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Post by spacehappy (was readilygrey) on Jan 10, 2010 19:19:14 GMT -5
Everyone was so incredibly helpful when I had an issue with parting with a moldy comforter that I thought I would post again about an on going issue. I have a *very* hard time giving away books. The nursery I am trying to set up for the baby is primarily full of books. I need to get rid of at least several hundred and have been attempting to do so for the past 2 years, but have only managed to part with one small box worth and that was several months ago. The types of books we have are mainly: Unread paperbacks. Some one closed a used bookstore and sold lots of books for a few dollars a box. I purchased quite a few of these. I don't have as much time to read as I used to, but am slowly working my way through them. I don't have money to buy books very often (like twice a year) and I enjoy having this "private library" to choose from, but it does take up a ton of space. DH's gaming books. He has a billion RPG books of many types, probably every GURPS book ever made. He goes to games twice a month and when life settles down (college, babies ) he plans to do so more frequently. He does not want to part with any of them because he never knows when he might need one for a new game. Mangas. We both have a bunch. We do reread them occasionally and frequently loan them out to other people. Medical books from the 1850-1950. I collect these. The more inaccurate the better. Some old text books, cook books and poetry books as well. Books I have multiple copies of but cannot seem to part with. Such as my favorite books, or books I have a lot of respect for. (Probably not more than 30 duplicates total). It seems wrong to give them away unless maybe it was to a very deserving person. Reference books. How to keep bees, How to raise an alligator, and so on. I don't do most off these things but if I ever did... When I try to find books to give away I stare at the shelves for a very long time, finally choose one to part with, set it aside then a few hours later "rescue" it. I don't want to take one book at a time to a used book store. I also find it upsetting when they won't take a book because the cover's damaged. Plus I find it embarrassing to have people see what I am giving away. I'm really stuck on this. I need to give books away, but I don't apparently want to part with any of them . Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Blackswan
Banned
Joined: October 2008
Posts: 6,388
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Post by Blackswan on Jan 10, 2010 20:11:38 GMT -5
That's a hard one. I'm more of a squaloree than a hoarder, by far, so I won't attempt to say I understand just how hard it is, but here are some ideas that I hope might help a little. 1.) Is there any way to add some sort of high shelving to your house, up near the ceiling or something where you can store these books? Maybe in several rooms? A shelf that goes all the way around the room? Then you can keep the books and they will be stored properly. 2.) This will take absolutely forever, but maybe can you buy a scanner and scan some of the books to computer and then get rid of them? Maybe hire a local teenager? Is that not practical? I know you said there were hundreds of them... 3.) Rent a storage space? Now, ways to get rid of them. 1.) Do it for the baby. That might help motivate you extra. 2.) Donate to local hospital waiting rooms and such. Then you will feel good about where the books are going. Ooh, people in mental hospitals are dying for books! I know, I was there! 3.) Check the local library (look online) for any particular titles you are afraid to get rid of. If the library has it, get rid of your copy. 4.) Hire somebody else to help you go through them, or use a friend for support 5.)Box them all up, and if you don't think of them for a year, toss or donate. 6.)If you have a backyard, buy yourself one of those little shed things you put together yourself (some look like cute little houses) and build yourself a beautiful little library! Share your love of reading with the baby! Some cute little cushioned chairs! All depends on how much space you have on your property, and finances. 7.)For the future, maybe buying a Kindle or other electronic book reader (sony has one too I think) and refuse to buy anymore physical books? That is just my brainstorming. Maybe something there might help you. I do hold onto a lot of books too. Each one is like a special "experience" cause they do take you to a different world, and each is unique, and if you get rid of it, you can't go back to that experience. It helps to know that you can find anything you want on the internet, but you will never find it in the exact same way that the book has it, so I definitely commiserate with you. I hope you get a lot of good advice to help you through this. I know its emotional. HUGS
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canary
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Joined: January 2010
Posts: 48
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Post by canary on Jan 10, 2010 20:41:32 GMT -5
I know how you feel, I'm a book hoarder too. I keep books in big clear storage bins under the bed - when I can see them they feel like they're not just packed trash.
