40 Days of Donations - Day 6 - 10: Books

Once you have finished sorting and purging your Clothing and Accessories it's time to move onto Books. I recommend you gather all of the books in your home and sort them all at once (excluding children's books). The goal when purging books is to get rid of as many books as possible so that you do not have to repeat the task in a few months when you realize that you still have too many books. There's a right way and a wrong way to purge books. Here's the right way... Step 1: Empty your bookshelves and gather all of your books in one location. Step 2: Clean off your bookshelves so they are ready to receive books. Step 3: Determine how much room you have in your home for books. (Organize for your space, not your stuff!) Step 4: Judge a book by its cover: Pick up each book 1 at a time. Looking at ONLY the cover (do not open the book or start reading it) decide if you want to keep it or donate it. Step 5: Put it away. If you are keeping it, put it on the bookshelf right away. If you are donating it, put it in a box or bag right away. If you are undecided, create a maybe pile to refer to once all of the books have been sorted into piles. Chances are you will donate all of the books from the maybe pile. Step 6: Drop off your donations ASAP. It is important to remove clutter from your home once the sorting is complete. Tips on purging more: 1. Donate books that you've already read. Especially, if it's written by your favourite author. If you really want to read it again you can borrow it from a friend or library or download an ebook copy. 2. Donate books that you've received as gifts and haven't read yet. If you were going to read it, you would have read it by now! 3. Do not hold onto books because they belonged to a relative (unless you really want to keep that book!) I organized my bookshelves over a year ago. Here are some pictures to show you that sometimes life looks better with less!

Before I started. (There are 2 built in bookshelves on each side of the fireplace. This is the one on the right).

I removed all of the books so that I could see them, not just the spines. Seeing what you have makes sorting and purging easier.

I started filling boxes with books that I knew I wasn't going to read. (Nicholas Sparks is my favourite author, so it seems silly that I would donate all of his books, but I know his name, so I can find them again if I want to read them).

More donations! (I asked my husband to take them away immediately!)

I also threw away old course notes. Why do I need these? Such a waste of space!

Finished bookshelf. Much more space!

How long do you think it will take you to sort and purge the books in your home? Good luck!