Today, I wanted to share my packing and unpacking process when it comes to books. It’s definitely a daunting task, especially if you have a big collection. Hopefully, this will be helpful to someone who will be doing this soon. I also want to finally talk about something exciting we’ve been waiting to share. Let’s get into it

Table of Contents

1. Why I’m Packing
2. My Process
   1. Hardcovers
   2. Soft covers
3. Unpacking
   1. Organizing My Books
4. Decorating
5. Final Thoughts

Why I’m Packing

We moved again! We really liked our most recent apartment. We could have stayed there for a long time, but we moved. This time not into another apartment but somewhere we own! While there’s always lots of stress that comes with this process, there is also a lot of excitement. This time It’s ours. My dog has 3 acres to run as fast as he can. I have so much more room for my garden. There’s a giant willow tree by a creek, which makes the perfect spot for a picnic and reading. My fiancé has a huge garage to work on whatever projects he wants. There’s a barn and space for the chickens I have always wanted. There are no neighbors sharing walls, floors, and ceilings. I can play music while cooking late. I can use a mixer to bake midnight cookies. I can use my blow dryer after a late shower. I can have my TV above a whisper volume and so much more. We’ve lived here a few weeks now and it truly feels magical. There are hundreds of fireflies. We’ve become huge bird watchers and make sure the feeders/baths are cleaned regularly. I’ve made so many yummy dinners and baked lots of cookies. I set up my reading space and its just perfect. There are still some things to get used to living in a more rural area. We are farther away from a Tim Hortons, a big grocery store, and a library bigger than 1 room. None of those changes out weighs the fact that this place feels like HOME. I could not be more grateful for where we’re at and the beautiful life we are building.

Now let’s get into how I pack books, how I organize my bookshelves, and what my reading space looks like now.

My Process

Moving means packing up my reading space and books. While I’ve done this a couple of times now, I have definitely accumulated a lot more books since the last time. Packing, moving, and unpacking are probably one of my least favorite things. Towards the end of packing, everything gets thrown into random boxes and bags because I’m so exhausted. Tearing down and re-setting up a space is always a pain, especially after putting so much time into making it functional and cozy. After moving so many times, I have figured out how I like to pack my books, which is easy to do in the moment and easy to unpack.

While it’s not always possible, I try to keep books that were on the shelf in the same box. That way, it’s easier to unpack.

Hardcovers

My first step is putting as many hardcover books as I can fit into a suitcase. Instead of trying to fit them into a box, making it extremely heavy, a suitcase can be rolled.

Hard covers in boxes I lay flat, upright, or on their spines. I will not put them on their pages.

Soft covers

Soft covers need to be flat or standing upright in boxes. This way, the spines or pages aren’t stressed and aren’t bending/curling the whole book.

When I finished, I had a suitcase and 7 boxes.

Unpacking

Unfortunately, one of my bookshelves did not survive the Uhual and was smashed. We needed to buy another one to even start unpacking my books. My fiancé decided to order an extra since I was starting to run out of room, even when both my shelves were still intact.

We decided there was a perfect corner in the living room that would be the library/reading area. We set up the 3 shelves in an L shape. Because we have pets and kids around a lot we made sure to anchor them to the wall so there are no accidents.

Organizing My Books

When It comes to organizing my books I like to do it alphabetically by authors last name left to right across the shelves. While taking them out of the boxes I set them in piles organized by letter and slowly went through each pile.

When I was done going through all the piles, the finished product looked like this! All the books on the shelves are organized by the author’s last name, and the cart has my library books.

Decorating

Once all the boxes were empty and the books put away, it was time to decorate! A cute pink rug, my reading chair, and my little table were added back into the space from my old reading nook. The top of the shelves holds my cat and dog’s treats because my cat WILL hunt them down. Some music boxes I thrifted were used to decorate the top of the left shelf. There’s a music box near my Sarah J Maas books that reminded me of those stories. The vases with flowers my fiancé brought in from outside. He found the flowers on our property while mowing and put them in a vase to decorate the shelves. (How cute!) The blanket has bookshelves and a chair with a fluffy white cat sitting in it. It looks almost identical to my childhood cat.

Final Thoughts

While packing and moving can be a pain, this is the best way I’ve found to safely transport a lot of books. One of my shelves didn’t make it. However, all of my books did. They are in the same condition I packed them in. When it comes to organizing my books author’s last name makes the most sense in my brain, but it is hard to maintain while adding new books. I’ve had to completely move everything around while trying to put away a new book. How do you organize your bookshelves?

I just want to include some pictures from the last month we have been waiting to share. We are truly so, so happy, and I’m so excited I finally get to share it with everyone. Life has been amazingly hectic lately, but I will still find time to blog and post content. Sitting down at my kitchen table with my laptop and an iced coffee my man made me has become a cherished routine. My post on Lemon8 with these pictures got a lot of support so for that I want to say thank you so much.