My house was overflowing with books. I had so many books that I didn't have shelf space for all of them. I don't think I had shelf space for half of them. So I began investigating the matter of More Bookcases.
I have a pair of truly beautiful bookcases purchased many years ago from an Ethan Allen store. They have shelf space for, perhaps, 350 books, depending on the size of the books, of course. They have storage spaces below, behind nice little doors. Those spaces are taken up by games, maps, computer disks, that sort of thing.
I have a little bookcase whose shelf space is entirely taken up by a set of the Encyclopedia Americana, circa 1947. Other than on the Internet, and maybe not even there, you simply cannot find information about old obscure topics any easier than by leafing through an old set of a good encyclopedia. And I am completely enthralled by old obscure topics, as anyone who really knows me knows. No matter what else I did about my excess of books as compared to shelf space, the old Encyclopedia Americana set was staying.
I have a combination bookcase/entertainment center, received from my dear departed mother, in my spare bedroom. Since the departure of my two beautiful daughters (both of whom merely moved to other quarters here on earth) I have two spare bedrooms, but one is now devoted to reloading shotgun shells, and storing firearms and various other assorted related and unrelated items, like that broken grandfather clock. Anyway, about that entertainment center... It has shelf space for a few books. It also has an old 19" TV set and other assorted home electronics, none of which gets used except to play bagpipe "music" while I ride my exercise cycle, which I do not do nearly often enough any more. The cardiologist is going to be very disappointed. Oh well... What? Oh, right - the entertainment center. It could have more space for books if I removed the unused 19" TV set and inserted some more shelves in its place. I was prepared to do that, but it never became necessary.
So I was looking into the matter of More Bookcases. It turns out, you basically have two choices: cheap, ugly bookcases that won't hold up long, which is alright, because after a while you won't WANT them to; and nice expensive bookcases - REALLY expensive bookcases.
Then I began looking at the books to be shelved. I got to thinking about the costs involved in nice new bookcases, and comparing that to the value of the books to be stored, and the odds that I would ever read some of those books again, and started looking at the problem somewhat differently. I carefully went through all my books. I divided them into books I might look at again and books I almost certainly will never look at again. I began wondering exactly WHY I was considering spending money and devoting house space to those books. Like most (many?) people, I love books. But, seriously, did I love them so much that I was willing to spend considerable money storing them? I didn't.
After culling the books, eliminating the ones I was sure I would never open again, I realized I already had plenty of shelf space for the keepers. And I had several boxes full of books I was no longer willing to store. I was going to just toss them in the blue BFI bin, but the Beautiful One convinced me that it would be a terrible waste. So I took the paperbacks to the local new/used bookstore and the hardbound books to the local branch of the public library. OK, there were SOME books that I was just not willing to have Other People know I owned. No, not what your dirty little mind is imagining - books about guns, or other politically incorrect, but not particularly lascivious, topics.THOSE did go in the blue bin. Anyway, it turns out the library really isn't very interested in receiving free books. I guess they have shelf space issues too. The person on duty when I approached the library with the offer of free books indicated that they might not be able to use them all, but that they also had a book "give away" program. I offered to leave all the books, leaving their subsequent use at the discretion of the library: keep them; give them away; throw them in the trash - but it would have to be all or nothing. Otherwise they were going into my trash. I had already spent more time and effort on the project than it was worth to me, and I was getting a little impatient to be done with it. The library took all the books, and I have no idea what happened to any of them. Nor do I care.
You probably have similar concerns about some kind of a collection (or collections) in your home. Maybe you have an extensive collection of beer steins which is growing and using up your house's scarce display capabilities. I do. Or perhaps the collection is of Barbie Dolls, or teacups - anyway, some such thing. What to do, what to do...
I sincerely suggest that you mentally set limits to just how much space and money you are willing to use to display your collection(s). You really should ask yourself, "Do I own them, or do they own me?" I'm NOT suggesting that you stop accumulating your collection(s). That's ridiculous. You just can't do that, can you? Of course not. But as you get more stuff, resolve to either cull out the less worthy items, or send those less worthy items to your version of the museum basement: your actual basement, your attic, your outdoor storage building, a self-storage unit, somewhere, somewhere other than in your prime display areas. Otherwise you'll run out of money and space, your house will become a museum, and you'll be living at the nearest Motel 6 - except you won't have the money to pay for that, either. Well, that was my conclusion, anyway.
Back to my home place.