Project: Mommy's Library

I am a bit of an organization freak.  

I love cleaning out and organizing spaces so much and fortunately my family provides many opportunities for this hobby. Having four people rummaging through all parts of my house at any given moment has afforded me countless chances to organize and reorganize.  

I've done the pantry about a million times.  I love getting in there and making it worse before I make it better.  And then, seeing their faces after I'm done, they vow to keep it neat, but we all know that will only last for a week, if I'm lucky.  

The best is cleaning out a kid's room when they're not there.  You get to go through all their treasures and see what's important to them and also all the things they've been hoarding.  You throw out the junk and tidy and straighten and maybe move some furniture and when they get home they are astonished and grateful.**

**Many people I talk to say this might be an invasion of privacy.  They ask if my kids hate it or if I think it may be a bit too presumptuous.  I say no.  My mom did it for me and the feeling of a clean slate is such a good one.  And, I think they're usually happy to get out of the chore.  They'll take a little invasion for the sake of a lot less work.  

Anyway, I decided to start a little project for me.  I've always dreamed of having a library.  We have an office in our house and someday I'd love to have built-in bookshelves lining the walls and cozy chairs in there.  

Books are my joy and buying books makes me so happy.  I write in my books and then they become special to me.  My husband loves books, my kids love books, we have a ton of books.  

is this too much too ask?

Maybe I got a little impatient (built-in bookshelves ain't cheap, ya'll!) and I decided, for the time being, to build a library in the basement.  

Some things you need to know about my basement:  it's not finished, there are tons of toys, boxes, etc, we have found a snake in there, and there is a king size mattress in the middle.  

Sounds ideal, huh?

I'm short on cash for bookshelves so we bought $30 bookshelves at Walmart.  I shoved them up against a wall and piled the books on the mattress.  

Then, I began sorting.  

I'm not organizing picture books.  No, that would be crazy...

I am organizing middle grade, YA, fiction, and nonfiction.  Nothing crazy about that. 😳

isn't it the cutest?

Last year I spent time volunteering in our elementary school media center every week.  It was great and I learned some tricks of the trade.  In my basement library I leave a little extra space on each shelf in case of additions.  Who are we kidding, of course there will be additions.  

I am alphabetizing my author last name in each of my "sections."  

It's a little neurotic (a little) but it's relaxing to me and I love going down there and looking at my progress and then shelving a few more.  

before I started alphabetizing...clearly this is a disaster. 

As I get older--and I'm not that old--I learn to be gentle with myself and love me.  So what if having a weird basement library with perfect organization is weird...it's who I am and I'm pretty great. 

Do you have any quirks that you're trying to embrace?  Feel free to share in comments...please share, it will make my little basement story seem less weird.