Plenty of people and places would appreciate donated books. I used to have three or four copies of my favorite books and one day I decided to leave them on buses or on tables in coffee shops and hope someone might come along and read them.
I would recommend keeping anything hard to replace, and manga is expensive too. But for anything else, feel better about giving it away because you can always go to an online book swap site (not sure if I'm allowed to post a link but there are plenty around) and request whatever book you'd like. This is also a great way to find people interested in books you have.
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Post by lozzylooloo on Jan 10, 2010 21:11:20 GMT -5
Oh, i hear you!! Books have been a big clutter problem for me, too. When i was pregnant with my first child (just last year) that was finally the incentive i needed to release some (most) of them. I won't deny that it is hard, but here are some suggestions that might help: * don't look at the blurb (back cover) before making your decision... if the cover doesn't ring any bells for you - either of familiarity and comfort for books you have read, or of excitement and anticipation for those you haven't, immediately pop it in a box or black garbage bag. *make sure that u use a black garbage bag or box to put in the 'go' books so that you can't look at them again. Don't overload the box/bag as books are heavy, and if it is too heavy, you will have an excuse to look again and keep! I prefer a bag because, although it doesn't hold many, it is easy to drop off to an op shop (thrift shop). * check out www.bookcrossing.com/ (please mods let me know if against the rules to post link - i will remove if needed ). For books where you have multiple copies, or books that are too good to chuck but that the book traders won't take, this might be an option. You put a label on the book saying effectively that it has been 'released' and then put this on the website, and then whoever 'catches' it goes to the website (address is also on the label) and records that they find it. Then you can just let go of one or two of the favourite books at a time on the bus, at a cafe, etc. I hope this is of some help to you. Like i said, i totally totally understand! Honestly, for me, i had to have my 'headspace' right before i could do it, but definitely the baby was the best motivation and, trust me, i don't really have time to read at the moment so i am not missing them at all. And i kept some favourites, but i have a set 'book storage area' (two bookshelves, which also hold ornaments so not all the shelf space is for books), and this storage area is currently the maximum number of books i can have in house. For the non fiction 'just in case' stuff, any chance you can just grab a couple without looking at them (i am thinking of ones with thin spines where you can't read on the side what they are about) and just pop them in a bag without looking? i know this would be really hard for me, but maybe that would suit you? Sorry for rambling. Congrats on pregnancy good luck {{hugs}}
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Post by phoenixcat on Jan 10, 2010 21:15:39 GMT -5
You've hit on one of my hot topics . I will preface this by saying that I'm quite a bit older than you (guessing here but if you are pregnant - pretty safe bet) and that I didn't have my hallelujah moment on books until about 5-6 years ago. So, at your age, I might not have been as open to scaling down. But then again I didn't have a small precious to plan for either. At the time I started, I was addicted to those de-cluttering shows like clean sweep which helped me a lot. I still have a lot of books and I'm planning to do another purge soon. But in the last 5 plus years - I've gotten rid of about 25-30 boxes of books. I have another box in the garage right now to go. I'll tell you what was helpful for me. 1) I figured out where my books were going to go. I had book shelves in four rooms and massive stacks of books in front of each book shelf. I decided that my books were going into one room only which has essentially been outfitted as a library. I have six bookshelves - each one is 6 foot tall and has 6 shelves. Whatever I kept, had to fit on those shelves and the title had to be visible - no double stacking Of course, with kids, you might want kid books in their room. If you have a spot for cookbooks in the kitchen - they might live there. And, if you have antique/collectible books (like my parents do) you might want them behind glass in a curio cabinet. Defining space worked recently for my parents too. I helped them scale down their books to pre-defined locations. 2) Find a good home for the ones that will be donated. That can make you feel better to help others. The first time I took them to a used bookstore and received very little money for them. It wasn't worth the effort. In this economy, there are probably a lot of people trying to sell things. Since then, I've done all my donations to the friends of the library. They have a massive sale 3 times a year and proceeds help the library. My parents also donated to their local library. Ours also takes CDs, video tapes, DVDs, record albums, etc. 3) Once you have a "home" defined for what you are going to keep - then you can start ranking based on the type of people you are. In our case, my DH never reads books twice and we rarely read the same books. I put all of his books on the table and let him sort them out. He kept less than 10%. Since that