Sumer Fridays 2013: Yarn & Order, Book 'Em Nettie

Maybe it's just me, and/or a sign of my years, but in order to keep track of all the various projects and deadlines I have going in various parts of my life, I've had to create and--more importantly--post lists of all the various things that I would like to accomplish. Like my annual holiday timeline, this list is posted in a very visible spot in my kitchenette and it serves as a constant reminder of things I should or could be doing, instead of goofing off on say, the Internet.

list c. June 2013

By the end of last year, the two-sided list for 2012 was full of annotations, cross-outs, and check-offs, but there were still things I didn't get done. Some of those items carried over to the 2013 list, and were supplemented by new goals, projects, and things to-do.

We're half way through 2013 now, not to mention all the way through June, with its Summer Fridays and Miscellaneous Mondays, and my 2013 list does not have nearly enough things crossed off.

On my most recent Summer Friday, however, I tackled one of the biggest, and long over-due projects -- The Shelves. New York studios are not known for their spaciousness, so you have to be creative with storage and judicious about adding to various collections. For me, that means yarn, media, books, and various collectibles live in the same scarce shelf space, and it was time to reorganize, alphabetize, shift, and cull. The catalyst was that I really needed to find room to integrate nine volumes of this blog printed out into book format ... 

Then there is also the fact that I keep an inventory list in Excel, of materials listed by type, author, publication date, genre, and locations on my own shelves that needed updating since I did it last in 2010/11?

Yes. I'm that person! Hello!? Have you met me? I am a librarian. If my own isn't organized, they may revoke my card. (Which reminds me--I owe annual dues.)

First, everything not a regular "book" had to come off and be put into various type piles, and then alpha/author rows came down to be dusted, inventoried, and then either re-ordered or culled. (It was also laundry day, thus the bed stripped of linens down to the bare mattress. The house was totally a mess of stuff drying or all over the place. The "Rs" could have interrupted my ZZZs if I didn't finish.)

At first things went quickly. The first two shelves saw me getting rid of 18 books. But after that, it was slow going ... At one point I thought it was going to be the death of me and I sent out a message to the effect of: If you don't hear from me later and they find my body under piles of paper/shelves, please tell my nieces/nephews I loved them very much. But then I buckled down again.

I usually do little culls as I go along i.e. one book in, one book out, but it got away from me in the last year or so, especially recently with a collection of ARCs, new/growing scrapbooks, and the new blog books. The design trend lately is to organize bookshelves by color, but that would make me CRAZY. As it is I have two authors out of alpha order and I itch. Of course, it's because those two authors need two-three shelves each ... That's totally normal, yes? It's not an obsession, it's a collection.

After: 3 of the 4, Cameo by Maxxie

Part of why it took all day was because I was dusting, reorganizing, editing the spreadsheet, doing research on Amazon.com, Wikipedia, and Goodreads, adding to my wish lists for missing pieces of the collection/replacements for VHS to new formats, and then sending out e-mails to people to see if they would take things off my hands. (Only one taker for one of the 30+ items that eventually need new homes!)

One more Summer Friday down - one more thing off the list. I've got to tackle the clothes collections later ... I'm scared. Two bureaus, two closets, 2 under bed storage buckets ... Two summer months to go.