How I organize my own books

my library wall. It's been reorganized a bit since then

It's been a really long time since I've written about my own library and the way I organize my books. (I feel like I must have written about my books and the way I organize them more recently than that, but I can't find any other posts on this blog.) I currently have 3 full-sized bookcases, 1 small bookcase, one 8-cube organizer, one spine bookshelf, and a couple of random book stacks scattered around my house. For the most part, my books are organized by genre, with some organized by author within the genre (but not always). For instance, I have my Alice, Peter Pan, and Milne books next to each other because they're all childhood favorites. The fantasy authors are grouped together. Each shelf has knickknacks that are the same theme as the books (i.e. Jane Austen stuff with my JA books), with my rainbow bookshelves having non-themed (but mostly bookish) knickknacks in rainbow order (red knickknacks in front of the red books, etc.). 

My three matching tall bookcases hold most of my library. My dad bought them for my siblings and me when we were kids; I had one, my sister had one, and my brothers shared one. Now they're mine. I have them together to form a library wall, and I love it. It's a great place to take pictures for my bookstagram. I know shelving one's books by (spine) color is controversial, but I love the way it looks so much that I don't care. Obviously I could have more than one (3/5th) rainbow bookcase, but I prefer keeping books in my genre and author categories more; it would kill me to split up my C.S. Lewis books, for instance. The books are organized as follows:

Left bookcase:

• top shelf: C.S. Lewis books (by and about) and both my The Hobbit copies
• 2nd shelf: Narnia books. The TCON series I've collected plus books about the Narnia books and movies
• 3rd shelf: Jane Austen books (by and about). Some of the bigger/solid color JA retellings. 
• 4th shelf: unicorn books, George Macdonald books, random fantasy books, Terry Pratchett books, my sole remaining Ga*man book (my 2 Good Omens copies are the bridge).  
• bottom shelf: various large books, a stack of bookish fiction books whose spines look like vintage books, 2 overlapping stacks of fiction and nonfiction books (mostly fiction). 

Center bookcase:

• 1st-3rd shelves: books in rainbow order (ROYGABPP each shelf)
• 4th shelf: Fairytales and fantasy books, 1 book stack
• bottom shelf: picture books, The Wizard of Oz books, thick books, memoirs & biographies, 1 book stack

Right bookcase: 

• top shelf: library and bookish books in rainbow order
• 2nd shelf: more bookish and Jane Austen books, roughly in rainbow order as their spine colors allow (most have multicolored spines)
• 3rd shelf: Alice in Wonderland books, Peter Pan books, A.A. Milne books, Eoin Colfer books
• 4th shelf: comics (Calvin & Hobbes, Garfield, The Far Side, Hark! A Vagrant, Introvert Doodles), Sylvia Plath, more bookish/literary books, a random fiction book stack
• bottom shelf: large books (including Wonder Woman books), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, Susanna Clarke books, stack of linguistics/grammar/punctuation books

I recently moved my small white bookcase to be closer to my library wall, and consequently reorganized the books. 

• top shelf: overflow fiction, Kate DiCamillo books, introvert books, themed/guided journals
• middle shelf: Hispanic & Latine books, mostly fiction with some nonfiction
• bottom shelf: Bibles, Christian & SDA books

My 8-cube organizer/bookcase pulls triple duty as it holds books and media (DVDs plus some of my remaining CDs), and acts as my television stand. As each cube is a foot wide, I have DVDs and books in one side, and books on the other. This means the books in this organizer are generally on the smaller size so I can fit both back to back. 

