The imminent arrival of The Floppy Alienette necessitated some serious reorganization of the house. After all, the hubby and I had done a fine job of filling in every nook and cranny of our tri-level house all by our lonesome. But as you know, those tiny bodies require a great deal of STUFF and their STUFF requires a great deal of space. So for the past two weeks, I and my husband have been on a mission to remove the clutter from our lives (making him - a minimalist - so happy and me - a major hoarder - a nervous wreck....BUT WHAT IF WE NEEEEDD THAT LATER?)
Our garbage man probably thinks we are nuts, and Harbor House (a local charity for abused women) probably thinks we are nuts too, as we have removed bags and bags and boxes and boxes and pieces of this and that. I am ashamed to admit it, but I managed to fill an entire garbage bag with lotions, soaps, hairspray, makeup, and the such not to give to Harbor House. It's amazing how much Bath and Body Works people have given me over the years (I wonder if I smell?). But back to books....
The books have gone to three places: 1) Half-Price Books, so I could get some moolah; 2) the library, because they need it; and 3) a small stack for giveaways here on the blog, because I love you.I ended up sending 96 books to Half-Price books netting me a whopping 75 bucks (hardly seems right, but I guess it's $75 more than if I donated all of it to the library. I do wish I could have received an itemized list of books with how much they gave me for each though; either way, they are still making a great deal of change off me.
But the important thing here is that I've removed 173 books. Instead of considering my goal complete, I decided to up my goal to 300 books removed this year. I'm over half-way there, so I firmly believe I can do this. I just need to remember to not put every single book I read onto the permanent shelves. It's a habit I need to break, the keeping of all books read regardless of enjoyment.
Actually $75 bucks from HPB is fantastic! Normally they give you $20 or so in my experience. I always split up large piles to give them so I can get $20 for each, haha! :D
ReplyDeleteI will have to remember to do that!
DeleteGood for you! I get the shakes just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteIt was not easy.
DeleteGood for you! I have to do the same thing and I'm dreading it.
ReplyDeleteI had to do it quick, like ripping off a bandaid.
DeleteOOOOOOoooo! Can I be one of your 'other little lovelies'? squee.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the crap-removal success. (not that books are crap but the process can make you feel like crap, right?)
When is Miss Little Floppy due to arrive again? :) gentle hugs to you both.
You may most definitely be one of my little lovelies. :) She is due any moment now, and I can't wait!
DeleteGood for you! I need to go through my books but it's so difficult for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm really really bad about it, but the house needed some serious removal of stuff for the babes.
DeleteI'm impressed. I am actually pretty good about not keeping many of my read books. I donate them to various places or pass them along to someone. You are doing the right thing. Babies, as teensy as they are, require a huge amount of space. High chair, swing, bouncy seat, portable crib, stroller, toys...our whole entire house was completely overrun with baby things for about 5 years, especially since mine are only 20 months apart.
ReplyDeleteTheir stuff really does take up a tremendous amount of space. I can't imagine once we need to start buying all these toys!
DeleteOh, I am so proud of you!! I know I could not do this, and even thinking about giving away books makes me get all sweaty and anxious, so I am glad that you did this all on your own. Now, I don't have a problem passing books that I have already read out to friends, but getting rid of the ones that I haven't read makes me nervous!
ReplyDeleteIt does make me a bit sick to my stomach to get rid of books, whether I've read them or not, but I keep reminding myself that I still have over 1000 books on the shelves.
DeleteWow. But fantastic that you are donating to the library. I've given over the house to my 5 year old. His stuff is now encroaching on my shelves. All the best with everything.
ReplyDeleteI may give her the second bedroom before giving her any more room on my shelves. :)
DeleteHooray and a big congrats to you!!! The Alienette will completely appreciate it. :D
ReplyDeleteShe better. :)
DeleteAmazing. I have barely one box to take to Half Price Books although I did drop off some to the Friends of the Library before Christmas.
ReplyDeleteAnn
I only donate in really big spurts. A few years ago I donated around 350 books and then not a single one since.
