We've all been there haven't we? Shelves stuffed to the max with books. Books stacked on the floor because there's no more space on the shelves. Hundreds (literally) of books that we own and haven't even read. Or we've read them and now they're just sitting there collecting dust. But it's not like we can just throw them away. Blasphemy! No book should ever go in the garbage. Even if you hated it. Because somebody else out there may love it and may get something out of it.
There's also the issue of the emotional attachment you may feel towards the books. Or the simple unwillingness to let them go. Because we all have a little inner hoarder in us. A few weekends ago, I was sitting in my house, staring at all my books (as one does) and thought to myself, "this is absolutely ridiculous." I was being taken over by books and it was making my home look messy, cluttered and disorganized. My immediate thought was, I need to move out of this tiny apartment and into a house where I can have a whole room as a library. Well that's not happening anytime soon so I had to get creative.
I decided to pull all my books off my bookshelves. Well that might have been a little crazy. But I had logic behind what I was doing. A few months ago I cleaned out my closet using the KonMari method. Basically I took every single piece of clothing out of my closet and heaped it into a giant pile. Wow, was this eye opening. It was a mountain of clothes. Seriously, it was insanity. I was disgusted with how much I had. Then I went through each piece, picking it up, holding it and deciding if it brought me joy. Guess what? Those skinny jeans that were a size too small that always make me feel bad about myself? Those didn't bring me joy. So I got rid of them. And it felt great.
So while I was staring at the massive amount of books I have, I decided to try out the same method for cleaning off my shelves. I took every single book down and had them in stacks in my living room. Again, I was a little bit disgusted impressed with just how many books I had. Not going to lie, I kind of just wanted to roll around in them all. Like dollar bills on a bed or something. #thuglife
My method for which books to keep and which ones to get rid of went like this:
And I felt so much better when I was done! I managed to get ALL of my books on my shelves and they're organized and beautiful and I could just stare at them all day! I'm trying real hard not to mention that the very next day I bought two more books... Oops. Guess I'll have to do another shelf clean-off in another few months.
I know what your next question is. Get rid of the books???? And I want you all to take a deep breath. There is no way I would ever throw a book out. Jesus, I'm not an animal. I plan on doing three different things with the books.
1. Donate them to a local library
I plan on donating any of the finished copies I have to a local library. I say finished copies because most libraries won't take ARCs. Boo.
2. Donate the ARCs to my mom for her classroom
Your mom's not a teacher? No problem. Just call your local middle/high school and tell them you have books to donate. Most of the teachers will be thrilled to have them to put in their classroom libraries. I know my mom always is.
And last, but certainly not least....
3. Do a giveaway for my faithful blog followers!
That's right people! Some of my books are going to you! Here's how it's going to work. Two lucky winners will each get a mystery box of FIVE books. Could be a mix of finished copies and ARCs (ARCs are all older). This giveaway is US only. Sorry international peeps! I love you guys, but I can't afford to ship to you. Use the rafflecopter to enter and may the odds be ever in your favor!
Are you a book hoarder like the rest of us? Do you ever clean off your shelves and purge books? What does your process look like?
I love this! Because I've bought a lot less in the last year or so because I want to fill my shelves with books I LOVE. I did do a giveaway at the end of last year and got rid of a bunch. Basically now when I want to buy a book I think to myself so you think you'll LOVE this book that you'll want to own it? or if it's from a trusted author. I've actually been utilizing my library a LOT more the past year ish. I like this a lot more bc I have so many books I bought on a whim and guess what. Still haven't read. So I like that I'm buying less and know what I want to keep for my shelves. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah I just bought a book but it was a preorder for morning Star so DUH.
Yes! That's my goal for this year. I have to stop buying books that I'm just sort of interested in. I would rather library it first and if I'm going to reread it, then I can go buy it you know? Or if I'm able to get an ARC, do that and then buy the book later if I love it enough. It was just getting so out of control. And I feel bad because a lot of the books I'm getting rid of are older ARCs that I got at BEA 2014 and even some from ALA MW 2014. Fail. So this year at BEA I have to be really picky about what I'm picking up. I did way better last year, but there are still a bunch I grabbed that if I'm really honest with myself I know I'm never going to read. :/
DeleteI've been meaning to clean out my shelves but I keep putting it off. This is helpful. Thank you for sharing your process.
ReplyDeleteYay! I hope you're able to clear out a bunch of books to make room for new ones!
DeleteThis is tough to do but I'll certainly do it this summer when I have more free time. My shelves are looking so ugly and messy.
ReplyDeleteI know. That's where I was at with mine. I was tired of staring at all the clutter. But now they look so shiny and pretty! :D Good luck!
DeleteI never bought books until recently, always going to the library. But then I joined twitter and found fellow readers and the pics of everyone's gorgeous shelves... Well I won a couple but then it was the interacting and meeting some authors that led me to actually buying some. So far, I've only bought books I really like, and hopefully I can just keep doing that.
ReplyDeleteWow that's crazy! When I was unemployed and had no money I utilized my library a lot. But now I'm like a book buying fiend. I've already acquired like 3 new books since writing this post and I'm about to preorder like 4 more. Oops. But my goal, like you, is to only purchase books that I really love. Basically if I can see myself reading it more than once I'll add it to my collection. People's pictures are so pretty though and I'm all "I need all the books so I can take pictures like that too!!!"
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