Book storage?

[Biggkidd]

We live in a small house yet I have a literal ton of books. I have 6 large cram packed bookshelves in the room I’m sitting in as I type. Problem is I have about that many more books in boxes and stacks and no good place to put them. So I was wondering where and how y’all store your books and other knowledge holding devices. Computers are great but there are somethings I just flat out want a hard copy of that can’t crash or die from lack of power.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I'm with you there! I have book shelves in every room, but as of late I have been looking at some of the older one that are no longer relevant wondering if I should just bite the bullet and put them in the recycling bin. I mean if I no longer own the software do I really need to keep the manual? But some of the books have value and life eternal, gardening books, DIY books, hunting books, religious, and educational books... Those I'm keeping, but do I really need books on FORTRAN, DBase, VB, and the like...... I guess if a SHTF event comes they could be used as fire starter...

 

[Peanut]

Me too... I finally down sized a few years ago. By that I mean re-organized. I had too many book shelves and too many books collecting dust.

I limited myself to two book shelves in my living room. One is for my high use books like plant science & medicine and cookbooks. Reference material I reach for almost daily. Along with current reading...

The other (larger) shelving unit is also for reference books on a wide range of subjects, trapping, raising chickens, etc. Books I might need a couple times a year to look something up.

Everything else is in large plastic totes. There it got a little more difficult to sort. I tried alphabetical order first, didn't work for me. I ended up sorting them by topic. As some topics over lap a little I tried to keep those groups together.

Is it perfect? Nope! but this works out much better for the way I live. And it's definitely better than book cases in every room filled with books that I might only need every few years.

A trick on the totes. I printed out itemized lists of the contents which I put on top of the books before putting on the lid. I don't have to dig into a tote to find something. Pop the top, check the list... move on if necessary.

 

[Bacpacker]

Same problem here. Bookcases in several areas, Large baskets under our living room table, stacks in the floor of our bedroom, desk is covered in books, and boxes of books in the bedroom and basement

 

[Biggkidd]

I'm currently considering ringing this room with a shelf all the way around just far enough from the celling for one level of books standing upright to store a bunch more. That would give me about 60 more linear feet of shelving. Some of the bookshelves I have now reach to the celling or it would be 72 more linear feet. lol
I just wonder if that much weight that high up could cause problems in any shake & bake circumstances. We had a mild quake here a few years ago even though this is a pretty stable area. Don't really want a PDR or such falling on anyone's head!

 

[Peanut]

Building more shelves doesn't address the real issue, clutter. On my first cull I pulled books that I hadn't touched in 5 years. They belong in a tote.

Next I pulled every book I hadn't touched in 2 years. Into a tote they went.

All this was difficult because like anyone who loves books I also like to see them.

In the end that was the biggest hurdle. Deciding to stash them out of sight. Once I crossed that line it was easy...

Who knows? I might win the lottery and build a library addition to my home. Untill then my books are stashed according to relevance. Every book I have is still accessible, without all the cleaning.

I have cfs... I have to do things to cut down on physical activity. Dusting books and polishing book shelves for books I don't use often? Nope... not doing that anymore.

 

[Caribou]

I have floor to ceiling bookcases ordered from my next-door neighbor. He has been slow on delivery because the wife keeps him busy building furniture for her. Mine was ordered first but guess who gets priority, without complaint. *&^#$%^. I'll have adjustable shelves, lockable doors, and 1/4" polycarbonate windows in the doors. We have seen a 7.0 and a 7.1 quakes since we moved in. Regular glass wouldn't hold up. It will be on an exterior wall so it will add insulation and ballistic protection. It will be anchored to the wall for quake security.

P.S. I have forced air heating with HEPA quality filtering. With the doors it should keep dusting to a minimum.

 

[Neb]

I'm currently considering ringing this room with a shelf all the way around just far enough from the celling for one level of books standing upright to store a bunch more. That would give me about 60 more linear feet of shelving. Some of the bookshelves I have now reach to the celling or it would be 72 more linear feet. lol
I just wonder if that much weight that high up could cause problems in any shake & bake circumstances. We had a mild quake here a few years ago even though this is a pretty stable area. Don't really want a PDR or such falling on anyone's head!

The Princess has the books sorted by genre because all of our shelves are double stacked ( books in front of books). When searching for a book we only have a few shelves to look through to find what we are after.

We have plans to add more shelves as the house gets remodeled. We did purge psychology books since neither of us are interested in that subject. They went to the township library.