purge - he has started reading download books on his phone - he never buys hard copies anymore unless the author isn't available. So, with my next purge - I think I can get rid of a lot more of his books. In my case, I love to re-read books. If I like the author, I'll re-read a series from start to finish. So, that is my "breaking point" - if I don't have any interest in re-reading the book - why not? And, then I get rid of ones that I don't want to re-read. I have a large collection of "literature" books due to way too many English classes in college. As "literature", I didn't want to give them away. Then, I recently realized - I don't enjoy all "classics" - I want my precious book shelves for what I enjoy reading. I'm not saying this is your criteria but you have to really define your essence and what you enjoy reading frequently. And, also keep in mind that more books will always be available. It will always be easy to fill the shelves - not so easy to take away. 4) Some books just have a short life span. Some reference books unless it is an active hobby - right now - might need to go and when you actually have the hobby - then check out the books at the library or look for the most updated information when you actually need it. I bought a buying house for dummies book before the crash - do you think it is at all relevant now? Also, reference books are typically available online anymore. My DH is a computer guy - none of his books are applicable anymore. I also realized I was keeping books because they were given to me. When I drilled down, it wasn't my taste. I loved the person but it wasn't what I enjoyed reading. I have very little time for pleasure reading - I want to use it wisely. I also had a friend that worked in a bookstore - she used to bring me tons of books that were being "remaindered". They can't be donated because they don't have any covers which is too bad. But there usually was a reason they didn't sell. I read them all and eventually got rid of them all. None were my taste as it is now and they weren't the "cream of the crop" anyway. 5) I also love books and found it very difficult to let go of them. But now I'm at the point where I want my small amounts of space to go to the things I really enjoy. It brings me pleasure now to look at my shelves and know all these books are my friends. Unfortunately, I have to do another purge of acquaintances since I shipped in three boxes of my books that were stored at my parents. That is where my personal rules work for me. Only what fits in the space and only what I'm enjoying or needing right now. So, a very long winded answer as to what works for me - my best advice is allocate your space and not an inch more. And, pick what represents you and your DH now to fill it. Then, if there is room - you can take a second pass at it. In my case, I had to take a second pass to create room . Best of luck to you and your little one on the way! PC
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belle57
New Member
Joined: January 2010
Posts: 1
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Post by belle57 on Jan 10, 2010 21:26:24 GMT -5
I've donated books to booksforamerica.org , although they have parameters on what they will accept.
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Post by sporadic on Jan 10, 2010 22:12:40 GMT -5
I donated my books to Goodwill and to the library. The library has a used book sale twice a year.
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Post by eagle on Jan 10, 2010 22:27:42 GMT -5
I had hundreds of books boxed up and stored for several years in less than ideal circumstances. If you choose to box them up and store them somewhere, be prepared for the possible consequences. Books are perfect fodder for mice. They chew on the paper, pee and deficate on it as well. Mould grows and the books become horribly disgusting if stored anywhere that mice or mould could get at them.
So, after several years of storing these books, even paying for storage, they ended up in a recycle bin. I tried cleaning some of them, but it didn't work very well, and I couldn't bring myself to hold them and turn their pages to read them, knowing how they had been damaged.
IF you have a good place to keep any of these books, where they will be protected from the elements and such critters, then base what you keep on the amount of space you have available.
IF you don't have enough space for all of them, you do need to get rid of some.
How to chose what to keep and what to let go of is really going to be very personal. But here is how I choose what to keep now, based on space and my preferences.
Office related books go in the office on the shelf. Only those books which I actually use for reference. I have no need to keep reference books for old outdated computer software, so those books go away.
We have a few favorite authors whose books we keep. One shelf is dedicated to one author, another shelf to another author and others within the same genre. We have 3 shelves in the living room with hardbound books & a few soft covers by favorite authors.
In the bedroom we have one small bookcase in which the soft-cover books that we want to keep. Periodically, I go through and remove some books to donate, to make room for others.
My MIL gives us books on a regular basis after she finishes reading them. But we don't have room to keep them, so they go away once read.
Birding books go in a built-in by the back door, along with birding paraphenalia (binoculars, feeders, etc.)
