Anybody need some nice solid 3-ring binders? All sizes, from ½” to these oversized 3-inchers. Also Franklin Planner paraphernalia in Compact, Classic, and Monarch. The Monarch size takes regular letter sized paper.

How about you, Matt? You like paper archives.

Working on cleaning the attic (which I still think I'm going to renovate before the end of the year). Started by getting rid of my lifetime supply of vintage computers, which Thorin kindly hauled downstairs for me and stashed in the van. I then drove them over to FreeGeek Twin Cities, over in the industrial end of Seward Neighborhood. I strongly recommend this option if you have old electronics, cameras, cables, chargers, and even small appliances to get rid of. I think I gave them 6 computers, and put the 7th (an iMac with embedded CRT) out in the alley for the City of Minneapolis to take care of. FreeGeek charges $5 for CRTs, but the city takes them for free.

While I was over there I also made a purchase - a sturdy old Hitachi receiver/amplifier/tuner, which I connected to my computer to drive the speakers that have been hanging on my walls since the last old amp died. I think it sounds better than the mid-range powered computer speakers I was using.

Okay, all the sff paperbacks are on shelves with their spines visible! Well, for certain values of "all."  I'm not counting the anthologies, but those will fit on the shelves downstairs in the den if I don't find a better place for them. And, most important, I'm not counting the probably THOUSANDS of books that Richard has hidden away in the den - many of them on shelves but probably not all of them. These are newer, bloated size paperbacks, mostly of a genre I have no interest in. So for the purposes of this project I'm pretending they don't exist, except for when I find little caches of books that I feel are longing to be reunited with their sisters in the back room (like all that Mercedes Lackey).

However, I am not satisfied with the way things are arranged: A's and B's in the hall, B's in the shelf by the attic step, C's and D's on the shelves in the middle of the office, and so on. I want them to flow logically from A-Z, and I'd rather not use so many of the hardback-sized shelves for paperbacks.

So ideally I will finish up this project by adding a new set of paperback shelves in the hall where the tipsy pile of books and comics used to be. Unfortunately, as far as I know, nobody actually sells paperback shelves. The best I can probably do is a much-too-deep cabinet with movable shelves (and preferably extra shelves for sale as piece parts). Width should be somewhere between 36-41" and height between 45" and 60". Ideally, depth would be no more than 6" but I don't think anybody sells shelves like that. Depth could be as much as 11-1/2" without exceeding the space. Richard has some in the den that more or less fill the bill (except that they are in use, of course). He thinks he got them at Menards. Anybody have any other suggestions?

ETA: It looks like the best bet is to search for DVD or "multi-media" storage units. I still find it mind-boggling that NOBODY makes shelves for paperback storage, but as far as I can tell that is in fact the case. And even compact DVD shelves are hard to come by. A CD/DVD case is less than 6" deep, but most of the storage systems have shelves that are 9.5" deep. Why??

But this one doesn't look too bad. The shelves are only 7" deep and adjustable and the whole unit is about the size I want. I'm more in the mood to just go out and BUY the shelves I want, put them together and finish this project. But if that is just impossible, I can order these.

Encouraged by vgqn's similar efforts, I thought I'd start posting my progress too. Current project started as an effort to Do Something about the tall teetery pile of books and comics on top of a shelf unit in the upstairs hall. Ultimately, I moved all the non-sff books to the bookshelf in the living room, giving away 4-5 boxes of books that were filling that shelf to capacity and beyond. At one point there were actually 2 or 3 empty shelves in that unit!  (Not any more - I filled them yesterday with another surprise cache of non-sff).

Current project is to get all the sf&f paperbacks shelved in alphabetical order. This used to be the case, but more and more books arrived and long ago overran the alphabet shelves. I've spent probably 8 hours of the last week sorting and dusting. Just vacuuming the disgusting layer of dust off the tops of each shelf of books is amazingly time consuming.

I boxed up all the sf magazines (Analog and others) - haven't entirely decided whether to keep them or give them away. In some ways, these magazines are more worth keeping than the books, since they contain many stories that were never published anywhere else and would be hard to find again.

Still not enough room. Then I had the bright idea of making room on the alphabet shelves by pulling out Special Collections and putting them elsewhere. Brilliant! I decided to move sets of books that could reasonably be classified as children's books into the paperback shelves behind the door in Amber's room. There were some books on those shelves, but mostly miscellaneous junk. I relocated all the Andre Norton (2 shelves worth!), a shelf of Oz books, another shelf of Tarzan and Conan books. Still not enough. So I reclassified the Lovecraft Collection as part of the Vintage Fantasy Collection (Lin Carter, A. Merritt, et al) and parked those in there too. There might possibly be enough room now to get A-Z into the 2nd floor shelves. Much more dusting and book-hauling on the agenda for today. 

In the process of looking for a camera accessory that might actually prove useful I found myself going through box after box of accessories and supplies for items I don't own any more. Okay, I probably don't need the owners manual for that phone I lost two years ago. But I have two perfectly good extra batteries for that phone, unused and in their original packaging! Similarly, I have unopened printer cartridges for printers I no longer own.

I also have 3 or 4 old cell phones that probably still work along with their collections of batteries, cables, earphones, chargers, etc. The 2 old Motorola Razrs have actually proven their continuing usefulness, both having been pressed into service as emergency replacement phones. But what about this old Motorola filp phone that I think I got in 1997?  Could it possible be good for anything?

Any ideas what to do with this stuff?  I'd be happy to give it away if there were any chance someone could use it. If I can't give it away, does it all have to be recycled as toxic electronic waste?