Another fabulous Minimizing Monday at Handprints on the Wall. This week we are cleaning off our bookshelves. I seriously considered donating most of my books (not kids books, but novels I’ve already read and may read again) to my local library. The thought I had was that I would always be able to access those books through the library if I want to read them again. Why was I hanging onto them? Then I got realistic about this plan: what if we moved? what if the library didn’t add my titles to their collection? So I paired down my collection to my absolute favorite books and authors. They all fit on one shelf in my closet, so if I buy any new books I need to make room for them by getting rid of an old book.
Kids books are harder for me to sort through because I like all of them. But my boys are not babies anymore so we have sorted out the baby books and donated them. We usually take our kids books to our pediatrician’s office because every time we go there all the kids are looking for books to read, but they only have a few that are on the verge of falling apart.
Last week’s challenge to clean-out my coloring supplies was so inspiring. It motivated me to focus on all the kids arts & craft supplies in our pantry. I consolidated four large bins of supplies to three. And now I have a much better idea of what we have (more than I thought) and we are doing some new activities with our “found” supplies that had been lost in the unorganized bins before. I hope that Minimizing Monday is also inspiring you in your household!
And don’t forget cash4books.net . To date we’ve gotten over $100 for textbooks and books we will truly never need. Another thing: my DH built a slim bookshelf behind our bedroom door in some unused/wasted space. It holds our homeschool books and is a parking lot for library books so they don’t get mixed in with the girls’ books. We still got rid of a bunch, but the bookcase gets the clutter out of the way!
I have made decluttering my book collection a priority. We live near a Half Price Books so I always sell anything in good condition. It’s not a huge amount, but I use that $ to purchase picture books for homeschool. I also wanted to point out that many libraries sell books that patrons donate to them, which is great if you want to support your public library financially. But if you’re hoping to stock their shelves, make sure you ask about their policies.
Great tip!I don’t know if you announce giveaways, but I have a sweet one going on. Thanks for the awesome blog.
I use swaptree and trade my books for DVDs, CD’s, and different books. I’m loving it!
Oh boy, that would never work here. We have SOOOOO many books. A lot though are part of our ciriculum, which our younger girls will use eventually. But so many kids books. Yea, I just can’t get rid of many books. I do go through it occasionally and make sure we arent keeping any fodder…
Books… that is always a hard one for our family as we LOVE books! We are pretty frugal with the rest of our lives and purge a lot – in fact this weekend I took an entire rig full of donations away. But, when it comes to books we have always struggled giving them up. So, we did something different in our house – we gave ourselves permission to keep them. Basically, if we can keep them organized and tidy we can keep them. I know… completely different than your post :)
Kids books are hard, but I’m sure we could all use some hand-holding and your ideas on how to make the decisions! Thanks!
Great post Heather! I’m so glad to hear that you were able to “find” some new craft things as a result of your decluttering! That’s awesome. I have a hard time clearing out the kid’s books too. Do you think I should do a post on that subject as well?? Maybe people will be inspired to tackle that bookshelf too along with this week’s challenge. Anyways, thanks for sharing with everyone!