After you have gone through the painful process of culling books from your shelves, you need to get them out of the house! If you don’t, you will begin looking at them and pining for them. You will pick up one book, and decide, “Oh, I really can’t part with that one.” Then, another and say, “I might need that!” Before you know it, they will be right back on your shelves.
If you are sorting those books in tiny bits, they need to leave the premises every time you cull. Otherwise, they stack up and become some more clutter that you don’t need in your life. Don’t wait until you have finished the whole task. Besides, if you remove those books totally from your life, it is a freeing experience. Realizing that you are going to live without them might make it simpler to be more brutal about removing other books.
Where do you get rid of them? If you are saving them for a garage sale, box them and get them into the garage. I suggest you don’t bother with that, however, because at a garage sale you will only get fifty cents or a dollar for a book. While those books wait for you in the darkness of that box, they are still a temptation. You will hear them whispering your name!
Do you see those piles of books? They didn’t whisper, they screamed! That was our first cull, we probably have to cull at least three more times, but don’t tell my husband that.
My first solution is to take them to a used book store and sell them. Although my local bookstore will pay me more if I take my payment in store credit, I try not to be fooled by that. Financially, it is in the store’s best interest (not yours) for you to take that form of payment. They are going to get all their money back from you as you purchase books with your store credit. YOU are going to wind up right back where you started!
Take the money and run.
There is a catch in selling books to a used bookstore, my bookstore usually doesn’t buy every book I bring to them. What to do with the leftovers? I take them to the coffee shop where I hang out (I’ve already checked with the owner to find out that they welcome them). Another option might be a local senior center, or if you have children’s books a day care center.
A librarian friend suggested donating them to the library as a tax deductible donation. That way, you benefit at tax time and you get to visit your books any time you want.
This journey began on a separate blog (you can click here to read About Out Of Chaos), but that wasn’t really simplifying was it? I moved all of the posts to This Eclectic Life under the category Out Of Chaos. I’ll be adding more from time to time. I hope you join me.
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