Personal Freeing Myself from Book Hoarding: My Journey to Declutter and Donate"

[lesliec]

Ok, I have a confession to make. I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to books. Funny thing is, I don't even read much.....at least not on my own for pleasure. Over the last few years it has gotten even worse, especially since we have had children and started homeschooling. I used to teach school and have boxes and boxes of children's books. I have tons that are out that the children and I read regularly, but there are tons that are still boxed.
I also have at least 100 (probably more) cook books. I was just working on cleaning my office, and went through a stack of children's books. In that stack were 2 plant books. We have been learning about plants and have been reading plant books, but I had no idea that these books were here.....
That's when it hit me. I probably checked out 10 plant books from the library that we have read and enjoyed, but I couldn't even find these ones that I owned, nor did I even remember that I had them, so I decided I would donate them to the library. They can store them, keep them organized so others can enjoy them and when we need them, we'll check them out. WOW!!!!! Did I mention that we go to the library every WEEK!!!!! I have a huge box waiting to go with us on Wednesday and will continue going through them.
Words cannot express how free I feel with this new realization.
I also have a stack of cookbooks I have that I am going to go through and then donate. At this point, the only new recipes that I really try are PC recipes, and most of the time when I am looking for something I just go to the internet.

I feel like a new woman!!!!!!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Most likely, the books will be sold at a book sale rather than making to the stacks. Still, you've done a wonderful thing! If the books go into the sale, the proceeds go to purchasing more books for the library.So, whether your books go on the shelf or end up in the sale, either way, they help out your library. Good for you!

 

[smart2cook]

I am inspired by you! I also have an overabundance of cookbooks (I called it collecting) but let's face it, it has become hoarding now-I am going to begin tomorrow going through each book, scanning only the recipe's I use from that book and goal of getting rid of 10 a week minimum to the library (I will check with the High School first) then public. Thank you for the inspiration I needed to get going on that!

 

[pampered1224]

CRAP! You made me check my bookshelf of cookbooks, you know, the old ones where you actually had to use cake flour to make a cake. Well, I just hit 75 and that was just on the two shelves. I hate to see what is in the 8 boxes, copy paper boxes sized, in the basement! But I love that idea to donate them. Cool!

 

[Jules711]

Congratulations! It always feels very freeing to actually purge something like that. It's big, heavy and quick to go through (in comparison to lots of stuff). I "volunteer" (quotes since I pretty much run it just don't get paid) at my daughter's school library. I love donations. Of course, I would love people to only donate books that are not falling apart already and those that are not seriously dirty. I'm just a volunteer . But I love when we get books that are on our wishlist. There are about 700 books that we'd like to have b/c we have AR tests for them. Anyway...as a book "collector" myself...congrats and as a volunteer librarian...thank you!

 

[lesliec]

Thanks guys. It really is freeing. DH's response, "just don't get late fees on them." I know I already said this, but it is so freeing to be giving them to the library. We live in a 1 stoplight town with a 2 room library. They put everything on the shelf, so I know that I will be able to find anything that I donate if I ever need it. And if for some reason they do get rid of it, they will order it from the big city library for me.

 

[chefhutch04]

Congrats! When we moved over here to Germany I put all my books into those huge tubberware containers and they've been sitting for the last 2 yrs. I feel so bad for them. I do love my sony ereader b.c I have tons of books on there and even my school books also.