Organizational Apparatus
When it comes to inexpensive but functional furniture and organizational goodies with a little flair, a girl has to love Ikea.
The past couple of months I've been feeling like I have books stuffed in every nook and cranny I can find. I figured it was high time that all the books and magazines related to the fiber arts actually went into the fiber room -- it fits with my desire to have order in my written universe. When I was 10, I compulsively ordered the books in my book case by author: last name, first name, title When I got a new book, I would take great pleasure in finding exactly the right spot and then moving other books up and down to fit it in my book case. When I got into music, my compulsion extended to my CD collection. I've gotten to be something of a slacker, since I tend to order my books by size and topic now rather than author name (I guess this is what comes of bookshelves with irregular heights).
This weekend, we finally made the arduous trek out to Shaumburg to search Ikea for the perfect book cases to help me achieve my goal. These two are from the "Effektiv" collection with a birch finish (the tall one is from the Billy collection and it's been living with me for some time now). Of course, I couldn't pass by the lovely pink magazine boxes and storage containers (they have yet to be assembled, but they will be used to hold my rapidly expanding collection of double pointed needles, circular needles, spindles and other odds and ends that usually end up scattered around my room). And how could I resist the hugging hands heart? Ikea was donating the entire purchase price to charities helping out after Hurricane Katrina. Every fiber room needs a little hug -- just as much as it needs a little organization to be a happy place to work in. I'm hoping my spinning wheel will find a home in here, too, but that depends on how comfortable it is to spin when sitting on that futon couch.
The book cases come just in the nick of time to help me celebrate another very cool thing. My partner in crime and fibery adventure, Julie, is going to share my book blog with me. It's getting a name change to mark the occasion: Two Friend Collect Books. Between the two of us, we have quite a collection of knitting and other crafting books -- and we don't always have the same opinions, so hopefully we can provide anyone who drops by with a well-rounded perspective on what's in our libraries. We're also hoping to branch beyond crafting books -- Julie is one of my favorite sources for good fiction recommendations. If you want to know when we've updated the book blog, just click on over there and hit the bloglines link and you'll be all set up!
I find that Ikea furniture is chronically shoddy; that said, I would still buy bookshelves and small items there. I just wouldn't want to sit on anything Ikea. One of my girlfriends had an assembly-required couch from Schaumberg and I always felt like I was going to break it when I sat.
I disagree with Christina's generalization. Ikea certainly does sell some cheap-feeling furniture, but a lot of their not-quite-the-cheapest stuff is pretty solid. (I have a set of bookshelves that've lasted over ten years and a few moves, plus a perfectly reasonable assembly-required fold-out couch.)
To reply to your actual post:
Yay, organization! I tend to sort topic>size if necessary>author.
I'm looking forward to more posts on your book blog.
I think it's hard to expect all Ikea items to be of incredibly long-lasting quality, given their prices. It's been my experience that you have to pick and choose carefully -- or you have to accept that it's just not going to be something that lasts a long time. I've had bad luck with their candles (they melt quickly, smoke a lot) but good luck with the office furniture (the Effektive and Billy are quite solid, and if you get them in the birch color they almost look like real, wood furniture).
We tend to by Ikea things when we absolutely need something but know we're not ready to spend the money on real furniture or haven't quite figured out what we really want a space to be.
I definitely love her book reviews, she's increased my must read list way beyond what I'll ever read. But at least I have options. Love the bookcases.
You must feel real good getting everything organized. Looks so tidy! Brings to mind a story of someone at a prior workplace who popped his head in my office (which by the way had stacks of work all over). He said that he'd always like seeing my office b/c it looked homey and a hard worker was in it vs. a tidy, sterile office. I didn't know how to take it at first but figured it was a nice complement at least on my how I seemed to him as a worker.
My knitting area has tidy stacks of current books and projects - not super neat but nice to look at.Thanks for posting - enjoy your blog!
Hey, do you and your friend ever have books you want to trade? I"m doing a blog event called Blog this book, and we're going to have some books up next week if you're interested. Check this link for more info:
http://fidgetybudgie.typepad.com/fidgetybudgie/blog_this_book/index.html