I read Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tiding Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.
If you’re not familiar with the book it’s a method of organizing and it’s very specific.
So I figured it’s January, and I’ve made several resolutions to organize my life, so the timing was perfect.
I decided to start with something small, but significant, something I value . . . My bookshelf.
You see the bookshelf as soon as you walk through my front door, so it’s been on my radar to reorganize for a while. Shamefully, it’s become my catch-all.
I went back and reviewed the chapter on organizing books and followed Kondo’s instructions.
I’m going to tell you straight up; it was incredible! My bookshelf now speaks to me. I can’t wait for someone to ask to borrow a book or just scan my shelves.
Let me start from the beginning . . .
Marie says it’s all about sparking joy. If you hold a book and it doesn’t do that for you, toss it to donate pile.
She claims you need to empty the bookshelf and put all the books on the floor. I didn’t want to do this, but according to Kondo, it’s harder to part with a book when it’s on the shelf.
Once the bookshelf was empty, I’m embarrassed to say it was very dusty and in need of a good cleaning. I dusted, fixed the lights and adjusted some of the shelving. At this point, I’m feeling good. I’m feeling free.
“For Books, timing is everything. The moment you first encounter a particular book is the right time to read it.”
~ Marie Kondo ~
Now it was time to sort, keeping only books you love on your shelf. Books you would put in your personal hall of fame or ones that inspired pleasure.
As I sorted my books, I realized I had already given many of my favorites away. I mainly read on a Kindle, so it seemed like a lot of the books were easy to discard. I’m not sure why I had some of them on my shelf, yet I didn’t want to part with them.
So here we go! I divided my books into categories.
The first was Beach Reads. I like to have books in my house in case someone needs a good book to read while visiting. I live at the Jersey Shore, so many times my guests need a book to take to the beach. It’s an important category for me. I feel it’s part of being a good host.
The list continued with Mystery/Thriller which I geared toward the male reader. I wanted a Book Club section, a spiritual section, books my Dad gave me and finally reference.
I believe you can tell a lot about a person from the books in their library. So here’s a close-up of mine.
Give it a try! It only took a couple of hours. I wanted my bookshelf to serve a purpose. To tell my story and pass on my love of reading on to others. What do you think?
Happy reading,
Andrea
