Sometimes I Write

2011 is my de-cluttering year. While I face a new challenge each month, I’ll be working on body clutter all year-long. This month I shed about 200 lbs. It was all books and movies that were taking up space in my house. A few weeks ago I was slowly spinning in my office chair, taking in my surroundings and feeling stifled by my space when it hit me.

I have WAY too many books.

Books are my thing. They have always been my thing, so my epiphany came as quite a shock. Like any good book hoarder in denial, I mentally listed the reasons I keep shelves and shelves and shelves of books, most of which I have already read and will probably never read again. The shortness of the list was equally shocking.

1.      I love books. I blogged about it here.

2.      They were quite literally my friends through a tough childhood.

3.      Um…

Yes, that’s it. 2 reasons. Time for epiphany #2…

I don’t NEED books like I used to.

I realized that I was using books as a buffer, a protective layer of sorts. They were a security blanket, a built-in escape, and something to call my own. There are worse things to collect, right? Well, I tend to have one of those all or nothing personalities, so in my state of dazed awareness regarding my book hoarding, I made a decision. Everything goes. Thankfully, my family and I were on the same page. A little book humor for you. 😉

Being the proud owner of library cards in 4 different districts in the Denver Metro area probably makes me an overachiever, but I can find what I want. I can borrow from my book hoarding friends. I have several of those. I am still a member of paperbackswap.com for those out of print books that I can’t seem to find anywhere else. What more could I need? Oh yeah, a little monetary gain for my sacrifice.

I spent a day making an excel spreadsheet of all of the books and movies we own and then put the word out that I was holding a sale. (Hooray for Facebook) The money would benefit SEVENS and help us cover some of our monthly expenses, which it did. I promised the kids they could have the money for any of their items sold, and they had it mentally spent even before bringing me their arm loads of stuff. Apparently they take after me.

Over a 2 week period, I sold 400+ books and movies to people in 5 states. I delivered boxes and bags of books all over Denver and Boulder, and at the end of the sale, donated everything that was left (about 200 books) to our school and my favorite library for their bi-annual book sale. One of my friends bought all of my empty bookcases and hauled them away.

I have one small, 3-shelf bookcase left with the titles that would be hard for me to find again, some of my very favorites, and my writing reference books. That’s it. It was my biggest de-cluttering challenge to date, and I did it. I am victorious. I feel FREE!

I’m once again sitting in my now spacious and mostly de-cluttered office/school room, wondering what should go next, and daydreaming about owning one of these…