• Inside top row: DVDs (movies & TV sets), my DVD player, CDs
• Inside bottom row:
• Leftmost cube: P.G. Wodehouse books, Dorothy L. Sayers mysteries
• 2nd from left cube: Sherlock Holmes books, 2 different unrelated book duos
• 2nd from right cube: L.M. Montgomery books (Anne of Green Gables books and others)
• Rightmost cube: E. Nesbit books, Edward Eager magic books, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, another children's book duo
• Outside top row:
• Leftmost cube: Patricia A. McKillip books, Patricia C. Wrede books, The Princess Bride paperback copies (my deluxe copy is with the other big books in the right tall bookcase)
• 2nd from right cube: animal books, including Redwall and Watership Down 
• 2nd from left cube: small poetry and bookish books
• Rightmost cube: Jane Austen books (multicolored spines)
• Outside bottom row:
• Rightmost cube: Ursula K. LeGuin, Tone Almhell, Rosamund Hedge, Robin McKinley books
• 2nd from right cube: Diana Wynne Jones, Madeleine L’Engle, The Hazel Wood books
• 2nd from left cube: Brontës and Brontë-inspired books, random other book/s
• Leftmost cube: dragon books, random book duo

My black metal spine bookshelf holds LGBTQA+ books, mostly in rainbow order except for the top shelf (all ace books in ace flag colors order) and the multicolored/black/white book spines books towards the bottom. 

I have most of my craft books (I may have one or two upstairs) in the bottom shelf of my corner shelves, which hold knickknacks. (Here's what my corner shelves look like. Holy shit that price?!?!?! I bought mine for like $10 at a thrift store lmao.) My teeny tiny mini books are in a tiny white plastic bookshelf on the top shelf. I may do a post on them later.

Book piles with no home: I have a stack of recently purchased picture books on one of my side tables that I keep meaning to read. I also have a pile of random books (mostly historical mysteries) I bought from my library's book sale last year that I've never cataloged or shelved; it's kind of under one of my chairs in the living area. I have a small stack of books I mean to give away or sell. 

I keep my Christmas books in the same place I keep my holiday decorations. My cookbooks (that I basically never use) live in the kitchen.

I know the 'in' thing to do nowadays is to just have a few spaced-out sections and stacks of books staggered on each shelf, accented with chic, modern objects d'art. To me this is a waste of shelf space; fill those puppies up! Artful shelves are for people who aren't book hoarders.

October books

The first book I read in October was Frida A-Z: The Life of an Icon from Activism to Zapotec by Nadia Bailey with illustrations by Susanna Harrison. I got it for my birthday. It's a combination alphabet picture book and biography of Frida Kahlo, where each letter stands for something important in Frida's life. Neither author nor illustrator sounds like they're Mexican (they're both Australian), and this is usually a point of concern for me. There are a lot of (white) women who love Frida Kahlo, but they often don't see past the flower crowns (which she never wore) or the pretty dresses. I feel like latinx women, especially Mexican women, are the ones who best understand what makes Frida so important and special. However, Bailey did her research, and the book did not seem surface-level at all. I actually learned a few new things from this book. When it comes to Harrison's art, however, it was lovely, but she made Frida too pink. Frida's father was German and her mother was of Spanish and indigenous descent, but she was nowhere near that level of white. Clearly Harrison chose the trendy tropical millennial pink aesthetic over actually capturing what Frida looked like (we have so many pictures of her, you guys), and in the process accidentally whitewashed her. Another drawback was that there were no sources listed for the information the author wrote! This is my #1 pet peeve for nonfiction books. Just throw in a list of sources at the end! It's not that hard! Overall, however, this is a beautiful and well thought out book that is a must-have for every Frida fan. The book candidly discusses Frida's injuries, affairs, miscarriages, and bisexuality*, so I wouldn't recommend this as a children's book (it's probably fine for junior high aged kids). 4/5 stars, keeping. Trigger warnings for this book: miscarriages mentions, horrific injury description, body horror, infidelity, smoking, alcohol mention (I think), nudity in some of the art. 

