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

[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.