When the shelves are full... Start on the floor (Too many books)

[Gyppo]

So many books, so little time ;-)   I like to keep just a few volumes on hand for the nights when I can't sleep but being creative isn't really an option either.  A mixture of fiction and non-fiction.

Shortly due to be swapped for another pile of 'old favourites' currently stored in the metal trunk at the top of the stairs.

Gyppo 

[jeanette]

there are now so many books in boxes in my attic, that I can almost hear the ceiling groaning. My hubby and I have bought thousands of books over the years, and never got rid of any. Sometimes I go up there and just browse. It's amazing what you find!

[StrayDog]

I really need more books.
My own personal collection numbers about 200.
But my parents have about 900.

[Andrewf]

Ahhh they have an excuse...   More time to collect them

[ma100]

I swore I would never move house again when I carted
all the boxes of books in. They were heavier than some of the
furniture.

[Lerwick Street]

My Darling and extremely long suffering partner Paul says that it is the bookcases that are holding the walls of our house up and that if the walls did fall down we wouldn't notice because there are so many bookcases.
I have about  4 - 5 000 books stored all over the house, in the hallway and up the stairs etc. Cannot  bear to part with them, but...
have you ever been in a book shop -second hand bookshop especially, and seen a copy of a book you would like and then start thinking 'Hmmm, I might have a copy of that already' My father whose book collection is twice the size of mine has bought several 'doublers' as he calls them.
But, he has willed all his books to me. I haven't started storing books in the loft yet, but it's looking as though that day is gonna come!

[Gyppo]

Lofts are a godsend...  Not just for books

I really ought to 'board' our loft.  But I get terribly claustrophobic up there, even though I installed a proper light a few years back and a little ladder.

I already have a motley collection of old doors - rescued from skips etc - laid across the joists as a form of rough flooring, which helps to spread the load.  It also reduces the chance of me slipping between the joists and falling through, again!  Once was enough,  when I was about fourteen, and there is a smooth non-artexed patch on my bedroomed ceiling to serve as a reminder.

As well as the books there are model boats, model planes, cycle parts, some motorcycle parts, weapons from the arena days, and odds and end of furniture which was too good to throw away, such as a carefuly dismantled cabin bed which was also pressed into service as temporary floor boards.

When I needed an oversized rectangular cakeboard for a specialist wedding cake I went into the loft, came back down with a cupboard door drom the cabin bed, temporarily removed the handle and hinges, and then covered it with extra wide kitchen foil secured underneath with duct tape.  A layer of icing complated it before carefully positioning the cake on top and getting on with the rest of the decoration.  For a smaller cake a bit of cheap whitefaced hardboard would have been ample, but for a really big and heavy cake I needed the structural strength.  If the board bends the icing cracks.  Half inch chipboard is pretty tough stuff.

I'd be lost without my loft ;-)

Gyppo   

[StrayDog]

Ah, the good old loft. We have an excess of stuff in this house, that's with a double garage, and our loft is packed with things.

[Gyppo]

Don't get me started on garages ;-)  Mine is like one of those self-unpacking archives.  If I open the door I can hear a creak as 'stuff' tries to escape.  Someone tried to break in once and was clobbered by stuff falling down from the roof beams.   As far as I could tell they got away with nothing but left a few traces of blood.

There is now a four foot tall Rowan tree growing in front of the door, which shows how long it is since I did more than just crack the door open and wriggle carefully inside.

'Stuff', where would we be without it?

Gyppo-Land.   Where minimalists come when they need a break from open spaces and feng shui sterility ;-)

[StrayDog]

My floor is also home to several thousand words of my own writing.
I'm planning to clean up a little today.

[Bru]

I have finally succumbed.  My books number well over 1000 - I gave up counting when I reached 1000 - and I have given in to pressure from close ones.  Some of the books must go if I am ever to vacuum the bedroom. So later in the week, a 'bookbuyer' will come around.  I shall be dragged screaming and locked into a room far away until he and the books have departed.  I am currently, half heartedly, trying to choose which ones to part with.  It's my own personal Hell as in 'Sophie's Choice' (no flippancy intended).
I may need counselling after this ...

[Gyppo]

Don't do it!
Shortly after my divorce a few years ago I parted with a whole trunk full of books - 'whilst the balance of my mind was disturbed' - and I've never truly recovered from the literary loss.

Just vac between the books.  That's what the 'crevice tool' was invented for.

Gyppo

[Bru]

<<That's what the 'crevice tool' was invented for.>>

You'd never guess what I thought that was for!!!!!!!!!!!!   

[Gyppo]

No idea ;-)  If you're a 'beach person' who spends too long on the sometimes sandy beaches of Cornwall etc it can be useful for getting the sand from the crack of your arse.  Beyond that I refuse to speculate ;-)

Gyppo

[Bru]