Does this picture somewhat resemble your own bookshelf at home? If so, then perhaps it’s time to do some clearing out!! And what better time than now, right? So this is your challenge, today is the day you tackle your bookshelves at home, or even at work for that matter! And lucky for you, I’m here to encourage you in the process with step-by-step suggestions.

First thing’s first, and the first thing you need to do is completely clear off your shelves. I’m talking, taking every single thing off.

The next thing you need to do is get a dust rag and some cleaner, and clean off those shelves from the very top to the very bottom. Wow, look at all that dust! But it will look so much nicer, and is now all ready for it’s new display.

Now it’s time to really get down, and go through every single book, one by one. Make three stacks (if you have big boxes that would help), one for KEEPERS, one for SELL/DONATE, and one for NOT SURE.

• KEEPERS: These are the books that you find yourself reading often, or referring back to regularly. If you haven’t read it in years, no matter how useful you think it might be one day, you probably don’t need it.

• SELL/DONATE: These are the books that are in good condition, that you don’t need anymore.

• SELL: You can sell these books at a local bookstore, on ebay, Craigslist, or on sites like Cash4Books.net. Or you could always Yard Sale them.

• DONATE: If you have some books that you like to read, but don’t really read very often, consider donating them to your local library. That way they will always be near when you want to read them again, but not taking up space in your home.

If you have some good Christian books that you don’t read very often, see if your church has a library that you could donate them too. You can still check them out to read when you’d like to, but again they aren’t in your home just wasting space, and you will be able to bless somebody else by sharing the book. If your church does not have a library, maybe you could suggest that they start one! You could even organize a book drive

Of course you can always donate to charity, or list for free on Craigslist or in your local paper.

• NOT SURE: These are the books that you aren’t sure if you are ready to part with yet. Once you have gone through all of your books, and have them all in their own piles, go back through your “NOT SURE” pile and make your final decision about what you want to do with these. Really try to lean towards LESS!

• And of course if you have books that aren’t in such hot shape anymore, recycle them.

So, now that you have your KEEPERS lets put them back on the shelf. Hopefully you have significantly less books than you did before. If not, then maybe give it a day or two, and then revisit your KEEPERS pile to see what else you might be willing to part with.

Now, don’t just line your books back on the shelf in any old way. No, this is the time to beautify it!

Doesn’t this bookshelf look so much nicer than the first?! Here are some tips to get this look:

• Leave space between the books to put pretty little trinket, candles or picture frames.
• Place books together in descending order; from tallest to smallest, or vice versa.
• Place some books vertically; stack some horizontally.
• Use baskets, totes or other decorative containers to store items on the shelf.
• If you have magazines to store, consider making a magazine organizer (out of a cereal box!). This is a great way to keep all of these flimsy stacks neatly displayed. Use a cute scrapbook or wrapping paper to make it chic and fun!

Nice and tidy, now that’s so much better!!

Now it’s your turn, and I would LOVE to hear how you did! Just write a post on your blog, and then link back here to share with the rest of us, or you can tell us all about your job well done in the comments section. And as always, you are welcomed to share with us any other way that you have minimized your home as well. Encouraging each other to simplify our homes, one section at a time! Thanks for joining in!

I’ve been going crazy for the past couple of months trying to figure out how to decorate my work-in-progress, new-to-me home. I’ve scoured the internet for design ideas, paint tips, etc. Tonight I just happened to come across this FREE 120+ page full color book by KraftMaid packed with ideas for kitchens, baths, home office, entertainment centers, bedrooms, laundry rooms and more. It looks like it might have some great decorating and design ideas to check out. Hope it comes soon!!

Kitchen tip for today:

1. Store your liquid dish soap in a nice soap dispenser .

It will make your counter area look much neater. I like the look of using a soap dispenser at the sink for my dish soap because it’s handy being right there, and it’s not tacky looking like a bottle of dish soap just sitting on my counter.