DeleteGood for you!!! The arrival of a baby changes a lot of things -- and yes … they take up an awful amount of space. You will see it continue to expand until it takes over almost the entire house. At least that is what happened with us!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI've been toying with the idea of just buying her her own house..... :)
DeleteI think this sort of project definitely needs to be done in stages. And I find that once I start purging, I feel like doing more too. Books are the toughest though. But we can't keep them all!
ReplyDeleteIt does feel productive to get rid of all the extra junk in your house. Scary, but productive.
DeleteI am amazed and excited for you all at the same time. I don't think I could remove that many selections from my shelves, although I do remove the ones I absolutely know I'll never read again. I need to stop treating books like a security blanket!
ReplyDeleteA lot of those books were ones I knew I would never read again or ones I knew I would never read in the first place. Still a really hard thing to do though.
DeleteI want to say I'm proud of you, and I am, but the thought of giving that many books away makes me shudder!
ReplyDeleteIt was horrifying. I still shudder to think of it.
DeleteI know how hard it is to cull books, so I totally feel for you. When I culled most of my collection a few months ago, I had a minor heart attack about it.
ReplyDeleteBut now I feel a lot better about it. It is nice to have a little more breathing room (although my husband will tell you that I need to get rid of more). I have also rethought my "buying" process. Books will only make it home with me if they will add to my collection, and if I don't like a book, I need to immediately find a new home for it before it finds a place to collect dust.
The hubby definitely thinks I have way too many books. Actually, he's pretty adamant that I need to cut them in half. :)
DeleteWow, good work, Trisha! I am proud of you, and I bet you'll make good on your goal REALLY soon :-)
ReplyDeleteI'll probably wait until May or June and then do another major cleaning. I need time to recover. :)
DeleteI emptied two huge bookshelves last weekend. That leaves me with three bookshelves for keepers. That's enough, I think.
ReplyDeleteNew rule: one book in, one book out.
Shelves as in 5-shelf shelves or do you mean just three shelves? I have 4 5-shelf shelves full, 2 3-shelf, 1 4-shelf, and then a closet still with books all in them. It's a freaking sickness.
DeleteTrishaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa come visit me and help me do this. I did take two grocery paper sacks of books to the library but most of these books were teaching textbooks that i'll probably never use again. It's such a struggle!!!
ReplyDeleteI consider $75 pretty good. I get so annoyed at the little money I get for my books that I refuse to take any to HPB. Sad.
But the thing that kills me? Scott has one 6 foot bookshelf for himself and it's full of outdated business textbooks and college textbooks (Psychology?! French?!) that he REFUSES to get rid of. He doesn't even like to read!!
I'm the same way. I got rid of a box of books I actually hated when I read them, and it was still ridiculously difficult. :)
DeleteI did a cull of my bookshelves right before the holidays. I took a ton of books (I didn't count them but they were a LOT) and my husband took over a hundred movies. We got $103 back. He was more disappointed than I was about it though. Good luck with your book removal!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! It's disappointing because I'm getting less than one dollar per book, but I try to remind myself that it's better than the big fat nothing I get from the library. :)
DeleteWow, congratulations!! Always kind of sad but also kind of freeing to get rid of books isn't it? I know you can make the goal!
ReplyDeleteIt is sad, but I do feel really, really proud after. :)
DeleteI was a bit of a hoarder as a kid, but I've pretty much gotten over it these days, for two reasons: (1) I don't have the space (2) I don't have the patience to keep it all organized.
ReplyDeleteI just don't see the point of holding onto stuff that I don't like. Why not donate or sell it to someone who would get use out of it, you know?
I'm proud of you for sticking to your guns and "moving some inventory," so to speak. Here's to 300!
I'm really trying to take that attitude!
DeleteWow! You're amazing. I wish I could do something like this, but I'm a total book hoarder :P Even the ones I know I'll never reread I have trouble parting ways with.
ReplyDeleteI'm the same way, and I always have been. I hung onto books that I despised the first time I read them. It's a sickness.
Delete173 . . . wow oh wow. If I removed 173 books from my apartment there wouldn't be any left! You made a good point there about not keeping books you didn't like. What usually happens with me is that everything goes on the shelf, and once I run out of room I go through and pull the books I don't actually want to keep. I need to do it as I go along.
ReplyDeleteI still have over 1000 books, probably closer to 1500, so I still need to get rid of more.
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