I need a book shelf, but the ones in stores are so flippin’ expensive, so I’m thinking about building one. Trying to, at least.
I don’t need it to be fancy-looking, just a plain shelf where I can stack books. I want to build it high rather than wide because it’ll be going in a dorm. Right now I have all my books in rubbermaid containers and they’re hard to get to if I need one, plus I think they’d just look better on a proper shelf.
However, I am not good with this kind of stuff, so I am wondering if anybody has any tips for me? I can borrow a nail gun and a hand saw, so I don’t need to rent those.
I used to use cement blocks and boards. I guess the boards were cut at the lumber yard. All you have to do is haul stuff. It’s pretty cheap, or it was. And you can take it apart. Not sure how high I would want to put cement blocks though, that could be dangerous if they should fall.
Instead of cement blocks, which are very heavy, you might consider using those plastic milk crate style containers sold at K-Mart and other such places. We’ve found them at times for $.99 each on sale.
Milk crates were always my fave solution for the old I’m-broke-and-need-a-place-to-put-my-books dilemma. I still have some of the crates actually…though they no longer sit in my living room, as they used to.
I was never so cool as to have the cinder blocks and boards bookshelves. I always wanted to though-- does that count??
Another idea is to look for a used set of shelves. Also many stores have relatively inexpensive shelves, some made of metal, some plastic. Wood ones tend to be more money. The metal ones designed for garage storage space are usually the cheapest and can be found at a variety of stores including Home Depot, Lowes, Osh, Target. Milk crates have the advantage of being self packing for the inevitable moving times.
Well, I’m not really sure. When I was little there was a milkman and glass bottles and metal bins. When cartons came along and when there were no longer milkmen I don’t really remember seeing what the cartons were shipped in. Probably plastic milk crates.
I’m not really sure when home delivery of milk stopped or why. I’ll have to look into that sometime.
My dad and grandfathers usually just made them with wood. It’s not a difficult task to assemble a 4-sided wooden box, and nail shelves inside from end to end. You can have the lumber cut to size at the lumber yard, as was already suggested, and all the assembly is at 90 degree angles. You can stain or varnish it, afterward. The assemble-yourself shelves, and furniture in general, at discount stores is pretty useless for practical purposes and will not hold up, and this doesn’t just apply to the particle board with a woodgrain finish (the “Con-Tac Paper look”).
I’d go to used furniture or “antique” stores on the east side of town (they’re always on the east side) and see what you can find. There is a lot or old wooden furniture out there that’s as sound as a bell, as beat up as it’s ever gonna get, and dirt cheap. It’ll cost less than the equivallent piece in insta-crumble melamine and last forever.
Don’t buy anything that’s not solid wood, but if you’re at all in an eastern city you can probably find old oak office furniture from the forties which will cost you less than the equivallent in pine boards from a lumberyard.
Most cities have a surplus office furniture outlet somewhere, if you can find it, as well.
I’m typing this on a lovely 2 drawer solid oak library table that I got for fifty bucks canadian, for instance.
In the UK, a bookshelf is attached to a wall, while a bookcase is a piece of furniture for putting books in, usually standing next to a wall but not attached to it.
Cran, is this for your room at college/university? They usually provide some shelves for books in UK student rooms, though not enough for most students’ needs.
The usual UK solution, if you’re not handy at carpentry, and funds are short, is to buy a self-assembly unit at IKEA or Argos. One benefit is that they’re usually easy enough to disassemble again when you need to move out.
A bookshelf is always a shelf or two stuck up on a wall. A bookcase is a piece of furniture which has shelves in it. A bookcase can be called a bookshelf or bookshelves, but a bookshelf on the wall can never be called a bookcase.
Yes, the college will provide a bed, a desk, a desk chair, a closet, and bookshelves or possibly a bookcase. However, space will nearly always be extremely limited. There may be absolutely NO room for a bookcase and you may be prohibited from hanging anything on the wall, including pictures, posters, and shelves. (They will be very serious about this, too!) Or, the walls may be brick or concrete block, so that nothing can be hung on them.
You need to wait until you get there to see what you’ll need.
In my first college dorm, there was no room for anything at all, except for the knee space under the desk and the bottom of my closet. It was milk crates or nothing.
That’s my suggestion for here, too. Boards and bricks are really quite expensive! You want something that either folds up or comes apart.
If you’re truly cramped for space, you might be able to use something that slides under a bed, even if you have to raise the bed on blocks (available at Linens and Things, etc.)
Milk crates are good, and there are several styles of them. Don’t steal actual milk crates, though, as they’re filthy and it’s illegal.
