I’ve been home on holidays for the past two weeks, and trying to sort out a few things. Yesterday, I tackled books. I read a book a few years ago talking about the ideal to organise books. One of the (all very sensible) things it said was “always leave room for expansion. Put some ornaments in between books, so that you can fill them in later”.

Well in our house, for probably the last 10 years, the problem is figuring out which category can now safely be put in a box in the loft or (even harder) given away to Lifeline. We had quite a good period for 2-3 years after we went from the more-money-than-sense-no-kids phase to the single-income-with-a-mortgage-and-two-kids phase, but we’re back to our old book buying habits as we gradually figure out which of the things we gave up we really still like (actually that’s mostly my fault – E is still much more sensible). This time, I managed (just) to get things more sorted out by putting some toys away in the playroom that had been occupying valuable bookshelf space.

I really need to get into the habit of using the library. The trouble is I’m a sucker for good book marketing, as done by good bookshops (easy categorisation, shop recommendations, latest releases highlighted etc) and libraries just aren’t as good at that. I know I can learn how to use a library and find my favourite kinds of books (I got quite good at it when I lived across the road from one 15 years ago), but it takes more effort than I can be bothered with these days.