Cookbooks go on a shelf in the kitchen. I thinned out the cookbooks also, getting rid of at least half.
Nursing books, I kept only 3 or 4. Most of the ones I had were decades old, out of date and only a few were still in good condition. The ones I kept are the ones I turn to when I need to look something up. They were the ones that I never boxed up, the ones I used frequently.
When traveling, I take 2 or 3 books along and leave them behind when finished. Train stations, hotels, hospitals, many places are good for leaving a good book. Our local train station has a bookcase just so travelers can leave one or take one. Our local hospitals also have book cases in the surgery family waiting areas and such. These are great places to take novels.
Collectable books, I don't know what to say about those. It is a very specialized collection, not everyone would be interested. Do you have space for them? Where and how would you keep them? Would they displace something more important if you move them to another part of the house? What purpose do they serve? Is it an investment? Are they worth money? Do you keep them because they are worth money or do you keep them because you have an historical interest? Do you read them on a regular basis? Do you need all of them? Could you let go of a few and keep only the best examples of what it is you like about them?
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Post by fluffychild on Jan 10, 2010 22:49:46 GMT -5
My mother and I used to go to the library books sales and we would buy 3 or 4 grocery bags at a time. I have gotten to a point, where I will package up books, 20 in a package and will give them to Goodwill - a very good tax donation. I am working on getting rid of any cookbook that is not from my town. You can get most recipes on the net. One time, I gave over 700 books to a nursing home and they set up a library for their residents.
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Post by scribbles on Jan 10, 2010 22:59:07 GMT -5
I can completely understand the problems with letting go of books. I have the same problem. I did manage to let go of about 300 books two years ago when I moved. Part of what helped me then was that I just didn't want to move all those heavy boxes. One thing I did was to start a Word doc with the author and titles that I was giving away. That way, if I ever really needed a specific book again, but couldn't remember the title, I had somewhere to go to look it up. Many libraries use donated books to buy new books. They get a book appraiser in to see if any of the books are valuable and sell those. Then they hold book sales for the general public and use the funds to buy new books for everyone to read. Could you donate your books to the library if they would help everyone read new books? Also, any book that you are nervous about giving up--check to see if your library has it. If not, check to see if they can do an interlibrary loan for you. I found it easier to give up some books when I knew that if I really needed to read them again, I would be able to get my hands on a copy through the library. You might need to use a different strategy with each category of book that you have. Unread paperbacks. Some one closed a used bookstore and sold lots of books for a few dollars a box. I purchased quite a few of these. I don't have as much time to read as I used to, but am slowly working my way through them. I don't have money to buy books very often (like twice a year) and I enjoy having this "private library" to choose from, but it does take up a ton of space. For the unread books, could you do a quick scan of all the titles? Are there any books you can tell right away that you really aren't interested in? Those could go. Remember, a library card is free and there are always new-to-you books there. What's the best use of this space right now--books or baby?
DH's gaming books. He has a billion RPG books of many types, probably every GURPS book ever made. He goes to games twice a month and when life settles down (college, babies ) he plans to do so more frequently. He does not want to part with any of them because he never knows when he might need one for a new game. This is harder because these aren't your books. These could be checked for duplicates and the duplicates given to other people who play the same games. Also check for books that aren't duplicates, but are very similar to each other. Also, are there several books for the same game? Does he use them all, or are there one or two favorites? How available are these books at the library? Is he still buying more books? Can a limit be placed on bringing more books into the house?Mangas. We both have a bunch. We do reread them occasionally and frequently loan them out to other people. These you might be able to weed out a little bit. Here's what I did: I counted the number of shelves in a given bookcase. If there were 6 shelves, I had to pick out 6 books to let go. Not one book from each shelf, mind you, but just 6 books from the whole bookcase. This helped me rank the books into my most favorite and least favorite books. It was easier to let the least favorite books go, because that meant that I could keep the favorites. These you could probably give away to the people you loan them out to. You might try counting them and trying to let go of 5% or 10% of the collection. Medical books from the 1850-1950. I collect these. The more inaccurate the better. Some old text books, cook books and poetry books as well. I have a small collection of old cookbooks and housekeeping books. What I've done is dedicate a small bookcase to these books. I only keep the best of them--and those have to fit in the bookcase.
