Week 14: Organize Books

This week the goal from my 60 until 60 list that I accomplished was:

#46. Sell, give-away, throwaway and organize what’s left of my books

Inspired by the Marie Kondo craze, I've been in quite the "declutter" mode lately.  My natural personality leans more towards "hoarder" so decluttering is not easy for me, especially when it comes to books! I love books! I was the nerdy kid who went to the library at recess! I could SO relate to Belle's excitement when the Beast presented her with access to that gigantic book-filled library. 

I, of course, also love bookstores and when I visited the Last Bookstore in LA with my sister in January, I realized that maybe it would be OK to keep most of my old books, as long as they 'brought me joy' (as Marie Kondo recommends.)  Yes, I know I can get them digitally, and many of the non-fiction are out-of-date, but since I'm not down-sizing, and, in fact, would like to make part of my basement space into a library, I decided it would be OK for now to keep most of my books.

Satisfied with this decision, I thought it would be an easy task to simply organize them! Wrong! I have bookshelves in almost every room and two big bookshelves in my basement.  This adds up to hundreds of books on 3 different floors of my house.

I will spare you the blow-by-blow account of my many trips up and down stairs lugging books throughout my house to get them all in their 'correct' spots, but let me tell you, it's been quite the workout!  I originally put ALL kids books on the shelves of the room where my grandchildren sleep when they visit.   Then realizing, that was too many books to fit on the shelves in that room, I moved all the non-fiction kids books (including many books about magic, mazes, math, puzzles, pranks, optical illusions, origami, crafts, art, and probably every kids' 'Klutz' book there is) back to the basement.

I also separated out my adult fiction and non-fiction books, putting together the books of similar categories (travel, languages, relationships, self-help, work-related, writing,  humor, holidays etc. etc.) I have a shelf full of my son's (very heavy) textbooks from medical school (those will get sold eventually, either by him or by me.)

Finally, I have a shelf for the "special" books..  the ones that were created by my kids or are heirlooms, handed down, photo-books, and, of course, my original "Laptop Dancer Diaries" from my book release party complete with autographs and well-wishes from friends.

What worked well:

* I was reminded of a lot of books that I want to re-read or browse through again! 

* I made sure all my 'heirloom books' were in the same area so they won't get lost or accidentally given away.

* I was able to pass a small stack of books to my daughter's family, including a C++ book that she specifically asked for! (It had been in my 'donate' stack, so I felt lucky that I still had it!)

* I came up with a small stack of books that I was OK parting with (including Bill Cosby's, "Parenthood!")

* I found a book from my childhood I remembered with fondness: 365 Bedtime Stories

* I still haven't lost my enjoyment of books that give you 365 of something..  

* I felt good about being able to share my favorite travel books and classics in the room I'm now renting out as an AirBnB room

What could have been better

* It would have been better if I'd sold any text books.

* There are too many old books that aren't really bringing me 'joy' that I'll probably never pick up and are just taking up space.  But, at least I 'staged' them in the basement, so I'll easily be able to donate or give those away when the time is right.