Completing my Second Category of Decluttering--Books

As you know from a couple of weeks ago, I had delved into what seemed like an insurmountable challenge.  That is, I was determined to tidy up our bookshelves.  If you read my other post, you'll know that we have an immense number of books.  I got my inspiration to start tidying up our house, thanks to Marie Kondo's book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up".  I had already completed the first category she suggests, that is, of clothing.  But, I had put off sorting through our books for a very long time because I have a great love for books and find it very hard to part with them.  It feels like mourning the loss of precious friends.  Can you tell that I worked at libraries both in high school and in seminary?  I also worked at a Christian bookstore.  So, you get the idea.  Well, I am pleased to say that I managed to get rid of about 6 boxes of books.  In fact, I was able to clear one large bookshelf in our former homeschool room.  So, now I'm dreaming up ideas of how I might turn this space into my future art studio someday.  We went from this...

Overstuffed bookshelves from homeschooling days

To this empty space...

Future art studio?

The reason the shelves were gone was because I moved one to my daughter's room, in hopes of helping her get organized with her college school work.

Penny's shelf for college books/papers

The other bookshelf got moved upstairs to the living room to replace a small, overstuffed shelf.

Here's what it looked like before...

The little shelf with the green cloth is gone.

Instead, the small bookshelf got moved to my side of the bedroom for my magazines.

 

Back in the living room, the shelf from downstairs was put in the back corner and now houses some of Jay's music, some knick-knacks and memorabilia, and some nice National Geographic or Reader's Digest photo books, and a basket with Blu-Ray disks.  Penny's violin now sits upright between this shelf and the piano.

 And in the place of the small, over-stuffed shelf I've placed the rack of t.v. trays.

 

Jenny says she approves of the new changes.

 

There were other changes in the living room, as well.  Here's what the northeast corner looked like with an end table full of our favorite photo books and then a small shelf for videos 

that was overflowing with too many videos.

Before

 But, after sorting through our many books and emptying, yet, another shelf that was formerly in the homeschool room.....

Bookshelf from former homeschool days

 It is now re-purposed in the living room to hold some books and our favorite travel DVD's 

and a box of my favorite CD's.

New look in living room

 

All of the music videos found a new home, too, since I had moved much of Jay's music from a drawer to the new, larger bookshelf.  So, now the music CD's are inside this drawer.

 

It's the top, right drawer of this dresser that I've painted a few times.  It's one of my thrift store finds which we've used to house Jay's sheet music and train videos.  Below is an older photo, so the t.v. trays were in a different spot.  

 

As far as the end table goes, it got moved to the guest bedroom downstairs and now holds the only children's books that I decided to keep, those that truly spark joy!

 

So, after following Kondo's instructions, (well, mostly), I went from this chaos...

 

To this bliss...

  

So, again, my mind is playing with the idea of someday turning this into my art studio.  So, for now I've just placed my art easels and other art-related stuff in the empty corner.

 

Any great ideas of how I could transform this room?

Going through this second category has definitely inspired me along my journey to becoming more tidy.  The next category doesn't sound as exciting.  It's papers.  I'm sure I'll be spending a lot more time in this study.  I really ought to go through our filing cabinet.  Yikes!  But, I think I'd rather finish my family room painting project first.  Can you tell I'm finally over my two-week long bout of a nasty virus?  Starting to dream of what I should tackle next.  Any votes?