Weekend uncluttering

[fred_mouse]

How is your uncluttering going on this, the last day of 2017?

My sorting out of the sewing/music/storage room was a qualified success -- the floor was cleared and cleaned, multiple glass jars are in the front hall awaiting a friend to collect them, and several of the easier sewing repair tasks were done (and the rest put in a to do list, so I can just look at the list and decide to do something, rather than dithering at the baskets). I think we found some clothes to rehome as well!

And then we got enthusiastic, and decided to deal with the books. A hefty tax return meant that we could invest somewhat in new, sturdy bookshelves, so members of the family took themselves off to IKEA (twice!) and we now have six fancy 2.2m bookshelves in what turns out to be a discontinued colour. Two solid days of building shelves and moving books around, and we now a) have no books on the floor and b) no longer have double stacked books. And I've started the process of digging assorted books out of nooks and crannies all over the house. Primary goal is to have all fiction in there, and catalogued. Secondary is more complicated and handwavy, and has to do with 'being able to find any book that is in the house in under 2 minutes, if I know who published it and what format it is in'. [yes, my shelving system is that complicated, because I patronise a set of small press publishers, and I often need to check what I have].

And the companion question for you all, as we come to the beginning of 2018, what are your decluttering goals for the year?

Comments

[adair]

My major goal is to manage my books - really, get a good number out of the house. They take up large amounts of space, and I have no more wall space to construct more shelving. I am not bad at managing a lot of Things - every few months I do some more kitchen clearing, but books just don't move. I acquire more regularly, both by purchase and from finding in the Books to Prisoners workroom, the best used bookstore in town. I donate 50 cents or 2 dollars and bring them home. Sometimes I take them back, but not often enough. I may get brave enough to post pictures of some of my book stashes, but not today.

Moving books on means deciding not to keep many of them - a hard thing to do. I probably will not re-read most of them, but somehow I can't let them go. I MIGHT NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN1 Overcoming this fear is something I need to do - coming to terms with the notion that I need not remember every book or novel I read, or re-experience the reading emotions of every book,

I am planning a reorganizing of the books that are in bookshelves, some of them in double rows, to see what I can let go of, or get as ebooks and move the paper on. This might create a space where I can put some of the books stacked on tables, and the tops of dressers, and corners of the living room.

I will work on other organizing projects, but getting about 500 books out of the house will go a long way to improving functioning in my 1100 foot house.

[tanaqui]

Good luck with the books! I think anyone who loves books has a kind of reverence for them that makes doing anything else but keeping them hard. Even if the "anything else" is sending them on to someone else who will love them and appreciate them more than we're actually doing right now.

[adair]

Thanks for the good wishes. The mental letting go has been a work in progress for some time. I am considering keeping a list of what I get rid of, especially those books I have had a long time. It is possible some of my fear is forgetting about the books - there is a lot of emotional stuff hanging around this process.