Today, I had a day off from work, so I began stowing my extensive random book collection (for selling, mind you) into milk crates lined with trash bags. Each of the crates are labelled “Books to Process”. I set the crate stacks near the door. I need the to-process stuff nearby so I don’t have to go rummaging for it down in the warrens (a new storage space).

Why am I not processing them now? It comes down to having almost no working space in the flat, courtesy of other odd-sized merchandise to kick around. Some of my bigger or odd-shaped crates are loaded with the books that could go in a new set of smaller ones. If those crates stored the odd-shaped junk littering my flat, I’ll reclaim floor space. Daytime working hours can do that to an apartment.

I hope to do one crate’s contents one day at a time (after work). This involves a sniff test to see if it could use time in a fumigation bin, a removal of stray stickers and library-issue plastic covers. It is at these moments where I can also tag them. All in front of the TV on the futon. I cannot run a marathon doing all of it at once. After all, I need to redress the merchandise on-site and update their tags, not just for price changes but also to switch merchandise out as needed. And find a place to stow that.

Well, I do have space–I just need to organize that as well. It has been some time since I’ve managed the fumigator bins, so I will need to iron that out. Tomorrow is another free day, then a day at work, then two more days, another day at work, two more days, another day at work, two more days….

Recently, work cut my hours a bit. The manager did ask if I wanted to work on a Wednesday, but I bowed out, apologetically so, since I really needed time spent on the flat. So far, so decent. Make the most of your time off the clock, in other words.