Bookcases are the only storage method we use.

Ben

 

[Magus]

I use 10 gallon cans with screw on lids and oxygen eaters.

 

[Biggkidd]

With our space limitations I think the shelf around the celling may be my only viable option. I am not willing to get rid of anymore. I lost a few thousand to water damage about 13-14 years ago.
My pockets are pretty shallow so whatever route I go has to be low dollar. lol

 

[AMC]

You can always make a faraday cage around your precious electronics, which will protect them from EMP. Then get a nook/kindle and put a bunch of books on it and store it away in said cage for SHTF as long as it's done properly and you have a means to charge it, such as similarly protected solar power arrays. I haven't done this but I'm working on it.

Have you considered storing notebooks? You might want to take notes on what you read or get your thoughts on a page. Might seem unimportant when we rarely have to use them, but when we can't buy them anymore I'll imagine they become rather valuable.

Found this, don't know how helpful it might be:
https://www.motor1.com/products-services/auto-products/solar-powered-phone-charger/

 

[angie_nrs]

What a good question OP. I struggle with this too. I have books that I don't want to get rid of, like my old medical books, but I hardly ever use them. So, like Peanut, I have resorted to totes. I put medical books in a tote, gardening books in a tote, spiritual books in a tote, cooking books in a tote, etc. The problem with that is.....I still keep buying books and I run out of room in the totes. Yes, I have a book problem! I can't help it.....I just love books. And, after I read them, I usually don't want to part with them.

I have plans for a nice big bookshelf in one of the spare bedrooms and make it into my ME room. I'll be getting the carpets cleaned within the next month and gutting everything out to make room. Although, I can't get too carried away b/c there are windows in there that limit my shelving space.

I should just spend time in the library in town. But sometimes, it's just too loud in there and they don't have comfy recliners to curl up in, drink tea, snuggle with the pups, and flip through the pages. It's not the same as reading at home.

 

[backlash]

My daughter just had to toss several hundred books. She stored them in the garage in cardboard boxes and they all had mold on them.

 

[Biggkidd]

My dream home WILL have a nice size library with a classic old school style. Although I may go with a lighter color than the traditional dark walnut. Maybe a clear satin finish over White Oak or something along those lines.

 

[Biggkidd]

Curiosity question for the other readers here. What are the oldest entertainment / fiction books you own? I have a hundred or so that were printed pre 1950.

 

[Haertig]

My book collection / audiobook collection fits on this, with tons of room to spare:

Even a single shelf bookcase is overkill for storing it. I could probably fit a couple dozen of them in a 35mm film canister (boy, I wish you could still find those, especially the metal ones!) If a bug out is warranted, it rides along easily - as long as you don't lose the tiny thing! Try that with a house full of paper books.

But speaking to the original problem introduced in this thread: If you have a spare room or a walk-in closet that you could clear out, you could construct floor to ceiling shelving to cover every wall. And then rows of floor to ceiling racks in the center to hold more books. It may not be the most elegant looking library, but it would be compact and highly functional. Find a broken refrigerator and put that in the back corner to serve as a fire-break for your important books stored inside it. You would have to construct internal shelving to hold the weight - standard refrigerator shelves would probably collapse with only a handful of books.

 

[joel]

We live in a small house yet I have a literal ton of books. I have 6 large cram packed bookshelves in the room I’m sitting in as I type. Problem is I have about that many more books in boxes and stacks and no good place to put them. So I was wondering where and how y’all store your books and other knowledge holding devices. Computers are great but there are somethings I just flat out want a hard copy of that can’t crash or die from lack of power.

Daughter said she was going to sell all my books when I past to raise a million dollars.

 

[joel]

My book collection / audiobook collection fits on this, with tons of room to spare:

View attachment 95345

Even a single shelf bookcase is overkill for storing it. I could probably fit a couple dozen of them in a 35mm film canister (boy, I wish you could still find those, especially the metal ones!) If a bug out is warranted, it rides along easily - as long as you don't lose the tiny thing! Try that with a house full of paper books.

But speaking to the original problem introduced in this thread: If you have a spare room or a walk-in closet that you could clear out, you could construct floor to ceiling shelving to cover every wall. And then rows of floor to ceiling racks in the center to hold more books. It may not be the most elegant looking library, but it would be compact and highly functional. Find a broken refrigerator and put that in the back corner to serve as a fire-break for your important books stored inside it. You would have to construct internal shelving to hold the weight - standard refrigerator shelves would probably collapse with only a handful of books.

