Downsizing Boomers - FAQ 3. What about all my books?

Most of us have been taught to revere books.  It could be because the books we were loaned in school were not ours and therefore we were taught to keep them whole and clean.  It could be that we were given books as kids and told to keep them in shape.  In any case, we have attributed magical powers to books – The Word.  Throwing out a book, in the garbage, is unheard of.  Why are we really keeping books (and we do keep books, make not bones about it)?   When downsizing, see if you can reduce your collect by 75%.  You will be amazed at the saving in moving – books weigh a lot!

Book Rule 1 – There are books that you absolutely need to get rid of

Old textbooks. 

Trashy novels.

Paperback books – which were never printed to last forever.  .

Book Rule 2 – Get a library card, a kobo/kindle and hook into the web

Not every book is worth buying and not every book needs to be saved if you can take it out of the library when you need it. 

Book Rule 3 – Cookbooks, Craft Books and Self-help Books take too much space

The book gods are not going to be happy if you cut up a book BUT they don’t live in your house.  If you own it you can do with it what you want.  Cut our recipes and special instructions and toss the books.

Book Rule 4 – Save only your favorite author(s)

If you can’t get rid of all your books after reading them, you may want to save only your favorite authors.  We think we will reread books but seldom do because new ones get published daily.  If you have to save books, think about arranging them by fiction and non-fiction and then by author.  You are keeping them to reread so you want to be able to find them.

Book Rule 5 - Huge numbers of books are not needed to decorate a room

Having book shelves does not mean that they have to be filled to overflowing.  If you do want to save books and are not a collector for profit, take off the dust jackets.  Most books look better on shelves without the jackets.   Group a collection in a display area.  It will not look like clutter.  Make sure that you do not line up all your books with the spines facing out  - try stacking a few, putting some ornaments between, leaving space on the shelf, using fancy bookends as decorations, etc.  Decorate your bookshelves.

Book Rule 6 – Magazines – keep them for one to three months then toss

We all get magazines and wonder if we should keep them.  National Geographic is a great example of magazines no one can just throw away.  Do you get magazines that you don’t have time to read but hoard for that rainy day when you will have nothing better to do?  Besides, you paid good money for those magazines. Do you think that the perfect recipe resides in one of your magazines and you just haven’t found it yet so you have to save the magazines? (Think internet – grape jelly meatballs).