In the meantime, I thought I'd show you my cookbook collection.
This was my main shelf at one point. When I bought this shelf, I think it fit all of my cookbooks, just about.
However, I discovered my cookbook guy about that time and started acquiring more cookbooks at an alarming rate (they were so cheap!) I soon needed another shelf. I brought this bookcase from my parent's house. It's very sturdy. Why can't they make solid bookshelves like this for a reasonable cost anymore? Those shelves will never bow like the particle board shelves do.
That shelf got filled up eventually too. I had another small shelf that I had been using for books but I repurposed it when I moved so now I found myself with several boxes of books and nowhere to put them. I refuse to buy any more fake-wood assemble-yourself shelves if I can help it (although they usually look very nice they are no match for actual books). I tried to be patient but that stack of boxes was starting to make me itch. I finally picked this shelf up at a yard sale for $10. I would have liked something larger but this is nice and solid - all wood - and it fit in my trunk. I will repaint it eventually.
The rest of the books ended up over my kitchen cupboards. This isn't ideal but it does helps spread the madness a bit and that space really needed something.
I thought that was all of them but oh, then I remembered the books I put in the trunk that I'm using as a coffee table.
I thought that was all of them but wait! I spotted a the pile of children's cookbooks that I had separated from the rest (I need to find a special place for those since the boys like to look at those but I don't want them swallowed up with the other children's books).
Okay, now that really is all of them. That's 25 years of collecting cookbooks. Having them all out in the open has shamed me into not buying more. Well, I'm trying really, really hard not to buy anymore. I don't want to end up on an episode of "Hoarding - Buried Alive" (Under a Pile of Cookbooks).
9 comments:
I don't think I ever had as many cookbooks as you do, although I had at least 200 of them at one time. I finally kicked my habit 2 or 3 years ago. I decided I would not buy any cookbooks that were brand new, and I wouldn't buy any that didn't have a photo for at least 75% of the recipes. That really helped limit what I was bringing in.
Over time, I even started getting rid of cookbooks! I started with books that I'd never made a recipe from, and books I rarely used. Then I started putting a piece of sticky note in a book each time I used it, and found out that after a year or so, there were plenty more I wasn't using.
I think now I'm down to about 30 books, plus every issue of Taste of Home magazine from the beginning to 2007. I'm beginning to question whether I'll keep the magazines. It's just easier these days for me to find what I need online. I have so many recipes bookmarked on my computer...it's just as bad as my bookshelves were, I think. LOL!
Sooo happy that you're back. I hope you like your new place. Do you like the kitchen, other than no dishwasher? I remember you had some issues with your appliances, was it the oven?
"Hoarding-Buried Alive" LOL!
Jan
I like the kitchen so far but I haven't done a lot of real cooking in there yet. It's older - the cabinets are from the 70s and one wall has panelling - but I like things from that era so it suits me. The floor is new and I do have a brand new range and brand new fridge so that freshens it up.
I'm still getting used to the stove - it's brand new but being a rental it's the least expensive model they could buy of course. The burners get very hot. So far the oven seems okay.
I bought the largest fridge I could fit in the space but it still seems so small to me. I miss my chest freezer. It's hard to get used to only having one small freezer again.
I was spoiled with counterspace in my last kitchen but there's enough here. The kitchen is big enough for a table so I'm on the lookout for one, for workspace more than anything else (we have a dining room).
Overall I like the new place a lot. The kids love it too, especially Nick since there are kids all over the place. We only moved 3 blocks down the road but it's like another world.
Glad to hear you are getting settled!
I tried to shake the cookbook habit...then I found a barely used copy of The Cake Bible for 50 cents! Officially off the wagon.
That's the problem Jamm - it is just too easy for me to find cheap cookbooks these days. At yard sales they are usually $1 or under - as low as 10 cents. Thank God Goodwill jacked up their prices because they were really cheap there for a while too. I was in the Salvation Army a couple of weeks ago and all their books were 50 percent off (and priced low to begin with). I didn't even look (that's my best defense - not even looking at the selection). I'd probably be buried under a heap of cookbooks right now if gas prices hadn't gone up, forcing my cookbook guy to give up his space at that market. He used to sell them to me for 25 cents, 50 cents or a dollar. If he had something really good he would apologetically tell me he wanted $2 for it.
I'm glad you like your new kitchen. How about the rest of your house? YOu will have to post pictures of your house, too. I bet you are so happy to be out on your own.
Also, I love your book collection. And I really like the books up on top of your cupboards. I think that looks neat!
Gulp. Well, my defense in having so many cookbooks is that most of my collection (at least 2/3rds) is in boxes in the garage. Which means I have to buy more cookbooks cuz I can't get to the ones I have. Of course the parts of the collection I do have are not only in the bookcase in the living room but in stacks on the floor.
Really...is 600 cookbooks too many to have when you can only get to about 100? LOL Don't answer that!!!
That's asking for trouble when they're packed away. I did that when the divorce first started and I thought I'd be moving out right away. I packed away about a third of my books. In the year and a half it took to actually move out, I ended up buying a lot more cookbooks since I had all that space freed up.
On the bright side, it's fun seeing all those books that were packed away, now that I moved and they're all out of their boxes now.
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