Book Organization and Dejunking the Home

by Lois Breneman, © 2009, Heart to Heart Newsletter

Recently I worked on a monumental project in our home - that of organizing all of our books, while at the same time, boxing lots of them to get rid of, especially cookbooks.  Why did I have so many cookbooks anyway? Many came from yard sales and Goodwill, but some were never used much.  I have laid aside some cookbooks that I felt I just had to keep, and copying a few recipes, so I feel better about getting rid of them!  

We have so many books that they need to be on shelves in five different rooms of our home.  Recently I sorted them as much as possible according to topics, which will make it so much easier to find what we need.  I had thought once how great it would be have all our books in one room (a library), and to use the Dewey Decimal System for cataloging books in our home, but that went out the window pretty quickly. 

The next best thing was to shelve all the many "How To" books with instructions in one room - books about crafts, sewing, quilting, card making, scrapbooking, gardening, landscaping, woodworking, children's crafts and ideas, cooking, health and computers.  At a special place I also have brand new books shelved that could be used as gifts, including children's books, so I can see them easily when choosing a gift. 

Other topics sorted out by categories are books on marriage, parenting of children of all ages including teens, Bible commentaries and books related to the Bible, books and videos on Bible prophecy, Bible studies, homeschooling books to pass on or sell, along with books on homemaking, organization, college books that are still helpful to us, yearbooks, research books, poetry, biographies, autobiographies, vintage Christian novels, and books written by people we know.

Sometimes the different sizes of books create a challenge, which I just had to work around.  For the grandchildren's story books, I sorted them according to their ages, but I'm not sure how long it will be until they are all mixed together again.  That's okay.

Now that the books have been tackled, I have made a list of other areas I need to go through and dejunk.  I must get rid of things we no longer need.  A good friend told me she did this monumental task a few years ago so their kids won't have to do it when she and her husband are gone.  That would be a great gift in itself, especially as I think of a family who has recently been left with that overwhelming job!

There are several options in getting rid of things - give away, sell or toss!  That includes offering to family and friends who may have a need or interest in some things, a yard sale, Craigs' List, e-Bay, our local homeschoolers organization, Carry the Cross Ministries at our church who picked up a sofa last week, libraries (church, school or public), Pregnancy Resource Centers, the Salvation Army, and Goodwill.  It will be a relief to have our home dejunked!