Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
the "unorthodox approach" to organizing a clothes closet came from a
dinner party conversation. a friend  had gotten divorced and his rather
extensive wardrobe had expanded to fill the master bedroom closet.
when he remarried, his new wife, not unreasonably, expected a little
clothing storage space,
so, he tells me:"I just applied the principles of ZBB to the
situation,"
Me: HUH?
Him: Zero Based BUdgeting,
Me: HUH?
and then he told me the steps which appear just about verbatim in the
book--
which just shows that even the dullest dinner party sometimes can hand
you writing material.  
  

    
I have a question. Since you so deftly handled the situation about
clothing. Tell me this. My books are like my children. Even books I
wasn't mad about. This is my achilles heel and what causes the most
strife in my household. TELL me how to do with books what you did with
clothes. Since I am the biggest reader, *I* am the problem, mostly
because I am a big re-reader. HELP!
  

    
re-read? I have re-BOUGHT books that I'd thought I could live without
and gave away. THAT IS SICK.
so dealing with this is definitely a work in progres.

under the theory of "if you don't own it, you don't have to organize
it" I'm trying to control the book *buying* a bit. one new household
rule is to wait for mysteries to be published in paperback rather than
buy the hardbacks--it's easier for me to toss paperbacks when I'm
finished.

and even for non-fiction, I'm trying to take a deep breath or two or
three before racing to Amazon the instant I hear of an interesting
book.

mostly, tho, I have no grand, overall solution. I keep winnowing
away--and then buying too many to replace the ones I culled. In Org
Home we have lots of suggestions for creating new places to store
books, but I suspect, Kev, that you have already trod most of those
pathways.
  

    
Thank Heaven for public libraries.
  

    
i find that feeling VIRTUOUS helps me give away books. children's books go 
to the day care centers run by montefiore hospital clinics; grownup books 
to housing works and (now) east village bookstore, venerable old 
crusty institution now facing a huge rent increase and worrieda bout 
going out of business.
  

    
so much for my control-the-ingress resolution: UPS just delivered a
package that proved to be a thank-you gift from a friend:
a big, gorgeous design book with a note that says: "I saw this and
thought of you."

you see: IT'S NOT MY FAULT.
  

    
do you subscribe to the one-thing-in, one-thing-out strategy? if you get 
rid of another book, you can keep that one without guilt? 

hey, did randall ever answer my question about his own special 
organizational weakness, or did he duck it like the weasel he is? 

then i will ask another question (for casey, since randall is conveniently 
MIA today):

can you share your GENIUS GENIUS approach to wrapping gifts? i swear, i 
think this one will change my life. because it is KLASSY as well as 
organizationally brilliant and EASY AS CRAP.
  

    
I figure that everybody collects something, and books are a fine thing to
collect.  It's just when you collect books, small statues of Elvis, back
issues of Rolling Stone, hotel ashtrays, canning jars, and small animals
that you begin to run into trouble.

I have a single largish room that serves as a sitting room, bedroom, and
home office; it's divided by ceiling to floor bookshelves that define the
three areas.  Refrence books on the office side, videotapes and CDs and the
like on the sitting side, junk books to read in bed on the bedroom side.
It works out pretty well.  I like having all my books handy, and organizing
the space by functions is a good way to be able to leave work with work,
leisure with leisure, as if I had different rooms.  And having which books
go where reinforces the idea of the different functions.
  

    
ooh, i want to hear the gift-wrapping answer!

i have the same book problem and what i have done (starting about two
years ago) is use the library for any new books i want to read
(fortunately, san francisco has a great system for the public libraries
- being able to reserve and renew online).  i made a deal with myself
that i'd try it for six months, and if i LOVED any book i could buy it
(i am a re-reader too).  in two years i have only bought three books!  
  

    
I'd have to have a five out for every new book in to assuage my guilt;
it's easier to live with the guilt.

gift wrapping:
again, an idea from a grandmother--which, when I remembered it a few
years ago, suddenly seemed supremely sensible. 

I used to store rolls of wrapping paper in one of those long
Rubbermaid boxes, stowed beneath my bed. This worked fairly well--it
kept the rolls from getting squashed and dusty--but I never seemed to
have the right paper for the right occasion--or I had an appropriate
paper, but not enough of it--or, most often, I'd be at the store and
couldn't remember if I had the right/enough paper at home, so I'd buy
more, "just in case.'

Pondering this one day I remembered that my grandmother wrapped all
her packages in a gorgeous, thick, glossy paper and then tied them in
various colors of real satin ribbon. I didn't want to go quite that
minimalist--but decided that if I limited myself to three colors of
paper, I could still create all sorts of good-looking wraps.
And when I proposed the concept to Randall, he, of course, had lots of
ideas for ways to play around with it.

