past, it has been sabotaged by Piet's whim to display incoming Christmas cards around the candles. I do not understand this whim. How am I supposed to burn my candles with all that paper around??? In any case, this year I'll tack up a pretty ribbon and clip the cards to that to get them out of the way, and all will be well with my candles. I even have a red silk scarf, legacy of my Christmas season working at Sears a few years ago, to act as a mantle scarf. It will look very nice.

Now if only I can convince Piet that a magnifying glass apparatus for painting miniatures is NOT a display item for the top of the china cabinet. . .

Comments

[kesmun.livejournal.com]

All to the good. Heh.