Day 10 of the 30 Day Decluttering Challenge: Bookshelves

For day ten, we are working on decluttering bookshelves for ten minutes. I found this to be a fairly easy little job.

I did create a mess with all the books I pulled out, though. You will see that in the video. To avoid making a giant pile of books in the floor like I did, you might want to have a second box or bag to put books you need your family members to go through.

My youngest son still wanted to keep many of the books I hoped we could get rid of. This is how I solved that problem.

This was only a problem because his room was too full to accept more books. Therefore, I told him to go to his room and pick five or six books he did not want anymore that I could give away. Then he could take the books he picked from my discard pile to his room.

This was a win-win situation. He is far more likely to read a book that is sitting in his room than a book that is sitting on a shelf, behind a workout bench full of weights.

Why bother thinning out what is on your bookshelves:

When you clean several things off of several shelves, it consolidates until you have emptied out a half or even a whole shelf. Then you suddenly have a beautiful, clean empty shelf. Just think of the endless possibilities! I love it!

A clean shelf is a new spot where you can place the things you have no room for! It is a spot for a photo frame, or a decor item, or more books. Plus, the less crowded your shelves, the happier they look, so long as they aren’t all falling over catty wampus.

Our movers hate my book collection the most.

We moved every one to three years for the past twenty-one years. In fact, I bet we will move again this summer. We have so much stuff that last time we went over our moving weight allowance. Our furniture is heavy, and the book boxes are too numerous to count.

The movers have told me more than once, “It’s all the books that make this move so heavy. Moves with a lot of books like this are heavy and difficult.”

As much as we move, I should definitely buy more Kindle books and less hard backs.

With this in mind, I try very hard to only keep my absolute favorite books. Here’s the best criteria for choosing which books to keep:

#1. Did I thoroughly enjoy this book enough to read it again?

#2. Did I like this book so much I would recommend it and loan it to a friend?

#3. Was this book majorly meaningful to our lives?

#4. Will this book help us to accomplish something? Do we need to reference this book?

If the answer to any one of those questions is yes, we keep it. If the answer is no to all of them, the book must go.

Unfortunately, there are five other people’s books in my house too. I do try hard to stick to the rule of not giving away my husband’s or kids’ things without their consent. That’s how I ended up with a giant pile of books in the floor.

Here is today’s video. Let’s have some fun decluttering! Hey, with a little upbeat music, almost anything can be fun.

Here’s you free printable 30 Day Decluttering List in case you need one:

For yesterday’s challenge, day nine in the playroom, click here.

For the Full 30 Day Decluttering Challenge page, click here.

Thank you so much for joining me in this. I’ve enjoyed every comment I have gotten. It lets me know I’m not alone. Write me a note in the comments to say hello.

Happy decluttering!!!