In the book we suggest stocking up on brown Kraft paper, a
glossy-finish white paper and a silver paper---either matte or shiny.
Once you have these it's easy and fun to collect a whole hodge-podge of
ribbons and cords and little crapola to tie onto the wrapped
packages--and even a wealth of ribbons will fit into a box or two.

then it's just a matter of playing around with the possibilities:

a few suggestions from the book:
wrap a Chinese cookbook in the Kraft paper tied with thin silk red
cord and a pair of chopsticks
or
use the Kraft paper and twine to wrap a child's paint set--tie extra
paint brushes into the twine bow
or
use the silver paper, black satin ribbon and a red dressmaker's rose
for a special friend's birthday gift
or
at Christmas, wrapping all your gifts with the glossy white paper
paired with green satin ribbon and red glass Christmas tree balls (or
red ribbon and green balls)simplifies the whole process immensely. my
mother did this one year and it looked fabulous.

but, in all honesty, the major benefit here is just the peace of mind
of knowing that no matter how last minute you've left the wrapping, you
have what you'll need on hand.

unlike my flexible policy on book acquisition, I do stand firm on
limiting the paper choices to three. once you add in a 4th, and a
5th--the ease of everything-goes-with-everything-else starts to erode
while the storage space requirements grow.

not long after we turned in the book manuscript, Real Simple had a
cover story based on a similar concept--relying mostly on red and white
paper and ribbons, as I remember. Clearly someone snuck (sneeked?)
into our editor's office and STOLE OUR CONCEPT.
  

    
and of course your three papers could just as successfully be a wide
black and white stripe, a glossy lipstick red paper and a matte gold
paper. or whatever. but whichever 3 you choose, they should complement
each other enough that *most* of the same ribbons/cords/ties will look
good on all three of them,
  

    
I have to do a phone interview soon but then I shall hurry back here
to dish about Randall's closet before he gets back from his exciting
life as designer-about-town.
  

    
i'm sorry, people, is that not GREAT? 
  

    
in re-reading I find I left out the fact that my grandmother's paper
color was limited to white--which is what I found a bit minimalist.

here's the part that makes me want to weep in envy: she had a big old
house full of nooks and crannies--and one cranny was her wrapping
station--with a full length table that had one of those giant paper
holders/cutters attached--like you see in stores. made wrapping a
dream.
  

    
that is a great idea!
  

    
now: randall's huge, walk-in-closet--virtually a dressing room.

he uses this like a lab to experiment with ideas for clients--so one
time you see it and it's a minimalist fugue of lidded boxes covered in
natural-color linen and the next time you look it's an Art Deco 
tribute to 1930s ocean liners with a fabulous vintage poster showing
all the staterooms of some long-gone ship and then the next visit it's
Classics Revisited with the shelves curtained off with some nifty
Greco-Roman patterned fabric.

one constant: beautiful, matching wood hangars.
  

    
I like your ideas about gift wrapping.  The look of giftwrapping from
Hallmark has no appeal to me.   I have used the Tiffany look by using
robin egg blue glossy paper with the white satin ribbon and I
especially like brown kraft paper with black ribbon.  

A friend of mine wraps the best looking gifts. He collects feathers,
antique ribbons, and charms to add to wrap of the gift.   
  

    
I love old wooden hangers and have been collecting them for years. 
Not only are they the best to use, but the old embossed drycleaning
logos and addresses are kind of cool.  

So, mine do not match.  
  

    
but, in your case, the non-matching is deliberate and interesting

loving the idea of thick, luxurious black satin ribbon on
humble-yet-charming brown Kraft paper
  

    


So I think of my wrapping paper box-of-stuff, which is mostly scraps of
random stuff, i am a HO for vintage wrapping papers from estate sales, and i
keep buying more, so I have more than i know what to do with except of
course when i have a BIG gift to wrap, all the smaller square sheets are
useless. So I may try to just use it all up and buy nothing new but your
idea of three rolls. But I am curious: where do gift bags fit into your
wrapping world? I have some great minimalizt bags in various textures and
colors, and often i find just plain tissue paper and a bag is the way to go,
especially when a gift is really several small items. Or do you frown on
bags as 'cheating" and all gifts must be wrapped seperately?
  

    
oh, no: I love gift bags. definitely another way to go. I just try to
stick to my paper color palette with the bags I buy so most of the
ribbons I have work. 

Right now I'm on a quest for the exact shade of smoky blue ribbon used
in the Org Home title--so I can giftwrap the book with ribbon only.
NO Paper: the ultimate storage space saver.
  

    
try here, casey:
http://www.artisticribbon.com/Velvet.htm
  

    
supply crack to an addict, will ya?
  

    
go to a fabric store. They have grosgrain ribbon in every color, other
ones too. 
  

    
When it comes to wrapping paper I really don't have too much of a
organization problem.  It could be that I don't buy lots of wrapping
paper.  When it comes to Christmas gifts I only buy one design of wrap.
 I definitely steer away from those packages that have the different
rolls of designs and I buy one large roll with more of a winter theme
or winter floral.  The biggest reason is that I like all of my wrapped
gifts to match.  Maybe that is weird and compulsive. 

During the holidays I used lots of black kraft paper looking bags and
then accented them red tissue and red foil type of ribbons.