A Huge Project Completed

 "Work expands so as to fill the time available for it's completion."  That has certainly been the case for me in completing this huge organizing/cleaning project.  I started it months ago- last spring- thinking it would be the perfect COVID isolation project.  And it was.  But it was a doozy!  I spent many, many hours.   I am pleased that it is done.

I have a problem.  I love books.  I do listen to books and read them on screen, too, but my favorite is to hold a book and read it.  I cannot resist books.  Don't believe me?  Ask my husband.  But that created a problem.  We just plain had too many books.  The downstairs shelves were full.  So we started stacking them in front of the shelves.  More and more and more stacks were created.  It was time to do something.  Ken set up a big Costco table for me in the middle of the room and I pulled books down and started in.  I had a throw away pile and a giveaway pile.  Most of the giveaways, I photographed.  Later, I listed all of the giveaways in a document.  I then found that book title on goodreads and linked it.   I sent that list to my family so that they could choose any books they might want.  

During:

Chaos and disorder reigned downstairs for months.  But it was so fun to handle each book and relive some of those precious stories.

This was after getting the left side done.  That was the biggest part- where most of the novels and children's books were.

Then I tackled the middle and right shelves.  Things got held up for awhile in the summer as our air conditioner went out down there and I found it too hot to work until we got it repaired.  Then, things were held up again as one of the shelves had to be repaired and we couldn't find the little clip we needed anywhere.  Ken, after checking in every possible store, finally found some in a carpenter's shop in the next town over.  Only a few days later, he found some extras we had saved in a drawer!  We both knew we had some, but just couldn't find them. Anyway, then he was able to mend the shelf so I could finish the last few shelves.

 When I got the books done, Ken and I spent an afternoon cleaning and organizing the whole room. Here are some pictures of the completed room.

It was so nice to get it cleaned up and get the big table out of there.

The thing I am most excited about is these children bookshelves. I ordered some floating bookshelves (Michelle had some in her home- that's where I got the idea) and Ken put them up down low on the wall.  These are for the grandkids.  They can easily choose their bedtime story.

We go downstairs and watch a movie or show many evenings.  We are so enjoying going to a clean, organized room.  Now, we just can't wait for grandkids to come and try out the new shelves.