We have lived in our new house for two years now, but I still have things in boxes and rooms that are almost impossible to walk through. So I took advantage of the holiday weekend to work on the room that is the worst of the lot. It is also, unfortunately, my favourite room in the whole house: the library.
I should have taken "Before" photos because the "After" ones look pretty bad. But trust me, this is WAY better than it was! You can see the floor now, for instance.
After several years of smothering in the box, my American Girl dolls are finally breathing the (relatively) fresh air again. I just wish they had a little more room--I could barely fit them onto the shelves. On the shelf under them is my collection of unusual books--it needs a little bit of editing, but trust me, there are some humdingers in there! In the middle of the floor you can see the stand for our old kitchen table. It is going to become a library table for me to work at.
Immediately as you walk in the door, if you turn left, this is what you see. Nearest is the children's book shelf and then there is the shelf that is currently stuffed with poetry, classics, history, and oversized books. That is not going to work. I need about three more bookshelves, stat! At least they are great at keeping my board game collection off of the floor. On the other wall is the science fiction and fantasy shelf, with science (and dolls) on top. And yeah, there's the table top.
If you look closely you can see my mythology shelf. It is rather buried by other objects at the moment. That does not make me happy. But at least now it is no longer buried under an avalanche of Babysitters Club books!
Ignoring the huge pile of totes and boxes in front of the closet, turning to the right is the horror (top shelf so The Precious can't get ahold of anything with really scary pictures yet), general fiction, mystery, and religion shelf. Yeah, I know. We really need more shelves so I can split this stuff up! You would not believe how many unshelved books are sitting around in boxes.
As I turn around to squeeze out the door, I can get a good look at both the work I've got done and the work that remains. And the Doctor. That reminds me...I wonder where my Sonic Screwdriver is? I'm pretty sure it's in here...somewhere...
This morning, I could barely walk into the library and shut the door behind me. Now, I can get to some of the shelves and have most of the previously loose items corralled. Key word: most. So it still looks like an absolute nightmare, but I am proud of the progress I have made.
Someday this room will be filled with bookshelves, each filled with books according to genre and then author. There will just be many steps on the road to that. As I get more work done, I'll keep you all (I'm not really sure that anyone is reading this, but I must pretend or stop bothering to write at all) updated.
Happy Easter!