Chore: Organise Library -> Clear Thinking Sanctuary 💭

[nelsonic]

As noted in #211 (comment) the Library shelves are a mess! 😖
When I unpacked the books from the many boxes, 📦
I put them into rough categories but definitely not a "system". 🔣

Story

As a person who is exceptionally time-poor but wants to have a calming place to sit and read,
I want a De-cluttered and Organised Library
So that I can focus on my reading/thinking and not get distracted by disorder.

Todo

• Take before Photos of both sides of the library. 📱 📸

  • Upload the photos to this issue

• Remove anything that doesn't belong in a library e.g. greetings cards, xmas decorations. Musical/noisy books.

  • Neatly place these on the shelf under the main staircase

• Take first step Photos with clutter removed. 📷

• Remove all books and magazines from the 3^rd (now child-accessible) shelf [the shelf where @iteles' greetings cards box is currently ...] and stack them on the table temporarily while the re-org happens.

• Organise the books into relevant categories.

  • Place books back on the shelves in their relevant categories.

• Determine how much additional book shelf space we're going to need: Chore: More Library Shelves? #215

Note: This is a good opportunity to review the books we have ... 💭
But is not the time to do a full catalog which is a multi-day exercise requiring a bit of up-front work: dwyl/library#73
We need to update our App and add Barcode/QR scanning ... 🧑‍💻 ⏳

• Optional/Bonus Level: Add Labels to the Shelves! 🏷️ ...
  these can be general like "Startups", "Finance", "Health" etc.
  • Use the Brother PT-D600VP Label Maker Label Printer #135 ideally with Black-and-White 12mm Labels.
    We should still have a roll of them: Label Printer #135 (comment) but if you don't find them, please just add the copy (proposed text) for the labels in a comment in this thread so that when we do find the label tape/cartridge it's a T10m sub-task. 👌

Note: I'm fully aware that having a dedicated/separate room in the house specifically for reading/thinking is considered by many to be a "luxury". My counter-argument is this: many people have a living room with a Television. They could easily just remove the TV and have a library. TV robs you of your time. Books give you time back because they allow you to learn skills faster and apply them in your life/work.

[Stephanymtr]

I'm happy to take on this task next time I go over to the house.

1. You mentioned "Startups", "Finance" & "Health". Could you share a list of all relevant categories I should follow ? Even if it's a rough list. I don't know all the books that are in your library atm. Therefore, a rough category listing should help me quickly place each book correctly after a quick skim through.
2. How would you feel about displaying baby books on the bottom shelf, A1's/toddler books on the 2nd shelf and older children's books on the third shelf?
3. I also have been trying to stick with a 'forward facing book shelf display' for all children's books. Should I continue doing that ?
4. I've replaced batteries of books that needed batteries changed. I can double check that as I go through them. However, I know there are a few books that need some TLC. Can I use transparent tape or did you have something else in mind you wanted me to do with those books?
5. What should I do with any odd shaped/big books that only fit sideways? I could be wrong, but I believe you have a few big books that are currently placed horizontally.

[Stephanymtr]

Step 1 - Before photos:

[Stephanymtr]

Step 2 - clutter removed

[Stephanymtr]

How would you guys feel about storing cookbooks in the kitchen ?

[Stephanymtr]

Step 3 - books from the 3rd shelf have been removed.

[Stephanymtr]

These are some photos of large books that only fit sideways

[Stephanymtr]

More questions:
1- Just to be clear, do you want me to reorganize all the books or just the ones from the 3rd shelf ? (Plus 1st and 2nd self aka all children’s books ofc)
2- I suggested above saving the 3rd shelf for older children's books, so I wanted to ask if I should place any adult books back on the 3rd shelf Ex: cookbooks.
3-Is it okay to collect ALL the books I see around the house and bring them back to the library? I believe I saw one or two in the dining (which might be new children’s book) and cookbooks in the kitchen too.

[iteles]

@Stephanymtr my answers to these last 3 questions so you can keep going:

1. I believe the idea is the WHOLE library which is why this is such a mammoth task!
   There are a couple of shelves which you shouldn't have to worry about, like the big shelf at the very top that is already all tech/programming books
2. I think we'll struggle even more for book space without that third shelf 😏 But we can always choose a small category of books to leave out for now and have somewhere else for example. That third shelf is definitely child accessible and should be for children. We'll build more shelving for the books that are left out.
3. Yes, definitely collect all the books from around the house please!

