A weight off the bookshelves and a weight off my shoulders « Back to Group Discussions

[mrsmischief]

This week I jumped back into my big decluttering project after slacking off for a few months and finally decided to turn my purging eyes to my bookshelves. We own a huge amount of books and most have sat on the shelves for years now with my only interaction with them being with a feather duster in my hands. Reflecting on why I keep these books around as I do, I realized vanity and wishing to be perceived in a certain way by those who visit my family's home were desires instrumental in keeping this clutter around. My ego was keeping the dust and allergens in my home, causing me to cultivate a potential asthma attack far more than intellectual growth through these books, and in doing so also depriving other people who might to read these books from doing so. 

Facing the reality of the situation was precisely what I needed to gather up the boxes and trim down our home library in a major way. Box away I did all week and today boxes went off to Amazon Trade-In, a local used book store, and as donations to a charity and the Friends of the Library respectively. A deposit was placed in the travel fund, a sushi dinner enjoyed, and a lightness to my step can now be felt as a direct result of doing both the inner and outer work necessary to make this next big step on my family's journey towards minimalism. 

Although I don't post in this group often, I do lurk always and have found the wealth of inspiration from all of you fellow working-towards-minimalist mamas to be a wonderful encouragement in my own journey. Thanks to all of you for the cleaner shelves and the uplifted feeling this weekend. It's just the feeling I need to get back in the decluttering mindset for both inside my self and outside around me in my home. :)

[honeybee80]

Originally Posted by mrsmischief 
 Reflecting on why I keep these books around as I do, I realized vanity and wishing to be perceived in a certain way by those who visit my family's home were desires instrumental in keeping this clutter around. 

Nice job on the decluttering!  I realized the same thing about the books I had and ended up getting rid of a ton of them recently too.  I didn't have a huge amount to begin with, so I didn't really get rid of a huge quantity, but it was still nice to thin out my stash!  What I did realize was that I was holding on to a lot of kids books "in case my kids want to read them," however, I realized that the only books they really read are from the library (we go about once a week).  Made it way easier to part with them once I figured out we could just take out any of those books from the library if my kids ended up wanting to read them again.

[Paigekitten]

Cool!  I used to have a hard time passing on books, but once I started I realized I didn't miss any of them.  I used to have 3 bookcases, now I have one shelf.