Stay Home Ideas: Clean Out the Bookshelf

This week I have started my new mini blog series ‘Stay Home Ideas’ for us to keep us busy and entertained while we are more or less quarantined in our homes. Now I reckon some of you are busy with work from the home office, home schooling kids, cooking, doing other chores, but hey, now is the time to also tick off some of the duties that have lingered for like ever on our to-do lists, no? So one of my ever lasting to-dos was cleaning out my bookshelf. And I must say, it was dreary to start with, but now it feels so much better. Or as my husband put it: it releases unnecessarily contained energy. It sure does.

So here are just a few tips that helped me with cleaning out my bookshelf:

– Divide the task in bite-size bits: I dedicated one level per day. That was easier to tackle and gave me enough time to go through every book and item and consider do I keep it or toss it. Moreover, this gives you time to sleep over your decisions and reconsider the next day. Which is actually my tip no. 2.

– Sleep over your keep or toss decision: Pile up everything you want to get rid off and rearrange all the books and items you want to keep. No sleep over it. Go back the next day and check: do you really want to keep everything you put back in? Or can something else go? And what about the toss pile? Sure about everything? Maybe there’s something you wanna give a friend?

– Make little arrangements: I like to combine a few books and some decorative items to create little vignettes in my bookshelf unit. Keep it airy and leave space between your arrangements. I prefer it now as every shelf has some empty and airy space. Nevertheless I am still a collector obviously and not a minimalist. But hey, you can make it a tad more airy and fresh.

– Books as art: Probably you have some books that you love for their beautiful cover too. If so, why not highlight such a book (or a few of them) by placing them like art pieces in your bookshelf?

– Donate books: What to do with the pile of books you decided to toss? I don’t know about you, but I can’t throw books away! Additionally, right now it is tricky as most thrift shops or charity shops are closed too. I actually put a pile of books in front of my building for people to take away and some other books I will offer to some friends. What remains goes to the basement and will be donated to the charity shop once things are back to normal.

So that’s all for today. Simple but effective I promise! And I also promise you will feel much better and much happier about your refreshed bookshelf once you cleaned it out a bit. Stay home, stay healthy, stay creative!

Photography by Igor Josifovic