2. Keep your soap dispenser ungunked.

I have the problem of soap accumulating around the rim, and dripping down the sides. Now, there is nothing neat looking about that! So, to keep it clean, while I’m running the water to fill the sink, I rinse all of the soap off of my dispenser. This of coarse cleans it right off, and it makes my water nice and soapy for the dishes. This is much more practical, and frugal than occasionally running the dispenser under water just to clean it off, and letting all of that soap go down the drain unused.

There you have it. Simple, practical, and even a little frugal! For more kitchen tips, check out Kitchen Tip Tuesdays over at Tammy’s Recipes .

We received a number of comments suggesting even more ideas on how to fill your home with Scripture. Thank you! It sure was a blessing to read through them, and I came away with new inspiration that I can’t wait to put to use! Here are a few highlights:

From Joanne:

We like to ‘write’ verses onto our own digital photos that we have enlarged and then frame them. One that we have on top of a bookcase is a picture of a mountain that could be seen from my parents back porch. We used Psalm 121:1 – 2. It has become a reminder not only of where our help comes from, but of the lovely vacation we spent with my family four and a half years ago. And yes, I know those verses by heart and it wasn’t painful trying to learn them!

From Infinity Goods:

We have bibles and art books with psalms in every room. Some rooms have several! Joanne’s comment is great too. For samples of what she is talking about, you can visit Amydeanne’s “Word Filled Wednesdays” at http://the160acrewoods.wordpress.com/word-filled-wednesdays/. I’ve just joined them too and I’ll be printing some of my favorites on photo paper, adding mats and framing them.

From Cindy:

In a recent newsletter from Nancy Campbell (Above Rubies) she talked about all the ways she spent time with the Lord, even in the midst of many little ones. She used a book holder (a stand-up one, like you would use for a recipe book) and put her Bible in it, up over her kitchen sink (since she spent lots of time there doing dishes). Personally, I have little girls who do most of the dishes, so I was thinking of finding a little book stand and just putting my Bible out on the kitchen counter!

Wonderful ideas! If you are at a loss for Scripture verses to use, here are a few that we’ve put around our home:

Isaiah 40:29 – “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.”

John 7:38 – “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Matthew 11:28 – “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest… For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Psalm 42:8 – “The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life.”

Psalm 36:9 – “For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.”

Psalm 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God”

Isaiah 41:10 – “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

Matthew 7:24 – “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

If you are like me, we are small on space and huge on stuff! It’s ridiculous how many things we accumulate when we have a baby. Well, I’m here to show you a few tricks that I use to maximize the function of my “cozy” little nursery.

Our baby’s room is 7.5′ x 7.5′, pretty tiny. But I’ve managed to comfortably fit in his crib, chest of drawers, and changing table. The key to keeping the room from becoming too cluttered and cramped is to keep it simple. Only use a few pieces of furniture. The chest of drawers is tall and narrow, and when pushed caddy-corner in the room it doesn’t take up much space at all, and adds valuable storage.

Underneath the crib is more valuable space. Since the crib skirt covers that area, it’s the perfect place to store items out of site, but still within reach. This is where I keep bigger toys that are only used on occasion (train set, etc.).

Bright, crisp colors on the walls make the space seem larger.

The valance is actually hung higher than the top of the window, to make it seem taller.

I took the doors off the closet to open up the room even more and add floor space. This is where I place the changing table. I keep storage baskets on the shelves of the changing table for better organization, and a cleaner look. This is where I keep baby’s bibs, cloth diapers/covers, burp cloths, changing table pads, etc. I hide extra packs of diapers underneath the table where they can’t be seen, as well as in the diaper stacker hung on the back of the crib.

Above the changing table is a shelf where I store more toys in plastic storage containers, and where extra blankets are nicely stacked. Since this is all open and organized it makes the room look much bigger and every inch of space is being utilized.

I hope I have inspired you to take a fresh look at your space and see how you can make it an adorable little room with tons of character and appeal! Bigger isn’t always better, so do the best you can with what you have… and be proud of how well it turned out!!

For more Works-For-Me Wednesday Ideas, go here.