Be careful about going for a high bookcase. They’re extremely dangerous. Books are very heavy and the bookcases become unstable, particularly if they are the assemble-it-yourself kind. They shift and fall. The tallest you can safely manage are the height of bookcases you see in Office Depot or Staples, or the metal or wood shelving units you see in Home Depot. The metal ones will shift with the weight of books, though–they twist and become wobbly and eventually can fall.
The wood ones are really nice, like Martin said. They sell them for kitchens, garages, and such. Look for them on sale, but don’t stack them too high.
You might be surprised to find that some departing students are selling their stuff, so you can get a nice bookcase for cheap. Another possible option, at least for a while, is to keep your books packed in decent cardboard boxes, which you can then keep in the bottom of your closet as a shelf, or even stacked as a table. You’ll probably not need them out, as you’re going to be too wrapped up in schoolwork to use your old books–that’s the reason people go to college, after all!
I loved it because it was great for someone who moves all the time - the shelves fold up and the sides fold in, and you can lay it flat in a truck or station wagon or something. Not hugely tall, but I got quite a few books into it. As someone said regarding cinder blocks, you don’t want to stack heavy things too high for fear of falling (especially if the room is carpeted). Same goes for heavy books.
If it appeals to you, keep an eye out - many chain stores (walmart, target, Tops foods) will have a “college dorm” section toward August with stuff like this.
Escept that the ones sold in those stores are not nearly as sturdy as the real ones.
The cement blocks are quite heavy, but they are also very stable. you cannot put enough books on a shelf to collapse a cemet block. You can over load those light weight pseudo-milk crates and end up with a big and disappointing mess.
For the blocks, just be sure you set them level and that the boards are not warped. If it all stacks evenly and sits solidly (line them up accuately) you can’t beat em! a thin shim under the front will usually make any tendancy to lean be toward the wall and ensure good bracing.
I used to live in a townhouse in Rockville, Maryland. It had wooden floors. My bookcase was floor-to-ceiling, about 5 shelves high, and 9 feet (3 meters) long. It took up a whole wall and it was filled with books. Most of them were stacked on top of each other rather than standing upright, because there were so many.
When I was moving out, I discovered that over a year’s time the weight of the books had pushed the floor down by 2 inches. I measured it. There was a huge gap between the wall and the floor, and you could see the curve in the floor. It didn’t go back up when the bookcase was removed.
Since that time, I’ve been careful not to do the too-tall bookcase thing. I spread them out, a practice which also helps in keeping people from thinking you’re an intellectual or something.
Huge, thick books. 8-1/2 x 11 and 4 inches thick. A whole wall full of them. Every time I got transferred, the movers would show up and just moan. Apparently, they dislike packing books.
You know those little pop psychological tests? Do you have this? Are you that? There was one for some kind of excessive book buying disorder or something. It was ok to get them from the library, but buying them was kind of a problem if it was excessive. Kind of like WhOA, only with books. BOA.
Some of the questions were about whether you had stacks of books next to your bed, whether you had stacks of books IN your bed, about if you often found yourself purchasing the same book over and over because you had bought it but not read it yet (and so didn’t recognize the title, but still thought it interesting), about if you often bought books and couldn’t remember why, and about if you regularly had to move old books off your shelves onto the floor or into boxes to make room for new books. Could you not bear to part with a book? When you went to a new community, did you find the used bookstore first?
I’m checking yes, yes, yes, to these. Felt the one about stacks in the bed to be odd, so went in and scraped some out from under the covers. Stacked 'em up beside the bed. Felt better. Checked off some more yes, yes, yes.
I was answering yes to nearly every one. Still, though, I thought it funny. Until the question that asked if I hid my books from my family, friends, and loved ones.
I started to laugh at it, then stopped dead in my tracks. Uh oh. Like hiding drinking. I hide my books!
“Do you hide books under your bed when company comes?”
“Do you fear relationships because it means you’ll have to clean the books out of your bed?”
"Is there even room in your bed for you? Do you often wake up with marks from having lain on books during the night?’
“Do you stash books in dresser drawers and closets?”
“Have you ever hidden books in the trunk of the car until company left?”
“Do you use book covers so that people will think you’re reading a trashy novel when you’re reading Sartre?”
I was so embarrassed. I’ve done these things all my life! And I’d never noticed I was doing it! I’m a bookaholic! Aaaack!
I’d like to say that recognizing my condition helped some, but it hasn’t helped all that much. Now, I just have better methods of hiding them than kicking them under the bed.
