Konmari and the life changing magic of tidying up - Part 2 - Books

The second category after clothes in the Konmari process of de-cluttering (see my part 1- clothes here) is books, being slightly more difficult to part with, but still quite an easy category to go through.

I followed Marie Kondo's method, took out each book one by one, and asked myself as I held it 'does this spark joy?'

I didn't get rid of a huge amount of books, maybe two and a half  bags, but I also had a lot of books to return to family.

I like to use my book cases to display oddments and decorative items, and now I have more space to do this. Jon was getting a bit annoyed because previously I had over stuffed the shelves with junk and he couldn't  get to the books when he wanted to, so I've also tried not to over do it this time.

I am enjoying turning books with really nice covers face first to jazz up the shelves and bring a bit of colour, and have organised books of the same height together to bring in more evenness. I also have been enjoying putting books by the same author or from the same series together in stacks.

The vintage tea party books in pride of place.

Turning pretty books face out, grouping books by the same author or type in the same place, and grouping books of the same height together

design books together in the office.

Category wise my shelves aren't perfect, lots of categories are jumbled in together, but I have mainly put all the design books in the office, and have put Jon's favourite foraging books together on the middle shelf in the lounge bookcase because he likes to refer to them often and they happen to look attractive together.

I also have my big old 70's photographic encyclopaedias together on the top shelf, my 80's annuals together on the next shelf down, my beautiful fading paperbacks together, and my favourite cook books in pride of place on the bottom shelf. All my other cook books are together in the kitchen.

Some books did and didn't spark joy for several reasons - there were lots of books I loved for their stories, but hated the covers of, so I used floral fabrics, old maps, and marbled paper to re cover them, and then put them all together in my glass fronted china cabinet .

I was skeptical when she said if you haven't read a book by now you never will, so throw it out. There were several books I had like this which I put aside to take on holiday  - and I could hardly bring myself to read - they were so dry. She obviously has a point.

I re-covered some paperbacks with dodgy covers
in pretty paper and fabrics

The reason I have been enjoying this top to bottom house chuck out so much is because me and Jon moved to this particular house we are living in a year ago, but have never really found proper homes for all our belongings. It has been good to take everything out of the shelves and cupboards, whittle down the contents to things we love only, and put them back in in a more organised and categorised manner.

Marie Kondo is quite firm that you should do your entire house in one go (which she says takes on average about six months) and while going through this process I am starting to feel in general that things in my house are beginning to have proper homes. When I want to get something I know where it will be, instead of having a vague idea it may be stuffed in a drawer upstairs somewhere. 

She also says when you have a place for everything it is easier to maintain tidiness, which I have indeed noticed, and is really great.