Creating the Closet of Mysteries

[kestrell]

My big project over the past month has been culling my book collection, labeling what's left with braille labels, and
converting a closet into my personal library
http://www.ehow.com/how_4843763_closet-bookshelf.html
or, as I have dubbed it, the Closet of Mysteries.
(For an even tinier library, check out this traditional British red phone box converted into a town lending library
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/8385313.stm
and a second example
http://www.ragandbone.com/blog/?p=1980 ).

I culled approximately nine boxes- and crates-worth of books, which GotBooks.com just picked up and took away. GotBooks.com http://www.gotbooks.com is a great resource if one is downsizing one's library, and the man who took away the books was extremely polite and efficient. The request pickup form is even accessible.

Also, yesterday I gave LJ user herooftheage a chance to show off a bit
http://herooftheage.livejournal.com/386035.html
when I asked for his help in getting the boxes down the two flights from the attic to the ground floor. There were four or five significantly-sized boxes and, after he made only two trips, I asked, "Did you just bring down two boxes at once?" to which he replied, "No, I brought down three," to which I can only contemplate how pleasant it is to share a domicile with someone that strong.

Lastly, I think there should be a t-shirt featuring the bibliophibian mentioned in the following comic (description courtesy of LJ alexx_kay):
Wondermark, by David Malki!

Panel 1: A man and a woman in 19th century garb, in a library.
M: SO MANY BOOKS! I thought we were trying to CUT DOWN the amount of STUFF in our lives?
M: There must be a THOUSAND books here.
W: I've pared down the collection to the esentials.

Panel 2:
M: How many of them do you ever actually READ?
M: Why not donate them to the library? That way they'll still be there whenever you want them --
W: They're not really for me.

Panel 3:
W: Look, WE love to read because we grew up in homes filled to bursting with weird and wonderful books.
W: I'm keeping these books not because of how often I read them all, but so, on rainy days and lonely nights, our children can discover them for themselves.
M: By the time we ever have children, we will be DROWNING in a SEA of books, gasping for breath in a little air pocket near the ceiling.
F: Then they will be bibliophibians.

Comments

[duskpeterson]

Are you aware that there's controversy over Got Books, because they sell the best books for profit? Regardless, hurrah for all your hard work in passing on books to be loved elsewhere.

[kestrell]

No, I was not aware of the fact that GotBooks.com resold books for profit, but I doubt it would have influenced my decision, as they were the only resource which came and hauled the books away for free. I got a sense that this was not a purely volunteer organization, as everything ran a little too smoothly and efficiently. Anyway, about two-thirds of the books were things which would probably be uninteresting to the general reader, as there were lots of research books and college textbooks. I would have liked to have found a home for the crate of horror, but nobody claimed it, sigh.

[duskpeterson]

Aw, sorry about not finding a special home for the horror book. I know what you mean about the difficulties of home pick-ups. I've discovered that Goodwill will pick up for large donations, thank goodness, but where the heck do I store these large donations while I'm on their waiting list to be picked up?

[jesse_the_k]

In your capacious city garage, perhaps? (the lump in my head is my tongue).

Huzzah huzzah huzzah for decluttering!

[duskpeterson]

You mean my carport? :)

[duskpeterson]

I like your leaf icon - may I borrow it?

[jesse_the_k]

Oh of course; except for the ones labelled "don't take," they're all part of the endless happy fanstream.

[duskpeterson]

Thanks! Who shall I credit?

[jesse_the_k]

Great question! Umm, I have no idea where I got this or who made it and so didn't label it myself. "Fished out of the public domain"? I trust you to be creative *grin*.

[kestrell]

And no one will pick up old pillows anymore, so what to do with those? Also, electronics. My landlord has been talking about getting a dumpster because we have six geeks in the house and piles of dead electronics which need to be gotten rid of in some sort of special way. The more I declutter, the more annoying it is to have these boxes and bags which are just stuff which you can't easily dispose of, especially as some fo them seem to be just huge tangles of cords and chargers.

[duskpeterson]

I'm lucky; my town has an electronics recycling program. But gosh, I never thought about pillows.

[jesse_the_k]

I think cords & chargers sneak into the eaves-closets to mate with hangers: mothballs are evidence of their passage. More seriously, I can imagine some green-focus organization at MIT which could sponsor a "recycle your tech" day. Ours is funded by a consortium of municipal waste departments, cause electronics contain significant toxins. Landfills charge accordingly.

One of the "magnet" schools in our metro area has a "teach kids electronics repair" specialty course; there may be a similar potential user in your area. Pillows, though, are nothing but dust & disease havens. If you lugged them up any of the scores of local brick bell towers, you'd make several generations of bats, crows, and mice happy.

[kestrell]

Yes, a neighboring household is undergoing a round of exterminating for bedbugs, and it will involve two more bouts of spraying, up to two days before Thanksgiving, when they usually have a houseful of people over. However, for the next month they are living with everything pulled away from the walls, so it's like spending a couple of months with everything packed away, including all the books!

[kestrell]

Postscript: Thanks for the tips for getting rid of electronics. As for hangers, years ago I converted to cedar wood hangers with some plastic ones mixed in and I never get wire hangers reproducing in the dark of the closet anymore. Oddly, however, I still find small heaps of hair pins, which is interesting because I haven't used hair pins in six or seven years. I've come tot he conclusion that they are a breed of small but more cunning wire hangers.