34 weeks of Clean! Week 9- Books!

Hi, my name is Michele and I have a book problem.  I love to read and I love books.  OK, that is not really the problem.  The problem is that I like to buy books, keep books, and oh, buy more books. After 13 moves we realized we had a book problem.  (Yes, we are a little slow.) 

It may have been the packer telling me that all of our weight was in the books.  Luckily for him I did not take it personally. But my husband took it seriously and we have since scaled down. It was hard and my oldest even blogged about it.

However, since then, someone (probably me) has bought a few more books.  Plus, read- this is my excuse, I review a lot of books so they sneak their way into my house.  Add that to the fact that when we moved we had to scale back and move out two bookcases.  Less space, fewer books.  I know, I know - boo hiss.

But here is the deal.  Books take up space. Books not being read collect dust.  Books cost money.

Libraries are full of beautiful books.  I can read them without owning them.  I can also store more on other devices taking up less space.

So this week's goal - Organize your books throughout the house, get rid of those you do not love and decide which ones you MUST keep, and clean off those bookshelves. In every room they reside in your house!

Tips-

• Take all of the books off the bookshelf.  Sometimes once you actually lay your hands on them, you will decide you really don't need that particular one.

• If you are a little OCD like me, you can categorize your books! ;)  If I am looking for a certain book I can usually locate it pretty quickly.  Except for that one series I cannot seem to find on ANY of our bookcases.  I am praying they will show up the next time we move.

• Only keep what you LOVE!  If you just enjoyed it, pass it on and let someone else have a turn enjoying it.  Hospitals, nursing homes, and health clinics welcome donations.  Even some hotels will accept book donations to have for their guests.

Just a few of the books we took off our shelves to move out!

• Use a hair dryer to dust off the pages of books that have been sitting for a while.  Even our allergists warned us that books are a collector of all things dusty.  Old books can even be set outside on a warm, sunny day to air out.

• Dust the bookshelf, top to bottom and even the outside.  Think spring cleaning here, not just your weekly fly-by dusting!

• Replace the books you decide to keep and enjoy the empty space.  You do have some empty space, don't you?  If not, start at the top and do it again! ;)

• Got another bookshelf?  Or two? Or more?  Find the next one and start the process over again! Psst- homeschoolers- hold off on THOSE books! ;)  But, yes, even go through the books in your children's rooms.

If you head to more than several rooms with this project, be careful not to get distracted.  Stick to books only this week.  Promise?!

For those of you who love to lend out books, sometimes never to see then again, Kemi from Homemaking Organized has created some beautiful book plates for you to add to your books!  They would also make a great gift to print out and give to a friend!

Ok, get to work...I am off to read a book.

Before you leave, let us hear how you are doing taking back YOUR house and feel free to add your posts to the linky!  We love seeing other's progress!

An InLinkz Link-up

Week 8- The Living Room

Week 10- The Entryway

Linking up with some friends-

Blessings,