Books I have multiple copies of but cannot seem to part with. Such as my favorite books, or books I have a lot of respect for. (Probably not more than 30 duplicates total). It seems wrong to give them away unless maybe it was to a very deserving person. You may have to make a decision here. Do you want to keep the duplicates, even if that means you won't have space for other books? What I'd do with these books is pick 5 books that I could keep duplicates of. The rest, determine which is your favorite copy. Put the other copies in a box. Give yourself some time to think about what person in your life would best like the book and then give the books away. Reference books. How to keep bees, How to raise an alligator, and so on. I don't do most off these things but if I ever did... This category's the easiest. Reference books get outdated so quickly. And newer information is always available at your library. So keep the books you are actually using, like childcare or pregnancy books, and give the rest away.
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Post by yearning4order on Jan 10, 2010 23:02:16 GMT -5
DH's gaming books. He has a billion RPG books of many types, probably every GURPS book ever made. He goes to games twice a month and when life settles down (college, babies ) he plans to do so more frequently. He does not want to part with any of them because he never knows when he might need one for a new game. You do realize that this will never happen right? For the next 18-20 years, and possibly more if you have more kids, life will not settle down enough for him to game more. But in the meantime you are pitting storage of something he will use infrequently for your child's room. This is just one example of the thinking we struggle with when it comes to desqualoring--and I can certainly relate. I learned to knit when my daughter was 1.5-2 years old, and we lived in this town where people regularly unloaded extremely expensive high quality yarns at Goodwill, garage sales, etc. I bought multiple skeins of excellent condition, highest quality fiber yarns (European, cashmere, alpaca, angora, merino, etc.) for mere pennies, and toted this around with us for years. I figured that as my daughter got older I would simply knit more and more and have this great stash of the finest yarns waiting for me! I also got really into felting and realized pretty quickly that we couldn't afford a lot of the raw material for felting (I was doing both wet and needle felting, and honestly for the "base" of what is worked on, the nicest wool is not necessarily needed on a project by project basis). I found a suprising number of people in our area who had small flocks of "lawn mower" sheep, and they had to shear these sheep at least once a year just for maintenance. So voila! I had a FREE source of lots and lots of raw wool fleece--it needed some prewashing and carding to get the excess lanolin and bits out of it, but hey, it was FREE10 plastic tubs of yarn and 4 very large boxes (they may have been 3' X 3' X 3') I had a veritable gold mine of crafting materials! And we were choking under the weight of it. We didn't have enough storage, so the yarn I left inside, and the wool we put outside in the rafters of the garage, thinking that although it was in the garage, it would be ok, right? Wrong. The squirrels found it and chewed their way into one box and began carting it away. Even worse, the *ants* found it and began making nests not only in the big boxes of wool, but also the tub of Christmas decorations that we were 'forced' to store outside (because once the storage was filled with tubs of knitting yarn there simply wasn't room and something else had to go outside). In the end, the boxes of wool, or what remained of it had to be taken to the dump. When my daughter was 7, I had to concede that yes, I probably wasn't going to be able to use all that yarn and I had to start making some decisions about the worth of an item I might have to save for a decade or more before it would become "useful". I thought as my daughter got older that certainly I would have more time--and it's true, there was some increases here and there. But as kids get older their interests change, their abilities change, and while we aren't changing diapers on our big kids, instead we are taking them to the pool to swim with friends, we are going to their school conferences, etc. So as much as it felt like tearing out one of my lungs and tossing it in the garbage, I whittled it down to 2 tubs of knitting yarn. That was when my daughter was 7. She's going to be 11 soon, and in recent days it's occurred to me that I probably won't use most of the yarn I have left, and that I could in fact whittle it down even further and pare it down to 1/2 a tub. There are lots of reasons I will hoard things like these, using lack of money as one of the top ones. My inherent lack of trust in the benevolent and generous nature of the universe has gotten me into all kinds of trouble, not just in terms of household squalor, but also financially--because if "super crazy cheap" qualifies as a reason why I could buy and save anything I 'might use someday', then it means I don't have to actually be planning on how to use the money I have for things I truly want and desire to deliberately plan for. These are just my thoughts--in my next post I'm going to post links and paste in responses from our members with far more time battling squalor than I have. They made it ok for me to give away and even throw away the things that were choking me in my house, and my life. Maybe it will be useful for you too.
