I hate tidying. I am a stacker of paper and piler of stuff. It’s my ethos.
And yet, every once in a while, I hit a critical mass and tidying happens. It’s really just reorganization. Sometimes, it is just repiling. And so it was in the days after Christmas.
I am serving on the 2023 Sibert Award Committee, and my 500ish square foot condominium has been housing a growing number of books. If our shared spreadsheet is accurate, I have over 400 nonfiction books.
I had a fantastic system, organizing them in 11 boxes, in alphabetical order. Thank goodness I kept all those boxes from Scholastic Book Fair. They’ve seen me through several moves and are perfect for organizing the books. But they started taking over my home.
The resort started with pulling out the chapter books that will become part of my classroom library and boxing them together in two boxes. They will move to my classroom this week. The rest were reorganized into seven boxes that have been redeployed around my home, opening up some spaces that had been filled with stacked boxes. I had hoped to donate these to the Children’s Book Bank over the break, but, like schools, they were closed until today. I will make a call this week to be sure they want the books. I have a “Plan B” in case they don’t.
booksandbassets 
I see myself in this post. I, too, shuffle papers and boxes. I’m on a mission to downsize this year. Those Scholastic boxes are THE BEST! I still think about them from my days in the media center. I often carry books to restock Little Free Libraries in our community. Students are blessed by your generosity in providing books! Happy New Year!
WHOA! I looked up the Sibert Award and really want to read the 2022 winner :The People’s Painter—and the one about solving poop disposal, too! And here I thought I had my work cut out for me with my one measly box from ALAN this year. (And I haven’t read even a fraction of them yet!) I am impressed, Adrienne. Congratulations! I hope your return to school is as productive as this reorganization appears to be.
I think that over time we all become expert shufflers. Restacking gives us a sense of having done some organizing. Sounds like you are on a roll. Good for you. You are getting things accomplished.
This is me for sure! But I wouldn’t be able to give away any of the books. 🙂 I’m impressed that your boxes have lasted so long. I bought 10 Rubbermaid totes about 15 years ago when I was moving schools. I have now used them through 3 school moves, 5 classroom moves and 2 house moves. They were a good investment.