The mess is inevitable, the clean-up dubious

[auntiemeesh]

After spending the better part of a couple months slowly getting my apartment cleaned up and somewhat decluttered, I spent today ripping things apart. Well, not literally. But I decided to organize my books. This meant pulling them all off the shelves, where they had once upon a time been neatly alphabetized, until several different influxes of additional books created mass havoc with the system. Because I'm like that, I then created a spread sheet with all the pertinent info about each book. And now, slowly, I'm (in theory) in the process of reshelving everything in some sort of logical/alphabetical order. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that I don't actually have much in the way of real bookshelves. Certainly not even close to enough to accommodate the number of books I have. I've been at the job all day, have one bookshelf mostly refilled, and books all over the living room floor. Now that the project is completely out of hand, I'm tired and wish to stop. I suspect I'll be spending the next week pecking away at the mess until everything is all tucked away again, somewhere.

Comments

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I use Library Thing to (theoretically) keep track of which books I have, which you would think would help organize them... you'd think...

*sigh*

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I tried Library Thing once (maybe in 2004?), got about ten books listed before I stopped, and never went back. Maybe I should try again some day. Back in the day, before I had a computer (gasp! were there even such days?!) I kept all of my books cataloged on index cards because I just really like to have them all written down somewhere. It helped me keep things straight when I was periodically trying to organize. Hopefully this works the same way.

[wbkbb.livejournal.com]

I started using Library Thing last year, and I had made a lot of progress, but then in the summer I just pretty much stopped. I don't have that much left to do, but of course now I don't remember where I stopped, so it would take a little effort to get going again. Who knows when that will happen ;)

[antbee362.livejournal.com]

Your librarian is showing! lol

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

If I can't do it professionally, I can at least do it for fun, at home, right?

[ansostuff.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds like a job I should be doing with my books as well. And the spreadsheet sounds like a great idea. I once catalogued music that way, but that's looong ago now.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

In my pre-computer days I used index cards, which was nice because I had a hard copy, but I like the spread sheet too.

[whtmtnwmn.livejournal.com]

Go Meeshie!

Mine are categorized by genre, and then sub-categorized (Star Wars books are shelved by timeline date).

Have fun!
=D

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Because of the lack of shelf-space mine are organized by a mix of genre and book-type. Small paperback books - mostly scifi/fantasy and mysteries -- can fit double-rowed on my one decent bookshelf. Larger paperbacks, mostly litfic and classics can go on the other bookshelf (which is more like you'd find in a child's bedroom). Hardback fiction will probably go in a corner somewhere. Archives books will go in a box until such time as they're needed (hopefully that will happen some day). Some day I'll have more shelves and everything will have more room to be properly organized.

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

How ambitious of you! I shelve my books according to the "where does it fit" plan. And sometimes I can find them when I want them. I hope you get everything put back together fairly quickly.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I've been using the 'where does it fit?' plan for a while now, but as you implied, it does make it harder to find things. Plus, it violates my need for order (despite any evidence my disordered apartment might show, I do have a strong need for order in many things).

[wbkbb.livejournal.com]

I'm very impressed with your organizational ambitions. I have my books organized by genre, and the fiction is alphabetized, but I never even thought of making an actual printed list of everything. (Library Thing was more appealing because of the possibility of getting free books, the list of my library was pretty much just an artifact.)

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not printing my list out. I'll save a back-up of it on my flash drive and then just have it on my laptop. The lappy is almost always on when I'm at home so if I need to find something, it's easy enough to access.