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Post by yearning4order on Jan 10, 2010 23:08:22 GMT -5
Mimis Purge Primer! Dear Laura, It never occurs to me that anyone on this board pesters me, I'm just glad to be of help. I know others will contribute, too, but here is something that might help when I am not around. You are doing the world no good when you keep this much stuff. You are not "saving the world" from more stuff going in a landfill by turning your home into a personal dump. You are just creating and extension of the landfill that you have to live in, and you deserve to live in better. We all do. Questions to ask when sorting stuff: Do I love it? Does it make me smile? Does it bring sad memories? If I do diet down into this size again, will it still be in style? Could I get another if I really needed it? Does it make me feel guilty for not using it when I look at it? What is the worst that could happen if I got rid of it? Can it be used as is, or would I have to repair it in some way? If it needs repair, how likely am I to actually do it? Is it keeping me stuck in the past? Does it reflect who I am now, or who I used to be? The 5 W questions "Why would I need it?" "Where would I need it?" "What would I need it for?" "Who would ask me for it?" "When would I need it, and is it worth keeping that long?" (please note that "someday" is a long time from now) Would I be willing to pay a mover to haul it across the country? Are there tax and/or legal ramifications to it? If something has been in storage a long time and you haven't missed it, that is also a good sign that you don't really need it. Every item you keep costs you. It is like your house note/rent/taxes/utilities/etc. applies to the stuff you keep as well as to yourself. You are paying "rent" to give it room in your house. Is it worth the rent? Every item you don't need chokes you. It chokes out who you can grow to be. It sucks the life out of you. It weighs down your mind, because you have to take care of it and give it room in your house and your brain. ******************* Mimi's Purge Primer Part Deux Dear Laura, My half of a conversation in chat today, cut and pasted: Do you trust that if you needed another, God would be able to provide it for you? Trust this one out to someone who needs it now, and you will get another if you need it later. If you continually give, you will continually have, because you will make room in your life for the new. It is taking up space in your life that you need for living right now. You can't live the future right now, live the today, trust God for the tomorrow. I want to make room in my life for my life. Especially for my life right now. Not my life as I wish it was. Not my life as it might be in the future. My life right now. Hope this helps, messymimi ***************** Meme's "Scatter Joy" Do not be afraid to give things away even though they cost you money- sharing is a good thing and I know that sometimes the more I give the more I get.........I do not mean that some else will give me something to replace the given items but I do mean that something good will come your way in different forms- scatter some joy-- today I gave a waffle iron to my older grand daughter and the look on her face was priceless- sure I could have used it again or stored it again or sold it in a garage sale for a couple of bucks but money is not always the end of the story. I only used it once or twice and it looks like new but now she has the joy of using it------ -- We cannot keep it all or use all- we really cannot and we need to let our illusions of value also go- having space means I can now see and use the things I love the most and also keep them clean and tidy. I still have a lot of things but nothing has me. ********** Howardsgirlfriend on guilt, remorse, sorrow That's a tough one for me, too. I have to keep reminding myself that one of my thinking errors is sacrificing the present for the past and future. I get so caught up in trips down memory lane (good or bad) or thinking about how I might turn that broken whatever into something wonderful, that I stop improving my present life. My home should be a monument to the present, not a shrine to my past or a storage locker for my future. *************** Skatter's "It Won't Kill Me" helped me to know that someone else was struggling, and if the things she thought would kill her didn't kill her, that maybe the things I thought might kill me wouldn't kill me either. takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=action&action=display&thread=6099Ya know what? I am an adult. ENOUGH of this whining and crying about my house not being clean. ENOUGH of waiting for someone else to swoop in and do it. There is no one else. I am a big girl. I am able-bodied. There are 1440 minutes in a day spending a few of them here and there WILL NOT KILL ME. I won't die. I won't collapse in immense pain. I will not contract some awful disease. I am a big girl. I CAN DO THIS. It won't kill me to spend 20 minutes to take a shower. I will not collapse in immense pain. I will survive. It only took 18 minutes to take a shower. And it didn't kill me. It won't kill me to take the Easter baskets out to the garage. I will not regret doing this. One Minute - that's all. And it didn't kill me. It won't kill me to pick up the garbage on my desk. I am tired of all the stuff falling, and not having room for my drinks. I will not regret doing this. It won't kill me to spend 5 minutes picking up garbage. I DID THIS, and survived. Put away tea pot. 5 Seconds. But I didn't think this would kill me. ***********************
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eternal
New Member
Joined: September 2008
Posts: 57
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Post by eternal on Jan 11, 2010 4:17:44 GMT -5
I have the same problem with books, so I completely understand. I have some limited success with various methods of dealing with it.
