We have pretty much left the house as is for a while.

However, I think we should redo the dining room. We have bookshelves all around the walls because when we moved in the dining room was the library. For a library, it is great to have bookshelves all around the walls. However, now we have a huge table and six chairs at the table. It makes the room seem cozy.

I think what I would do, if my hubby were up for rearranging (which I know you’re not), is move three or four of the bookshelves upstairs and line the back wall of the media room with them.

I would put the china cabinet on the wall from which we removed the other bookshelves.

Then I would probably get two or three more of my favorite bookcases from Cost Plus and put them in the living room and move books to them. I’d put some of the older bookshelves, that aren’t as pretty, up in the Teen Room. Not that I think they would put the stuff in them, but they might like to have them up there later.

I would get rid of the particle board with plastic veneer bookshelf which we got from my grandmother. If I had places to put all the stuff that’s in it now.

I think that would take all but one of the bookshelves out of the library. Of course, I just called it the library, so maybe not.

Maybe I should just get bookshelves for upstairs so that I can put all the books out.

Or maybe I should cull books. We do have a lot we never use. We have some that are old and not going to get used. (I won’t do it till you come home and approve the removal, R.)

We have a lot of little kids’ books, but one of the things R’s mom told me when we started having babies was that she was sorry she hadn’t saved R’s books from when he was little. So we’ll probably hang on to those.

It’s amazing how much stuff we have. All very nice.

Maybe that’s part of the problem. We have too much stuff.

I’ve been seriously thinking that M’s bunkbeds need to come down so he can sleep on the bottom one. He’s too tall to sleep there. It’s like being in an MRI case now. I could stack the two mattresses. My Grama H used to do that. Then if anyone came to spend the night, you just drag one of them to the ground.

I found another piece of furniture that I liked while I was out antiquing. It’s a Duncan Phyfe handmade dresser. It was $400. The only problem is that to get it, we’d have to get rid of something else. And am I really ready to let my 11 year old have an antique piece? No, probably not. He does have a dresser that could be given away without too much sadness, but he’s not careful with stuff and it would get bunged up.

Maybe I can get it for Christmas and figure out something. (I mean, maybe someone will buy it for me.)