[Stephanymtr]

Hi, can I place the magazines behind the books like this? (Photo1) Ex: food magazines behind cookbooks... as a temporary fix, at least.
I found a lot of books for older children which were all moved to the 3rd shelf. Therefore, it's been really challenging making room for the adult books that were on that 3rd shelf.

2)

[Stephanymtr]

Due to the time I won't be able to finish tidying up the Library today. @iteles @nelsonic where should I place the extra couple books that still need to be organized? There's no more space on the shelves.

[Stephanymtr]

I didn't have a chance to post an update on Friday:

• I removed all the books from the first 3 shelves and wiped everything down. I put only children books back on the those shelves.
• The 4th shelf had some extra room, so that's where I was planning to place most of the adult books from 3rd shelf. However, the 4th shelf is not as tall compered to the 3rd shelf. It was tricky finding a subject/category where all the books are of that height or smaller. I moved some back and forth many times trying to make sense of it, but I ended up running out of time.
• Because of the shelf height/book sizes, it forced me to place/display some of the books horizontally (including children's books).
• I wasn't sure (question above!*) where to place the extra books that were out, so I kept them in library off the floor until next week when I come over to continue tidying up.
• There were also lots of magazines which I put under the main staircase while I was cleaning...so I kept them there until next time.
• I tidied up all the stuff that was under the main staircase to make room for the musical/noisy books along with all the random bits I found in the library.

I def will need more time to continue the work on tidying up/organizing the books.

[nelsonic]

Hi @Stephanymtr, thanks for reading and replying. 🙏
Here are some quick answers to your questions:

1. No. I don't have a list to follow. The categories will emerge from the organization exercise. 📝
   That's kind of the point of the exercise. To save me the time of having to do the manual organizing ...
   However most of my books fall into 5 broad categories:
   1. Non Fiction
   2. Personal Development
   3. Finance/Investing
   4. Science & Technology
   5. Business.

Within these there are niche sub-categories such as "Memory Techniques", "Technology Startups", "Revenue Funded Small to Medium Business" or "Rental Property Management". The specific category of these books doesn't really matter. Just group similar sounding books together and we can create the label for them later.

2. Displaying Baby books on the Bottom shelf is exactly the plan.
   Just not in the library right now ... Rather we will do it on the bottom shelf
   under the main staircase where there will be a rug for "tummy time". 🔜

3. Forward facing books will be placed on the wall outside the library in the coming months.
   For now we need to maximize the tidiness of the shelves in the library and therefore need to minimise the number of cover-facing books ... i.e: we don't have enough space to display the covers of all our books ... 😞 (which library does?! 🤷)

4. Replaced the batteries in the "books" ... battery-powered paper toys aren't books they are toys. They don't belong in the library. They belong on the shelf under the main staircase. we need a hard rule on "no noisy toys" in the library otherwise it ceases to be a place for quiet reading & reflection and becomes a ZOO; literally. 🦁

5. Odd-shaped books need to be placed on a pile and their dimensions captured [separate issue]. As much as I like the larger format books they are a bit of a pain in the but from a library planning perspective so we need to consider where/how to store them longer term.

[nelsonic]

@Stephanymtr thanks very much for doing the initial tidy of the library it looks much better. 👍
Sadly a few books were left on top of the footstool and that looks mega cluttered. We need to move them ASAP. 🙏
We still need a lot more shelf space in order call this "done". ⏳

[Stephanymtr]

@nelsonic Yes, saving the 3rd shelf for children's books only meant that we weren't going to have enough shelving space for some other books (aka the ones on top of the footstool and under the stairs) . Could I move them (temporarily) to under the stairs ?

[nelsonic]

100%. Under the stair for now. 🙏

[Stephanymtr]

I haven't finished organising the books into relevant categories. I know this is a time-consuming task - especially since I don't know most of your books. I would have to remove them all from the shelves, look up each of them, pile them up on the floor into categories and find a shelf that will fit them all together. Some books a taller than others and don't fit altogether in the same shelves they used to live. Therefore, (as mentioned above) additional book shelf space will be necessary.

Anyway, it's has been a couple of months since this was assigned to me. Please, let me know how you would like me to proceed. Would this be Priority 1 for next time you all are away ?