Hey there! I loved seeing your photos this week and hearing your stories of purging items from your coffee and side tables. Some of you had great stories for me about things you found. Are you feeling lighter and freer already from having less stuff around? I know I am! Keep the pictures and stories coming and tag them with #clutterbusterchallenge so everyone can see your progress!
If you are just joining us, here’s the deal:
I still had this mindset of decluttering being a big ol’ chore up until a few months ago when I read this fantastic post from Nony at A Slob Comes Clean. It was like a huge light went off in my brain! Decluttering is simply the act of getting rid of what doesn’t belong, isn’t needed, or belongs in the trash. It doesn’t mean buying a whole slew of new bins for your things to go in or coming up with some type of system that you hope will change your life – that’s organizing. It’s a whole different ball game. Right now, I’m in the game of decluttering. I just want things GONE.
When there’s less stuff, especially less of what has no purpose in your home anymore, organizing can often happen naturally. You won’t be cramming thirty towels into the closet because you only need ten and they fit nicely. You don’t need to dig through a tub of medicines to find what you need only to keep coming across bottles that are long since expired.
Here’s my challenge: Each week, take on ONE area of your home. I’ve already made the list for you so that part is done. Go to the area, throw away trash, put items that you no longer need but are still in good condition into a donation box, and put other items where they belong. Simple!
Week 3: Books
I went through my books about a year ago when I was attempting to KonMari my things. I have only gotten three new books since then and I really love them so they are staying put. The kids books, however? Those needed help. Parker’s first grade teacher retired last year so she gave out books to all her students. Great! Except that many were already falling apart. Then you add in all the books we’ve accumulated over the last nearly nine years and it’s gotten crazy.
I adore having books around for the kids, especially a decent variety so I’m not always reading the same books constantly. But we also live close to a library and our library system is fantastic. We don’t need to OWN all these books. I can keep our absolute favorites, store some special keepsake books that I want to hold on to for grandkids (WAY, WAY, WAY down the road), and donate the rest to the thrift store or food pantry. I can also toss the books that are broken and ripped. I’ve taped so many books back together that some are almost entirely made of tape at this point. Ugh.
Here’s the bookshelf in the big boys’ cave. How do they find anything to read?
I sorted through all of them and found the pile on the left to donate and the pile on the right to toss. That Disney bedtime story book? Oh, that’s only the cover. Why must my children be so destructive?
And here’s an after picture of their shelf. So much better! They didn’t even notice until I pointed it out to them. Children.
I honestly didn’t even take a before picture of our upstairs bookshelf. I got this project done because one night during our bedtime routine the little guys pulled out ALL THE BOOKS so they were scattered in the hallway and living room. I figured it was smarter to go through them while they were already all out rather than put them away only to go through them again later.
I found several books to donate again, just like in the boys room. Many were books we enjoy but don’t LOVE so I decided to pass them on to someone that will. Some of these books are books that have gotten a little too much love in our house and taped together. They need to go to homes that are a little more on the gentle side. And others are books that get no real love in this house.
Ahhhh, so much nicer! I may even go through this shelf one more time to see if there are others that need to find a new home. I need to remember that while I love owning books there is a great place called a library that we enjoy greatly that will house the books for us. We don’t need to have a copy of every book, we can simply borrow them for a short period and give them back!
How did your decluttering go this week? Show me a picture of the books you purged!
Do you love owning books and having a personal library or do you prefer checking books out from the public library?
Come back next week when we take on Movies and Video Games!