 

The next two October books, which I'm grouping together, are The Home Edit and The Home Edit Life by Clea Shearer & Joanna Teplin. I love organizing and cleaning shows, such as the Marie Kondo show on Netflix, so when I saw Netflix had come out with another similar show, The Home Edit, I had to watch it. Needless to say, I became obsessed, and bought their two books immediately from Barnes & Noble and Target. Similar to the show, the books show off celebrities' huge and beautifully organized kitchens, pantries, closets, etc., and Clea & Joanna share organizing tips to maximize space and display items. There is so much organization p0rn, you guys. I love the books and their rainbow pages, and Clea & Joanna are a delight. My only wish is that they had clearly outlined and depicted exactly the kinds of canisters, boxes, storage organizers, etc. they used, with ideas of how to use each one. If it weren't for the TV show where they show you how they organize rooms, this would be a major drawback for me. However, if you love organizing and Marie Kondo, I'd definitely recommend these books. 4.5/5 and 4/5 stars, respectively; the first THE book gets an extra half star because most pictures include lists of items used for containing. Trigger warnings: none that I can remember

 

*obviously I don't think bisexuality is something to hide from the children! some kids are bi. People are bi, Steven. I just know how some parents get

random: Michelle's Very Productive Sunday

I don't feel like writing a book review, but I wanted to talk about my day yesterday. I often have low energy due to a medical condition, so it's not unusual to be loved by anyone to spend an entire weekend just sitting on my couch watching Amazon Prime videos since I don't have the energy to run errands or clean. However, yesterday was a high energy day, and I was able to accomplish several things:

1. I washed all the dishes in the sink! Well, there's still a few things, but they're of the "this just needs a cursory wash" variety. I've been known to leave dirty dishes filled with water until interesting mold colonies grow in them. I don't believe in drying dishes by hand, so I put them in the dish rack to drip/air dry.
2. I filled my morning pillbox. This is not a big task but I've been known to neglect it. 
3. I organized and rearranged my bathroom counter! I had been procrastinating on crocheting a suitable hemp cord to hang a card catalog drawer on my wall in order to store some of my hair products. I had bought the drawer (it's not really a drawer for a card catalog since there are oval holes bored into each side and no iconic drawer pull/placard situation, but it is related to card catalogs in some way) at my school's library book sale...in Spring 2017. Yes, a year ago. On Friday I finished crocheting and braiding the hemp cord, then strung it through the drawer's holes and hung it from the Command hooks I'd stuck to the bathroom wall shortly after I bought the drawer last year. Then on Sunday, I removed almost everything from my bathroom counter, which you almost couldn't see through the mess, then put everything back in an orderly way. My hair products didn't end up fitting in the drawer due to the hemp cord having to go exactly through the middle to keep the drawer from tipping, so I filled it with smaller thinner things like my glasses cases and sample skin/hair care packets. I put most of my hair products in the shower organizer hung on the opposite wall. I had purchased a fancy oval engraved metal tray from Dollar Tree (it looks SO much more expensive than it is) to organize my bathroom counter in a pretty way, and I put my face products and most-used hair products in it. I also put things in drawers and wherever they are supposed to go, instead of letting them sit on my bathroom counter. I'm very pleased with how everything turned out!
4. I put away the folded clean clothes I had left sitting in my clothes hamper for weeks. Whenever my hamper is full, I take it to my parents' house to use their washer and dryer, then put the clean clothes in the hamper to bring them back to my place. When I leave the clothes there instead of putting them away, though, I don't have anywhere to put my dirty laundry and I end up heaping it on the ground where the hamper usually goes. My hamper is filled with dirty clothes now, so it looks like I'm going to have to repeat the process this weekend...
5. I sorted and put away many of the clothes that were lying on my bedroom floor. I still have to put away some pants and skirts, and figure out what to do with some sweater dresses that I can't really hang, but my floor is way cleaner than it was before. There are still clothes strewn on the floor of my other room, but baby steps...
6. I forgot to say that I made my bed before step #4 and 5, as I use it as a surface to sort my clothes before putting them away. 
