Saturday, April 09, 2016

Bybeeary in Boxes? Am I Tough Enough?

Okay, so once upon a time, about 6 weeks ago, we moved and my new bedroom didn't have enough room for all my shelves (I put the Pulitzer collection in my bedroom), so these shelves were placed into the spare bedroom, along with a lot of other furniture that doesn't fit.

Mom has a lot of furniture. Much of it is in the garage we are still renting at our previous place. She is quite attached to her many pieces: "I could tell you stories about that one!" "I can't let that go!" "That table is a friend!" "That was your great-grandmother's!" "Your great-great grandfather built that  table for your grandmother and gave it to her for her 16th birthday!"  

Now she has a brand-new friend: A custom-built solid oak desk/TV stand. The rather large new friend went into her bedroom and the piece she was using went into the spare bedroom.

Even though there's all this furniture, we would like to get one more thing: a small bed, daybed or futon for guests. Right now, there's no room for this sort of thing.  I am feeling frustrated, because at some point, there will be guests, and it irks me to see the spare bedroom so non-functional, basically a dumping ground.

It's no good to ask Mom to part with some of her stuff, or even shuttle it to the rental garage. In fact, she would like to get more out of that garage and sort a second layer of furniture...I couldn't really listen.

So I brooded and brooded. I made the Brontes look like Gretchen Rubin. 

Then it hit me that I am part of the problem in that spare bedroom. Those two bookshelves eat up a lot of wall space! They are also the only pieces of furniture over which I have any say. If I take out my bookshelves, the stuff on the opposite wall can be shifted and then there will be space for a bed/daybed/futon.

But then there's the bookworm part of me: 
Take out the shelves? Put the books in boxes? 
 At these moments, it's difficult to put my Kondo where my mouth is.

All the books wouldn't have to go into storage. There's a nightstand in my room with two shelves. My turtle collection is there, but I could move it and stick in quite a few books. Then I could get some bookends and make a line of TBRs across my desk. The other books I would lovingly store in  plastic containers that would fit under my bed. I won't get rid of anything; I went through that ordeal during the international move.

Yikes, this goes against my grain, but on the other hand, I want to live in a home that looks nice and is fully functional. I'm up for the challenge. I'm quailing on the inside, but determined to apply some creative thinking and artful maneuvering to make this a success. Am I bookworm tough? Stay tuned!

1 comment:

Unruly Reader said...

This is certainly a dilemma. Thank goodness you're hanging in there and still able to craft sentences like "I made the Brontes look like Gretchen Rubin" (that made me totally crack up).

Now this seems rather cliff-hanger-y... like I just finished a chapter of a Nancy Drew mystery that ended in an exclamation point, and I'm being forced to put down my book to look at the scenery when all I want to know is What Happens Next.