A whole container pulled up outside the house yesterday afternoon, and within the hour all of our earthly possessions had been disemboweled into a big heap. Make that five big heaps actually, one in each room of our very small house. Without a flat surface to be seen, it looked like we'd been ransacked in a particularly gory whodunnit movie.
Today, due to the sheer volume of unnecessary bilge that we'd just knowingly shipped across the world (carbon footprint guilt) and with some destructive renovations looming, my husband and I made a decision to live differently, perhaps a bit more like the original 1937 residents of our home. Without something that I love.
Without so many books.
We had so many that we were keeping for ridiculous reasons like:
a) they were a gift, and we wouldn't want to offend
b) we enjoyed reading them (like, 12 years ago)
c) we like the look of them, books on shelves look interesting
The thinning out became addictive, brutal and ruthless. The Oxfam charity bookshop boxes very quickly outnumbered those that we decided to keep, and before we knew it we'd achieved what we set out to; four shelves of books. Yup. Four.
The eagle-eyed might spot that these four shelves cover everything. Gardening, cooking, fiction, knitting, child-rearing, travel, and even key texts from two of my previous professional careers.
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| sorry, iphone photo for today's p52, I don't even know where my camera is in the chaos |
I feel purged. Especially as the bookshelf sits in the precise position that the tv once occupied. It is the one item that we asked the container men not to remove from its box.
Sacrifice, it can feel good. But I'm not sure the librarian down the road is going to feel likewise when I take my next reading list to him...
*disclaimer, our daughter's books aren't part of this deal. Her bedroom shelf inches now probably outstrip ours, but as a budding bookworm, she can never have too many!
Nothing better- I did so much purging last year it was like a weight off my shoulders. I truly believe when you let go of something you are not using ...you leave space for something new and wonderful to enter.
ReplyDeleteYour book shelf looks lovely.
You GO!
Ooh, how exciting - I hope that there is something new and wonderful going to fill the void (other than the boiler which is going where our old set of shelves was! lol!)
Deletei feel the same way about books... they are so lovely to look at on shelves and it was one of the biggest sacrifices we made when we started our nomadic lifestyle three years ago. we donated all of our books except the most important reference books as well as five boxes of books for ezra from my primary classroom library. he too has more books than we do now, but there is always a library where we live for us. after three moves (and we are the packers and movers) in the last three years, i think it was good to let them go. i do regret letting a lot of the baby stuff go though... : (
ReplyDeleteNunu I am SOOOOO grateful for the packers and movers. I love it when customs regulations and insurance small print conspire to make it mandatory that we did not do any of the packing ourselves. My favourite kind of beaurocracy! (Although I think they did manage to throw away my favourite matryoska in a frenzy of wrapping paper. I am disproportionately devastated)
DeleteI so understand your pain with letting go of books. Im a Media Specialist (fancy for librarian) and I always have a hard time letting go of books. I need to follow your lead with not only books but with junk as well.
ReplyDeleteJunk = next on my list!!! Nothing is safe these days!
Deleteugh. i remember doing this before our trip overseas - as we were trying to clear out clutter before the big move - and it was torture. my husband is quite the packrat and doesn't like to part with anything - and I am a bit sentimental about books - so we agonized over every one. He'd put a book in a pile and I'd take it out and vice versa. blech! but, when we finally came up with the few boxes we could part with, we donated them to a used bookstore and were SO happy. we got pennies on the dollar - probably less! - but were thrilled that our books would find a new home. good for you for doing it! and for letting your tiny bookworm keep all of hers!
ReplyDeletethere is something nice about wondering who will read our old books next, it does feel charitable. (Especially as our local charity bookshop just broke some kind of record for selling a book for £1000! It makes me love that shop even more - what gems might be lurking amongst our old Harry Potters?!)
DeleteYou know how I feel about books - the more the merrier I say but sharing them forward is a huge gift of graciousness and I'm sure they will find happy homes soon.
ReplyDeletex
I know - it was a tough decision not to be surrounded by lovely books, but I intend to do even more reading (thanks to the lack of TV) and store them all at the library down the road : )
DeleteI am purging, giving and selling all the time around here. I'm sure it IS a load off of your mind. The iPhone photo is remarkably sharp and clear. I have an iPod Touch which takes pretty good photos, but not like this. Did Siri help you? :)
ReplyDeleteYou know, I'm ashamed to say I've not even switched the Siri on on my phone... can it help with photos some way?
DeleteOh man! This is something I'm working on. We are in the process of moving countries and we definitely have more than the four suitcases we arrived with three years ago. It is just so hard to let things go, so good on you! :)
ReplyDeleteI am inspired by your thinning out of books. I have many many books and some are unwanted. Maybe this summer will be a thinning out of the unwanted!!
ReplyDeleteWeeding out our ok collection is on my to-do list before baby comes. I love books - but I think it is time to a lot of them on. There is something about getting rid of things that is so contagious. It makes you feel so much lighter.
ReplyDeleteThat is hard to do, I know parting with books is so hard to do. It does make you feel better once done though. I need to do that too.
ReplyDeleteLove your bookshelf. I too am very selective in adding books to my bookshelves least they become white elephants. Great on decluttering and purging off the things you don't need/use.
ReplyDeleteThe first project that my husband and I did when we moved into our house was to build a library space with wall to wall bookshelves. Six years later, we are finding ourselves crunched for more space for our books. I envy your ability to purge your book collection to just four shelves. I have been reading more ebooks on my kindle or iPad, which has helped a little.
ReplyDeleteI did a big cull of our books at the beginning of our de-clutter, and it was both hard and uplifting. To be honest, there are still a few piles sitting next to me waiting for me to bring up the courage to give them away.
ReplyDeleteBut I hardly took any children's book away, since yes, there can never be too many!
Wow! Good for you! Between my cooking and craft books and my husband's epic collection we could really stand to take a page from your book (sorry about the bad pun).
ReplyDeleteHA! Been there. Done that. Many times. Me, a recovering English Major. My husband, an actor. Our shelves begged us for mercy. We kept all of our Shakespeare, partly because we had both actually read all the plays, and partly because I think it made us somehow look smart and interesting.
ReplyDeletePurging was insanely liberating.