Do you recognize that bench/bookshelf? The one I “got rid of” almost two years ago.
I did remove it from its chronically-piled spot by the back door. It sat in the garage for a while, in my entryway for a while, and back in the garage.
I had the idea to put it in my daughter’s room. The main reason I don’t love it in other spots is that it’s small in scale.
So a few weeks ago, I decided to finally move it. My daughter was thrilled with the idea, even when I said that we would be removing her current bookshelf.
I explained how we would do this. Just like when the boys decluttered their bookshelf, she would choose her favorite books to put on the shelf first. Anything that didn’t fit couldn’t be kept.
That’s the “contain” er concept in action, people.
If she found another book she loved after the shelf was full, she would have to remove an already-chosen book to make room.
That’s the one-for-one rule in action, folks.
It went well. (Except that the shelves weren’t meant for books and wouldn’t allow most of her books to stand up . . . )
In fact, we went ahead and divided any books into a Like It Shelf and a Love It Shelf. This made the one-for-one rule even easier to follow when we came upon a forgotten favorite.
I believe I might make my own Like It and Love It Shelves somewhere.
--Nony
We love books, and were reading the same books over and over.
To get some variety, we brought in a box, and after reading a book we dropped it in the box, making our way through the whole collection was fun.
We rediscovered some oldies but goodies, and culled out some we never really cared for.
My kids are young enough that we haven’t had to get rid of any books yet but I dread the day since I am such a book lover I’ll probably want to keep more books than the kids will.
I just went through my bills from my kids childhood. I couldn’t get rid of anymore. The older grandkids never really liked at them. We are expecting another one soon and my daughter didn’t seem interested in them. She says she will have her own books! But i love these! But what use are they if the grandkids don’t like them?
I love the one-in, one-out idea, and am currently using it on my daughter’s bottomless pit/bedroom (although it’s actually more ‘one for the loft/one for the charity shop/one for the bin/DON’T BRING ANY MORE IN IT’S OVERFULL IN HERE STILL’ but it works, kinda!). But books? I couldn’t do it to those, noooo. I’d rather move the bed out and put some more shelves in, that would work!
Yeah, there’s no way I could limit books. Books are magical things and we have an entire ROOM in our house dedicated to books (plus two overflowing Kindles, plus the three 6-foot bookshelves in my daughter’s room, plus…)
I like the random barbie just laying there!
I just broke out in a cold sweat. I have hundreds and hundreds of books (not counting what I have on my Kindle). The saddest thing about it is, I’m not sure I’ll ever get through all of them. I just don’t have as much time to read anymore. I do need to go through them again and try to weed some out. I tend to read favorites repeatedly, so those will always have a home here. But I just simply don’t have the room to keep them all. The question is…can I really get rid of a book?
Yes I can. If I can weed out Christmas decorations and donate a bunch, I can do the same with books. I think… 😀
Thanks so much for the Love It or Like It phrase. This really helps me to decide what to keep and what not to keep. I can use this on everything in my house, not just books, because I seem to be warehousing a lot of items because I feel I “Should” keep them. Anyway, about the books, I stood in front on my bookcase a few weeks back and figured that I probably won’t live long enough to read them all and now with the differentiating factor of Love or Like I think I can purge some and finally have an amount that doesn’t overrun the bounds of the “container”. Thanks so much for all these tips. You’ve really helped me understand how to put these rules into practice.
I love hearing this, Dianne!!!
I have a book problem. They’re everywhere. I love them so much! So I keep my favorites on the shelf because I read them all the time, and I started a book exchange. Someone gives me a book, I read it and give it to someone else, who gives me a book in exchange, and so on. I always have something to read and the books aren’t accumulating on my nightstand (as much).
This is why libraries are my favorite place to visit with my kids. Enjoy a never ending list of books that they store at no cost.
lol, some of my children think I have a book problem. My husband KNOWS better than to think I have a book problem. Books are my friends. Basically my BEST friends. They never change and they always lift me up or guide me to do better. 🙂
I have several shelves that I separate into Love it /Cherish it, non-fiction helpful and inspirational, classics, Christian Kids, some non-fiction schoolish books that I don’t love but know I’d best keep them, and Dictionaries, Atlases, etc.
When the kids said I had too many, I said, “Fine. READ them, and then we will decide which are worth keeping and toss the others. Until then, they stay.”
I LOVE planning the perfect bookcase (s). Once those are built THEY will be my container/limit. 🙂
Maybe I’m a freak, but although I love to read, I don’t own all that many books and that’s how I like it. I check them out at the library — that place where I can check out whatever book I want… whenever I want! Most books I read I’m not going to reread again and again and again, so to me, they just take up space and gather dust. Why not donate the books to library or a little free library where others can enjoy them, too? Just my two cents!