I’ve written quite a bit over the years about how much I love my Kindle but the fact of the matter is that I still have a ton of physical books.
It could have been worse but thankfully, I only keep books I really love/d.
So one weekend I decided I had to finally tackle those shelves and ask The Question, “does this spark joy?”
Marie Kondo, in her life-changing book, does say a few interesting things about the process of decluttering books:
- books are one of three things most difficult to get rid of (is this true for you?)
- fewer books mean there’s a bigger impact on the information (true!)
- timing is everything. The moment you come across and feel compelled to buy is the right time for you.
Maybe number 3 is true for others, but I buy kind-of all the time because I’m reading and finding books online all the time. I’ve only recently stopped buying ahead on Audible. I’m listening to one book at the moment, and have one more ready to go. I don’t want to gather/ hoard more than this.
The thing is I do get to a lot of books much later than I intend to….and most times, I’m compelled to read them at the right time. There are physical books I’m sure I will read still on my shelves.
That said, I took her point about asking yourself, “does this move me or not, and am I happy to see it on my shelves?”
And that was the filter I used to declutter.
I must add that the task was much bigger in my head than in reality (isn’t it always?!). Once I started working, it probably only took me an hour to finish the exercise!
I got rid of (well, that box is still standing in my entrance way ready to go to the secondhand bookshop) about 20 – 30 books that I liked the idea of, but know I probably won’t ever read, even though many of them are new.
I’m sure I could have done better but for now, this felt enough for me 🙂
Mission accomplished – I’m finally down to just 3 shelves 🙂