Thursday, October 9, 2014

31 Day Challenge: Books & Magazines

I actively dreaded this one. I was already behind by more than a day, so I didn't actually even start step 5 until halfway through the 6th (Monday). Once I was happy with the living room, I managed to bite the bullet, and I am SO GLAD I did. So, you know the drill. This time my before pictures are sort of all over the place, and I'll have some "during" pictures of the items to be purged, so bear with me.

Before: A few cookbooks lying on my "Sam can't reach this" shelf in the dining area

Before: Where's a great place for canning books? Wedged on top of canning supplies, obviously.

Before: Hey, look, kids' books in a kid's room! (A week ago half of them were all over my bedroom floor, so this is quite an improvement already.)

Before: Bedroom bookshelf has some books....and some random other stuff?

Before: Office bookshelf has books, and...food and empty canning jars and who knows what else?

Before: Another office bookshelf, with at least 50% books?

Before: A mostly-repurposed office bookshelf with canned goods and a bottom shelf full of...textbooks and yearbooks?

Before: Those two "small boxes" in the garage were also full of books, as was a third (not pictured). Had rarely been touched since we moved in three years ago, though I did dig cookbooks out of one of them.

During: The piles and piles of books that will LEAVE THIS HOUSE FOREVER

(Also: Epiphany: I will probably never speak a word of German ever again, let alone read any of my German language books ever again, and that's OK. My life hasn't taken me a direction in which I can use it, and I can stop feeling guilty about that.)

After: Cookbooks on the shelf Sam can't reach

After: Office bookshelf, top to bottom: Fiction/Novels, Comic Anthologies/Graphic Novels, Nonfiction/Memoir/Comedy, Textbooks from my current degree program (and a few for reference), and Classics/Classy

Dan still has one shelf full in the bedroom that needs to be gone through (mostly old fantasy novels), and I have a bunch of his game guides in the office that will probably get put up on top of this bookshelf in magazine files. I also need to let him pick through some of the nonfiction books that were his dad's before I get rid of them. (I kept the Hawking, under classics, right next to Shakespeare.) 

I also made the decision to hold off on organizing Sam's books until I do toys, since that is coming up very shortly (step 7).

One thing I'm not so thrilled about is that it's going to be a few days before I can truly get the books out, since I plan to try to get a little cash out of the nicer ones at Half Price Books. But I am determined to at least get them all loaded into the van within 24 hours. [Last minute edit Wednesday night: I came so close, but rolled an ankle carrying the 2nd to the last box out to the van, on our stupid rickety deck stairs. I'm OK, but decided to postpone any more book hauling until I could safely use the driveway.]

Whew. Onward! #LWSLClutterFree



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