This week our paid members are tackling their bookshelves for our "Main Dish" project. Before I offer these book tips, I have been getting some feedback that indicates people might not know what our paid memberships are all about... so to quickly explain, we provide many resources in our member area, but the biggest value is that members have access to our team of Certified Professional Organizers® for "budget consultations" in our private message boards. We're in there 7 days a week providing unlimited answers to your organizing questions. Members can even upload photos to show us what is going on, and we provide personal advice to each question. You really can't beat that for $14.95!
With that explained, let me share with you some questions and thoughts to help you weed through your own bookshelf a little faster. Imagine that I am a tiny organizing expert on your shoulder asking you these questions as you go through the stacks!
Computer manuals: Do you have books on your shelf teaching you how to use Windows 95? Even if they are more recent, computer manuals are typically out of date as soon as they are printed. Things change SO fast. Please donate or discard books that are not relevant to your current computer software. You can often find the best information online.
Cookbooks: Do you use only one or two recipes out of some of your cookbooks? Why not photocopy the recipes you like and donate the book? Frees up lots of space quickly!
Business: Do the business books you have reflect the current philosophies? Did those books exist before the internet? They may not be relevant. Unless they are classics and you refer to them often, consider donating them.
How-to: Do you have books left from projects you have finished long ago? Did you do a patio addition, landscaping project, or renovation and ten years later, the book still remains? Think about who might get more use of that book now and donate it.
Self-help & relationship: Did you read the books you have on self-help, and did they help you? If they didn't help or you didn't read them, they probably should go. If you read them and they are meaningful to your personal growth, by all means, keep them.
Your career & your industry: Do you have books left from jobs you no longer have, within industries that you no longer work? There may be 1-5 classic books that are known in that line of work and the others you never look at any longer... hold onto the ones that you're most likely to reference, and donate the others.
Religious/spiritual books: Do you find the spiritual books you own to be meaningful and significant, or did you read some of them and think they were a bunch of hooey? Keep the ones that resonate with you and donate the rest. Even if you read them and liked them, you may have moved beyond some of the ones that you were reading for a particular study class or other need. If they are not favorites, make some tough decisions and clear space for new learning.
Travel: Travel books are another type that are obsolete as soon as they are printed. Hotels and restaurants close, and hours of operation and phone numbers change. Used bookstores often don't even buy travel books for this reason. Donate old travel books and make way for new journeys. Your photos and souvenirs are enough to remember the trip by.
Parenting: Are you an empty nester who still has a copy of "What To Expect When You're Expecting?" You know, that has come out in many new editions by now... If you are keeping those types of baby care, child care, and parenting books and your children have moved beyond those stages, donate them, or give them away to new parents or someone in your family who might have children of those ages.
Childrens' books: As your children get older, they outgrow books almost as much as they outgrow clothing. Definitely keep a few family favorites for sentimental value and future grandchildren (we love Harry Potter and a few little picture books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar). But there will be many that you and your children really don't have a lot of sentimental attachment to, and they can be donated. Don't feel you must keep them all. You might want to ask your children to look at them and say which were there top 3 or top 5 favorites. If they are grown up, you can e-mail them a list of the titles.
We often talk to clients who like books (and magazine clippings) about how it's not their responsibility to create their own libraries with elaborate indexing, filing, and shelving needs. The internet can get you almost any information at almost any time, and the good ol' public library has almost any book you could ever want for free. And they do all of the indexing and shelving for you! It's okay to let go of some of that accumulated information.
What is most difficult to you about paring down your book collection, and how have you solved that? Share in the comments!
Follow me on Twitter for my Daily #ClutterTweetTip: www.twitter.com/clutterdiet
Recent Comments