Taking some of the duplicates and better quality books to a secondhand bookshop to sell. I found this very stressful, as I was giving away books I wanted to keep. And it didn't work. What happened was that I'd take a huge box to the shop, and the staff would pick out the two or three books that were worth selling and give the rest back to me. They didn't even want them for free, as a job lot with the other ones. That was a lesson to me - our old books are not worth what we think they are. They are mostly junk. This method ended up getting very few books out of the house, and I missed the books that were sold. 1/5
Selling the books on Amazon. Nobody wanted them. I sold very few indeed. Meanwhile, the process caused extra clutter. The books that I was selling were still in the house, taking up space, and I had to be sure I could track them down when somebody bought them. I had to collect packaging materials. I had to check email every day and remember to cancel when I went on holiday. It was extra work, that I didn't need, for virtually no reduction in clutter. 1/5
Giving away the books through Bookcrossing Oh dear. I had high hopes for that. The books would go to loved homes. In reality, this is a lot of work too. You have to look up each of your books and print labels and so on. There was more clutter. People objected to me leaving books - yes, really. We forget that our treasured books are other people's junk, and books left behind are litter. I've scored this method zero, because somehow I managed to acquire a few books from other members. And because they are bookcrossing books, I can't throw them away so they are part of the clutter. 0/5
Taking the books to charity Where I live there is a place where books can be dropped off for charity. Unfortunately, the container seems to fill up with books fairly quickly, so you might turn up and find that you're unable to leave books. When I could leave books, this was successful. I liked to think that somebody might buy the books and that they would raise money for a good cause. 3/5
Boxing up the books and storing them in the garage Some books I couldn't bear to get rid of, but I agreed with myself that as there wasn't room, they could stay boxed in the garage and come back into the house at some future time. What actually happened is that they gradually got ruined, and I have been having to throw them away. This is sad, but strange as it sounds, it has been my most successful strategy so far. It's clear that nobody would want the damaged books so I have no option but to throw them away. I've scored this method highly simply because it got rid of the most number of books. 4/5
Keeping them and finding a way to store them in the house This has been slightly successful. I have a lot of bookcases, some going right up to the ceiling, and I double up the books on them. It means accepting that your house will look a bit like a secondhand bookshop. I still have some books stacked on the floor, but that's mainly because I tend to leave piles of books where I read them. It's not ideal, and the books collect dust, but I can live with it. 3/5
This post is getting so long that I think I will do another one on choosing which books to get rid of!