7. I rearranged several furniture items in my bedroom. A few days ago I had decided that the location of one of my chests of drawers didn't work for me. I had placed it against the wall facing the window with a mirror on top so I could use it as a vanity and display my prettier makeup products, but my blinds let a lot of light out, and the mirror reflected it, doubling the amount of light keeping me awake at night (I prefer a pitch black room at night and have trouble sleeping when there's too much light). I moved my vanity (a different furniture piece which was below the window) over a few inches, removed everything from the top of the chest of drawers, cleared the path of any obstacles, then dragged the chest of drawers over to be next to the vanity. I then re-placed my vanity items on the chest (along with a lipstick organizer and acrylic makeup drawers organizer that had no home). It looks a bit packed there, as there are some other chests of drawers against the wall perpendicular to the vanity chest of drawers and my vanity, but I checked and all of them have drawer clearance. I had thought of dragging it back to the other room where it used to be, but I want to have as many of my clothes drawers together as possible. 
8. I moved all obstacles and rolled my hanging clothes rack over to where the chest of drawers used to be. It was previously against the middle wall in the other room, which is not load-bearing (and my bed is already against that wall, gritting teeth emoji), and I decided it made more sense to have it be by my closets (I have two tiny closets since my ceiling slopes down A-frame-style). Besides, the wall by my closets is load-bearing. I also went ahead and rearranged the clothes on the rack to be in a certain color order. There is enough room by the clothes rack to...
9. hang my Mexico shadowbox and put up command hooks to hang my Mexican purses. I did the Command picture hanging strip process for the shadowbox and stuck on the Command hooks for two of my purses (I have to wait until I can hang up the shadowbox in order to see where to hang the other purses). 
10. I also hung up a small mirror I'd bought from the cheap front section of Target (it has hearts all over it like my bedspread), a $1 wooden wall decor item that matches my other wall decor, another wall hanging decor item from Target's cheap section, and did the Command picture hanging strip process for a framed poster I hadn't put up (my VW Bug poster I've had since grade school. It doesn't match my room theme but I can't let it go). I also hung up my wooden Wonder Woman comic book cover art plaque thing over the vanity chest of drawers. I can't put the big mirror there since my ceiling slopes down.
11. I also rearranged the items on my other two chests of drawers, the ones I didn't move. I had several makeup organizing items on the floor, and after I moved the vanity chest of drawers to where it is now, I moved them to be on top of my left chest of drawers, moving the other items that had previously been there to the right chest of drawers. I now have almost all of my makeup organizers on that chest: 4 liquid lipsticks/lipglosses organizers, one compact organizer, 6 mini tin buckets/cups holding more lipglosses, and my big magnetic whiteboard that holds all of my Colourpop Super Shock Shadows (I glued/stuck magnets to the backs of them). My small magnetic whiteboard is on the right chest of drawers because I have a small mirror hanging on the wall next to the big whiteboard and I don't want to cover it up. I put more sticky magnets on the backs of some of my single eyeshadow compacts (and 2 small eyeshadow duos) and put them on the small whiteboard.
12. I filled my evening pillbox as well, another small talk I often neglect.

That is quite a lot! I know there's 11 bullet points but each one lists several smaller tasks. I still have tons of cleaning and organizing to do, but I feel like I've done so much. I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to do all that in one day, after getting up at noon!

Bookshelf update and other things no one cares about

So I rearranged my books so they're ordered a bit better. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the way they are but my dad stashed some of my books elsewhere so I'll reorganize when I find them.
The top two shelves (fairy tales/myths/Arthurian and CSL) are the same, but the third shelf is now animals (anthropomorphic and otherwise), fantasy, and Old-Fashioned Books (this will be rearranged because I'm thinking of moving my Discworld books down there to make room for the other Gaiman books); the fourth shelf has poetry, Austen and mysteries; and the fifth has Dickens and girl/Old-Fashioned Books and other/modern.

Over three days into my spring break and I still haven't caught up with or even watched any of my TV shows. And I was just on Tumblr so I got kind of spoiled on some of them, especially Community. I need to go see The Hunger Games too, and I want to go see it with my best friend and my brother and his girlfriend (who is the one who introduced that series to us) and my dad and I doubt it will happen because it's too many schedules to coordinate. It's been just appointments and cleaning for me this week ever since I came home. Sigh.