OR KEEP THE BOOKSHELF
As we've moved into our new pad, I've been confronted over and over again with the choice of keeping beloved junk (to some) or keeping actual furniture or clothes.
It may seem like an odd choice, but I spent many hours walking about the neighborhood and dreaming up projects that would put this crate or that bottle cap to use. The items are an external collection of my wanderings, plus I think they look cool (in case it isn't obvious, I passed on collecting the "boring and ugly" items).
So when our Ikea bookcase broke for the SECOND Seattle-area move in a row, I decided not to replace it (again) and set myself the task to come up with something else. (Actually, I was going to leave all of our books in storage except that I noticed Trevor and I were both regularly searching through the various boxes piled in the hallway so something had to be done.)
A solution clicked into place when I realized that I would have to get rid of my wonderful wine crates, on which I lovingly added casters and painted with chalkboard paint, unless I could find a new use for them; like our books, they too were taking up our dwindling space in the hallway.
I decided to use them as bookshelves, of a sort, and placed our most-reached-for books (I keep telling myself I'll study for the GRE's) in the front:
Genius
and SO much cooler than our old Ikea Expedit bookshelf!