Last week I challenged you to take one area and declutter it, beginning (or continuing) your journey toward minimalism.
I decluttered one bookshelf. Well, mostly. There was other stuff on the shelf besides books; I focused on the books. I would have made it through the whole book case, but I’m storing books that aren’t mine and there’s no room in the family library at the moment.
(Yes, my family has a small library. It was once larger, but then Kindles happened. Suddenly paper books were optional, so we started getting rid of them.)
Ok, so that’s not my only excuse. I hit pitfall # 2 this week.
Selling things which are essentially useless is a fruitless task. If your goal is to get rid of stuff, I would advise just donating it. If it’s worth less than ten dollars, it is for the trash or charity.
The pile of books I’m getting rid of is three feet high outside my bedroom door instead of gone, because I decided that a genius idea would be to try to sell them online for $1 each. Four or five of them would probably sell in a month, maybe more over several yard sales. As it is, thirty books which I have no intention of ever reading or re-reading are not gone.
There are things which I own that are worth something, which I do intend to sell at some point. However, used books are rarely items of value. Several months ago I bought a copy of Ashley Montagu’s classic, Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, which revolutionized how we understand the physical and psychological development of humans as social mammals. It was in beautiful condition.
I paid less than a dollar, including shipping.
The fact is, some things just have no monetary value. Piled outside my bedroom door are books which have immense entertainment or educational value to those who peruse their pages, but I won’t make a dime off them. Any books which are worth a dime are not in my to-get-rid-of pile.
My internet ads will be removed and the books donated very soon. I just want them gone.
Thanks for blogging. It helps me to know you better and discover we have more interests in common that I knew.
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great.
I don’t know who you are but definitely you are going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!