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eternal
New Member
Joined: September 2008
Posts: 57
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Post by eternal on Jan 11, 2010 4:52:58 GMT -5
Now the difficult part - choosing which books to get rid of! Maybe you're like me. I could take you on a tour of all my books and explain why I need to keep each and every one. Even the ones which I should obviously get rid of, I have some reason to keep. Duplicates? Well, that copy was the first copy I read of that book. The other copy was a present, so I couldn't get rid of it. That one is an out-of-print illustrated edition. That one is pristine, so I couldn't just throw it away. Out of date textbooks? But that's the point! You can't get hold of that book any more. It's a record of a past time, so I need to keep it. So the first lesson I have had to learn is: I have a reason to keep every book I own. Which means I have to get rid of books that I have good reason to keep.You see, I thought I could just go throw the books and get rid of the ones I had no reason to keep, and then I wondered why I'd gone through loads of books and didn't have any to get rid of. It doesn't work like that. I have to get rid of some of the books that I "need". The second lesson was one I learned while trying to find good homes for the books I'd managed to sort. Secondhand books are mainly junk.That was hard to learn. I love books. It was difficult to accept that the value that I put on these books is not their real value, and that their real value is virtually nil. You can't give them away, literally. But in a way, that's liberating. It is actually OK to just throw the books away. I know - I feel very uncomfortable, almost panicky, when I put books in the bin. But that's how I got rid of the most books in the end - boxing them up and putting them in the garage until they were more obviously junk in my eyes (due to getting damp). And as I've found: I will miss the books that I get rid of.I thought I'd mention that, because I keep hearing that people don't miss clutter that they dejunk. Well, I do. And I need to accept that, or else I'll think I've done the wrong thing when I feel that sense of loss. It's OK to miss them, and it doesn't mean you've made a mistake. It's just a trade-off. Do I miss them so much that I'd want the whole lot back and have to deal with it all over again? No. I enjoy what I've gained from getting rid of them. I suspect that the gaming books might not be junk. Somebody out there might love your DH's collection. If the books are easy to get hold of, it might be worth selling the collection for now, then buying back second-hand as and when he needs each book? Medical books - I also collected them. I ended up getting rid of them (or rather, putting them out in the garage and letting the damp do its work. Some of them were huge tomes). I sort of miss them, but I'm glad I don't have the responsibility for them any more. Reference books. As others have said, there is often better information on the internet now. You could even allow yourself to buy the books again when needed (for instance, if you find yourself having to raise an alligator). What I found worked best for me was boxing up the books without deciding to get rid of them for once and for all. Pick out the ones you want to keep least and keep them in a box, and store it somewhere. You can decide later if you feel able to let it go to charity. It's a halfway house for now. Maybe making a final decision on the books is just too stressful and you need to get halfway there first. Then, maybe in a few weeks, when you're feeling strong, you'll find yourself dumping that box or taking it to charity. (But be careful if you look inside the box, because you'll want to take some books out again. Might be best to seal it up). The other thing that worked fairly well for me was adapting the house - getting enough shelving to hold a lot of books. That might be easier for you, if it's a possibility. I still struggle with getting rid of books, but it's not urgent when they're neatly arranged on shelves. Good luck.
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Post by Evelyn on Jan 11, 2010 5:50:07 GMT -5
Something that helped me - There's a book (& now a movie) called "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress," where part of the plot revolves around a small suitcase full of great books of Western European literature. These were forbidden during the Cultural Revolution, making the books an extremely dangerous, but extremely valuable, treasure. The book goes on to deal with other things (and is very good - you can probably get it from your library); but that part got me to thinking - what if I could only keep as many books as would fit into a small suitcase? I made up a "suitcase collection" of those books that I think I would be willing to smuggle and hide, at risk of death or imprisonment, rather than give up - and it fit on one 3 foot shelf. Okay, that would probably take a medium-sized suitcase, but still... (Note: my making up a "suitcase collection" is sort of a game - I've never been in anything like the Chinese Cutural Revolution, and it's probably reasonable to expect that I will never be in a position to risk my life over a book. In playing this little game, I mean no disrespect to the many hundreds of thousands of people who did risk their lives, and often lost their lives, during the Cultural Revolution; or to the pain that so many millions of Chinese people endured.)Now, I have hundreds of books, and am presently surrounded by boxes upon boxes of books that I haven't unpacked from two moves ago, and bookshelves full of more books bought since that second-to-last move. I firmly believe while it may be possible to be too rich, and it is definitely possible to be too thin, it hardly seems possible that a person could have too many bookcases. (Well, maybe if they didn't all fit in the house...) But it's definitely possible to have too many books. Knowing that the books in my "suitcase collection" weren't ever going to go anywhere made it easier for me to look through my other gazillion books and let some of them go. And having already decided that a given book wasn't one I'd risk my life for, it was easier to decide whether it deserved space on my bookshelf. That was some years back, and now I'm thinking I'll make up a new "suitcase collection" for myself - just as soon as I've got enough other clutter cleared that I can (finally!) unpack my books.
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