The Perfect Displacement Activity

My home looks like a landfill site, I have a week's worth of ironing to do and my children, who have spent the last week happily playing with a mere half a dozen toys, have pulled every toy they own out of the cupboard and all over the floor. So what do I decide to do? I decide the best use of my time is to rearrange the books in the landing bookcase ..... according to colour.

Just call it summer madness but it seemed like the only thing to do at the time. In her book of essays Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Anne Fadiman tells the cautionary tale of friends of friends who

"... had rented their house for several months to an interior decorator. When they returned, they discovered that their entire library had been reorganized by color and size. Shortly thereafter, the decorator met with a fatal automobile accident. I confess that when this story was told, everyone around the dinner table concurred that justice had been served."

In my defence I have to say that the bookcase was only a small one and serves as a sort of a holding pen for books waiting to be shelved elsewhere and I wouldn't try it elsewhere with any of the other bookcases, honest truly. It does look nice though.

Before:


After:


Now, off to alphabetise my pantry...