Arranging... Rearranging....

Well, we’re in – pretty much. It’s been a monstrous effort to get the house cleaned and ready for us to move in, to pack up everything and actually move it. Sixteen took on the task of loading the boxes of books onto the trolley and into the van for transport to the new house – box after box, “These are REALLY heavy...!” Uhuh… I know this only too well…

The bookcases went into place and then the sorting and decision making started. Where to put everything? In the old place, all four bookcases were in a line along the wall, so I had the four metre length of each shelf to deal with in an unbroken line, which made it all very simple – like a real library with great long lines of shelving. Now, they’re in two pairs either side of the TV cabinet, which changes things considerably.

I figured out how to distribute the two largest components of the collection – children’s literature one side, grown up literature on the other. That takes care of about four shelves on each side, so then there’s the bottom two levels on each side and the rather more messy components – the poetry, the art books, religious books, reference, biographies, and the remnants that all get stacked in together…

The next hitch was that along with many other features peculiar to the age and style of this house, the power points are all located on the skirting boards. Of course, Murphy’s Law being what it is, they are – on both sides – where the bookcases need to go to get the whole assembly centred on the wall. Dearly Beloved was concerned about the tilt of the bookcases, given the bottoms had to be a bit further away from the wall than originally planned. As I pointed out, they’re six feet tall and are going to be full of kilos of books, so a good tilt into the wall is a good thing. However, the wedges we’d used in the old house were geared to a lesser tilt and we had to double them here – so I’m waiting on another set to get the other two bookcases stacked!

I started with the children’s books, since they’re the real treasures and they’re now all in alphabetical order and stacked. At the moment, I’ve got the art books under them in one, the biographies in the second to bottom in the other and I’m thinking reference on the bottom of that one.

When I get to the grown up books on the other side, it might all change. I’m not sure yet. I do know that there are fewer grown up novels, which means that the two plus shelves of poetry will fit around them and I can get them all in without too many laying down along the tops… But, until I get to actually stacking, I don’t know how it will look – the agonies of it all!

At this point, the grown up novels have all been sorted into alphabetical stacks along the floor by the window in the dining room – so they’re not all over the floor any more, which makes getting around a little less hazardous! With the public holiday this week, I might just manage to have the books sorted and my freelance assignment done by the weekend – with a bit of luck!!