Neatening Up a Bookcase

In the open hallway of my home's second floor, my husband and I have a wall of five nearly floor-to-ceiling bookcases that hold books, DVDs, board games, photo albums and various office supplies.

I've never really worked too hard at decreasing the clutter in those bookcases before, but after viewing the beautifully organized homes of other mom bloggers like Sarah of Thrifty Decor Chick and Leanne at OrganizeYourStuffNow.com, I've been inspired to tackle the unorganized spaces in my home and create more order and visual calm. I admit that we have way to much stuff in those bookcases -- I have been trying to weed out clutter like old cookbooks that I never use (the type of cookbooks that feature recipes that will definitely clog one's arteries) and yellowing recipes torn out of women's and cooking magazines years ago. But, there are a lot of things that I can't part with yet -- or can't get rid of without upsetting the spouse and kids!

Adding Calm to Chaos

So, I went out to my local Target and bought some fabric drawers in mocca from Closet Maid for less than $7 each. I've only used a few of the fabric organizing bins so far, and have only organized about half of the five bookcases to date, but at least that section of the bookcases looks a lot better. The five bins that I've put together so far holds novels, books on writing and grammar, DVDs and old Disney VCR tapes that we are still holding to (even though we no longer play them).

I taped on regular Avery labels on which I've handwritten the contents of each bin, but I could use a better system for identifying the bins. The fabric drawers don't come with anything to hold the labels, and my labels don't seem to want to stick that well to the drawers, despite the packing tape on top of them.

So, if you have any ideas on how to label the drawers, I'd love to hear them! Also -- I'll try to keep you updated on my progress in organizing those bookscases!

Lauren Kim is the executive editor of MomHomeGuide.com. For more organizing tips, check out MomHomeGuide.com.