Skip to main content

My easy, fun system for decluttering books

Image
By
Going through all your books can be a daunting task. My system helps me get the situation under control, prevent overwhelm and get on with what I love. Reading.

Fake decluttering

A bookcase can be a magnet for clutter. I know mine was. After relocating knick-knacks, it's time to organise the books. I arrange mine in height order so they form a gentle slope.


Clearly this doesn't clear out any books, but it's fairly quick and already it's looking and feeling a lot less cluttered.

That's a psychological win - a feeling of momentum. Like I'm half way there in not much time at all. A good way to defeat the feeling of overwhelm.

Even at this stage a visiting relative complimented me on how organised we were. If only she knew how easy that step was. :)

Pick out the definites

Generally there'll be a few "keepers"; precious gems that you have to hang on to. Separate them.

Some books you can already say goodbye to. Separate them too.

I put each of these on different shelves and put an object between them and the rest of the books. My keepers are in the green area and my sellers are in the blue area.


As I mentioned in part one, a lot of my books are either unread or not read in a long time. So I have a large undecided section. Also, I've already sold quite a few. You're situation may look different depending on your reading habits.

The best bit: reading

Some decluttering can be hard work. But now this is simply reading.

Each time I finish a book from the left hand side, it goes in either the green keep area, or in the blue sell area (and listed online for sale).

Hopefully the green area will grow just a little bit. Given my reading habits (it's rare I read a book twice) most of the books should go to the blue area - and then be sold.

The end results should be that I'm left with a much smaller, curated collection of books that I really love. Yes.

Tips for selling

PS. If you've are looking to sell your books or other items online, you may want to grab a free copy of my ebook Less Clutter More Cash for tips and advice.
Read more about:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Offline

By
Yes, by now we all know that smartphones and social media are doing us harm. How do we harness the benefits of them without the destructive effects. The book Offline makes 5 main points. If you've only got a minute, here they are: The addictive design keeps us on online platforms longer. The 'brain hacks' disrupt our brain's ability to function. Humans need "real" interaction, and social media does not deliver this. Technoference (digital over-riding direct interactions at the play ground, coffee shop, dinner table) result in something valuable being lost. Speed of the transformation is astounding. 75% of people are connected, with almost half using social media. We have no idea what the long-term effects of this real-life experiment will be. Going a bit deeper, here are some of my highlights from the book. So what are side-effects? According to various studies, the effects can be grouped into the physiological (poor sleep, neural re-wiring, and increased str...
Post a Comment
Read more

Big motivator for small living

By
It's been a while between posts here - mainly because we've been moving house. It's been a real motivator for downsizing. Packing each and every item we owned, really makes me wish there were fewer of them. Moving everything from the old apartment to the new one made me envious of those people who live in a "tiny house on wheels". For them moving house simply means towing it to a new location. No packing required. The whole process has reaffirmed our commitment to owning less stuff. So we're going to be intentional about downsizing. It will be an ongoing activity. My environmental heart couldn't stomach a spontaneous dumping of things into the garbage, but it's also more fun this way. Selling things online brings in some handy pocket money. Giving items away is also a great community activity, whether it is to friends and family, to charity or to people in the neighbourhood. I'm looking forward to it as a lifestyle rather than a task to do....
Post a Comment
Read more

Don't dump on charities

By
Netflix causes mass dumping. Here's an alternative. January is usually a big month for physical donations to charity. In 2019 it's been over-the-top (literally) as charity donation bins have been overflowing with items. The Netflix series "Tidying Up" by famous declutterer Marie Kondo (see her book ) has inspired many to declutter their homes. But in the process they've cluttered the streets. What's so bad about donating? When the bins overflow the extra items are thrown away. Having been in the weather, the rain and on the ground, they are classified as contaminated and cannot be sold. To make it worse, much of what fills the bins is not good enough to sell, and is also dumped. Bad donations hurt charities 13 million dollars. That's how much it costs charities to deal with all the junk we dump on them - 60,000 tonnes a year. Lifeline says half its stores have stopped accepting donations. We might think we're helping, but that's a lot ...
4 comments
Read more