Great, but not all books are on audio, I have books that have been out of print for fifty years.

 

[zoomzoom]

Curiosity question for the other readers here. What are the oldest entertainment / fiction books you own? I have a hundred or so that were printed pre 1950.

Can't say if you'd consider a Bible as entertainment but the oldest book I have is a Martin Luther Bible printed in 1562. I'll have to open it up but thought I recall it being printed on a Gutenberg press.

 

[Haertig]

Great, but not all books are on audio, I have books that have been out of print for fifty years.

There are also books that are available as ebooks, but are no longer available as printed copies. So it goes both ways. We obviously have to acquire books in a medium that they are available in. If they are no longer available, we need to hang onto them in whatever medium we currently have them in.

 

[backlash]

35mm film canister (boy, I wish you could still find those, especially the metal ones!)

You can still get them.
3 Vintage Kodak Film Canisters Aged Patina - Etsy

https://www.amazon.com/AKIRO-Canist...wicXNhIjoiMy40MyIsInFzcCI6IjMuNDUifQ==&sr=8-3

Almost all of my reading material is on electronic devices.
I read several books a week on my Kindle.
I do not save them after I read them. I return the books to Amazon Unlimited. I very rarely reread a book.

 

[joel]

Can't say if you'd consider a Bible as entertainment but the oldest book I have is a Martin Luther Bible printed in 1562. I'll have to open it up but thought I recall it being printed on a Gutenberg press.

I understand, what you mean, but thousands of people learned to read, reading the bible & in many homes it was the only book, before there was a state school on every corner.
I have my Fathers bible from when he was a child, it is close to one hundred years old.

 

[Neb]

I understand, what you mean, but thousands of people learned to read, reading the bible & in many homes it was the only book, before there was a state school on every corner.
I have my Fathers bible from when he was a child, it is close to one hundred years old.

I have a collection of old bibles and some of them do have world cultures and history addendums to help teach.

Those pages were from this bible that does not have a date. Dates were not always included on the title page. Not sure how old it is but in the 1800s.

This bible was what I suspect was a family bible that was kept on a mantle because it shows signs of fire/smoke damage on the cover.

Another older bible pushing 200 years old.

Please note how white the pages are. It was from the time before paper was made from wood pulp and was made from rags or hemp.

How long since I touched a book does not fit into my use case. I want to be able to frab a book when a conversation prompts it.

We are preserving books for post- TEOTWAWKI. I have a 10 volume set of the history of the world published before 1900. When people try to rewrite history I want to have books to prove what really happened.

Additionally when the internet disappears and society is trying to rebuild, our library may be a source of entertainment and enlightenment.


Ben

 

[joel]

WOW! My mother family Bible has artwork from the Renaissance, it was my first education of art.
But the Bible in your photo has the cover made by a master & I bet it was all hand made also.

 

[Bacpacker]

ZoomZoom and Neb I love seeing those old bibles. I have one, but it's from 1900's. Not real sure what my oldest book is. But this thread has got me thinking I need to start searching out good old books again.
Not sure we'll ever build again, and if we do it'll probably be a smaller house than we currently are in. But if we do, I would love to have a decent size room lined with book cases floor to ceiling. I'd also like to have a couple very comfy chairs and a table with some primo lighting to just have a reading room/library. I'm kinda like neb to some degree, I like having my books where I know where they are. All mine aren't like that currently

 

[Biggkidd]

I love all my old and new books. They always work as long as there's light and I can still see, with reading glasses.

 

[dademoss]

Storage? Bookcases, shelves, stacks, random areas, behind my recliner, lurking under my desk, not counting the gigabytes on flash drives in an ammo box, "just in case"

When the house collapses, it's because "Books"

 

[AMC]

Storage? Bookcases, shelves, stacks, random areas, behind my recliner, lurking under my desk, not counting the gigabytes on flash drives in an ammo box, "just in case"

When the house collapses, it's because "Books"

Protect some with a faraday cage

 

[Magus]

My daughter just had to toss several hundred books. She stored them in the garage in cardboard boxes and they all had mold on them.

If you could have only found some dry ice and put them in a sealed trash can, it would have killed the mold after a week.

 

[dademoss]

Protect some with a faraday cage

They are in a steel ammo can, and I have read them all. Knowing something is possible is 90%, if I lose the 10 % we will see. That's also why there are stack, cases, shelves of hard copy books