So Proud!

I am thrilled to be included as a contributor in Twentysomething Girl – 1,001 Quick Tips and Tricks to Make Your Life Easier by Melissa Fiorenza and Laura Serino.

Want to see more? Click here to buy it on Amazon — and check me out on page 193.

Advertisement

Day 5: The First Boxes are Packed!

These empty boxes that got here yesterday were just staring me in the face. There are plenty of things in the apartment that I know I won’t need for the next 25 days. The question was – where did I want to start?

Well – this one was easy for me. I’m going to share one of my dirty little organizing secrets….even professional organizers have areas that are not Real Simple ready. Mine is my bookcase.

this bookcase has long been in need of an organizing makeover

I love to read — these shelves are packed with old favorites, books I’ve read but would be willing to give up, books I’d like to read someday…..along with picture frames, tchotchkies, photo albums, yearbooks….you get the picture.

I’ve been wanting to tackle this project for a long time, but kept putting it off in the hopes that we might be moving “soon.” (p.s. this is the excuse I’ve been using for more than a year.)  So the prospect of packing it up in a way that would allow for easy organizing in the new place made this an easy place to get started.

In order to achieve my dream bookcase, I’d have to categorize every item on the shelves:

Keepers.

3 small boxes of books – 1.5 boxes of “old favorites” and 1.5 boxes of “books to read” (and labeled as such…also labeled with their destination in the new aparment -OFFICE). 1 small plastic container of tchotchkes (I used a plastic box for these because it’s likely the whole collection will get stored as-is).

Giveaways.

I’m ready to pass these along – most I’ve read, some I haven’t but I know I never will. Certainly not worth moving to BK. So what to do with them? I set aside some of the better ones to give away to friends who will enjoy them. The rest I’m putting to work for me. I joined Bookins, an online book trading service. I spent about an hour putting my “trade” list online (just by typing in their ISBN numbers) – when another member wants a book on my trade list, I print out a free mailing label, stick it in the mailbox, and receive points that I can use to “buy” other members’ books. I’ve already mailed out 2 – hoping to do a lot more before march 1. NOTE: a few of my books weren’t easily found using the ISBN method — Bookins gives the option to “make your own listing,” but I found this too time consuming — so these books are going straight to the local thrift store.

So – quite a bit was completed here. But, the shelves aren’t empty yet. I haven’t gotten to photo albums yet and RB still needs to take a pass at his books:

future book-boxes to come.

but hey – 4 boxes are packed!