Rainbow Shelfie

Last week I binged The Home Edit on Netflix and didn't write a single word. It was the voyeurism that lured me in. Who doesn’t want to snoop through Neil Patrick Harris’s playroom, look in Rachel Zoe’s closet, and judge Kane Brown’s pantry?

Usually, I'd have that super-guilty feeling that comes with getting nothing accomplished, but not this time. It turns out that watching other people organize a home made me feel productive.  I felt so productive that my body was confused about what we were doing. Acting on organizational-autopilot, I wandered to our junk drawers (yes, sadly, I used the plural, DRAWERS) and tidied them. I organized the fridge. Yes, it was undone when the kids came home from school, but there was a solid half-day of tidiness. My husband even got on board and suggested clear containers for our snack cabinet. It all seemed so logical and orderly, I wondered where these ladies had been all of my life.

Then, Clea and Joanna arranged books in rainbow order. Sure, it looked beautiful. Beautiful enough for my daughter and I to try. But there were a few problems.

1.     This felt like rocket science. I refused to remove the dust jackets, so Instead of the typical ROY G BIV colors, we made categories like super-rainbow, sort-of-orangey/pink, off-white, striped, and 60% yellow. If you get caught up in technicalities, this method might not be for you.

2.     I had a hard time breaking up boxed sets. Am I really going to remember that book six in the Unfortunate Events series is red? The boxed sets remained a family, and they were shunned to another room.

3.     Will I ever feel like reading something brown one day?

4.     Referencing specific novels and collections will be impossible. What’s the color of the 2018 Best American Short Stories cover? What hue does Lauren Groff typically write? What freaky shade of terror is a Stephen King story? Okay, the answer is black with red lettering, but my point is valid for every other book. 

5.     There’s not enough green, my favorite color, and too much black and white. Ever the problem-solver, my daughter recommended I write a book titled Green, where the content doesn't matter, but the color does.

What is your method of shelf organization? I still don’t know the answer for mine, but rainbow ranks only slightly above the reverse book position. Don’t get me started on that nightmare.

Where’s that book I wanted?