Personal Space

My post yesterday must have hit on a subconscious nerve for DD#2,   I came home last night while she was at basketball to see her closet laid out on her bed and stacks of books in he hallway.  Now I doubt she plans to purge any books, as we will be getting her a couple book cases for when her new room (delayed and dealyed) is complete.  It looks like she will be starting a good sort on the clothes. 

Books have always been a big part of my life and I have passed that down to my kids.  Growing up in a very large family, having many things of our very own were rare.  Thanks to the Scholastic book orders through the schools (not a plug for them specifically), I could save my pocket change and get a book or two every couple months; books that didn't have a due date and that I could underline passages if I chose, This is where I bought my first copy of Charlottes Web in elementary school and The Outsiders in Junior High, both books that I owned for decades until they were tattered and the pages falling out. I had a bedroom that was in the half basement level of our house, and the walls made a built in shelf.  I lined my books up on that shelf, above my head board.  I'd make a little cocoon of pillows and blankets and on cold snowy shut in days in the winter would curl up in my personal space for hours with my books. I have a similar wall/shelf thing in my house, and DD#1 had her bedroom downstairs.  She used the shelf for her collection of both books and movies, enveloping her bed on two sides.

As I posted yesterday, this is part of the reason I don't have the immaculately organized homes, free of clutter and stuff, that so many strive for.  If we were to purge our books after reading the favorites, it would feel like giving a part of home away; saying goodbye to friends and family.  Books make our house our home, and our little nooks within our home personal. The fact that I have hallway spillage yet this morning may be annoying, but not worrying. I figure by the time she graduates and goes off to college, she will have two Ikea books shelves, floor to ceiling with books. Eventually these will need to go with her when we downsize or she up sizes on her own.  We're still waiting for the first two to do that, but in the meantime, I'll let her keep her stacks of books in an organized to her chaos, creating her own space.