Decluttering & Minimalism: My Books

Not a reader? Skip to the video to watch this adventure.

The reality of moving into a tiny house is there is way less storage than usual. I’ve always been interested in minimalism, and I have gone through many “purges” of my things over the years. I don’t necessarily believe that less is more, but I do get overwhelmed with mess. My valleys of depression correlate to when my house is the messiest. Personally, I have better peace of mind when my home is clean and tidy. I don’t want to harp on consumerism, capitalism, etc., so I won’t, but do know that they do have an impact on how I feel.

The solution isn’t to throw away all the things. The solution is to create cleaning systems that work for me and to have just enough things that I need.

Luckily, I have about a year until I move into my tiny house. This means my decluttering process can be slow and controlled. Decluttering is an overwhelming process. There is no right way to do it. The whole point of decluttering, at least to me, is to get rid of what you don’t need. I like Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. If you aren’t familiar with Kondo, she’s the “spark joy” lady. Basically her approach is to take a group of items (e.g. clothes, paper, electronics) and go through each individual item. Ask yourself, does it spark joy? Or, more practically, do I need this? If the answer is yes, you keep it. If the answer is no, you thank the item for fulfilling its purpose and put it in the discard pile. Simple. What if you want to keep everything? Then by all means, go ahead. 🙂

The Method

I decided to first tackle my books. A few years ago I transferred all of my DVDs onto a digital hard drive. At the same time, I got rid of a lot of my books. What I have left are the books I kept for sentimental value, books I think I’ll reread, books I’ve purchased since the last overhaul, and cookbooks.

In true Kondo style, I gathered all of the books in my house and piled them around my on my living room floor. Surprisingly, I found books in each room of the house. While it wasn’t an overwhelming pile of books, there was still a pretty decent amount. I picked up each book and made a decision: Keep or give away?

The Result

Surprisingly, this process took a few hours. Just the physical process of stacking and moving books took longer than I expected. Also, each book was a decision meaning my brain was tired by the end of it. Decision fatigue is real!

I ended up keeping my core childhood books like the Madeleine series, A. A. Milne books, and The Westing Game. I also kept a few comforting classics that I do go back and reread often like The Golden Compass and Harry Potter. I didn’t have the heart to donate my John Green and Hank Green books. They hold a special place in my heart, so I shall keep them for now.

I also have a large pile of books that I want to read before I give them up. Either I never read it (and forgot I had it) or it was a story I wanted to revisit one more time. I piled them in front of my TV as motivation. Luckily, I have the time to read them.

Where are all the other books going to go? I have a few friends with children, so I plan to donate those to the parents. Their kids are too young to enjoy them yet, but they can hold onto them for a good cause. The rest I’ve shared with my book club to see if they want first dibs. Anything left over, I’ll either put in my little free library outside my house or take to Half Price Books. Half Price Books is a store that sells used books for half of the publisher’ price. You don’t make a ton of money selling your books there, but I love the store and don’t mind providing more inventory.

The Future

How do I keep my book inventory at a reasonable size? Well, it’ll likely grow again. Earlier I mentioned my book club, and we read a book a month. I have a Kindle, but sometimes I want a physical book. My plan is to utilize the library as much as possible. When not possible, I will buy the book from an independent book store. A really awesome site is bookshop.org. They partner with local book stores across the US so that a portion of their sales go to the book store of your choice. I recommend Lark & Owl (Georgetown, TX) and Patchouli Joe’s (Denton, TX). Once I finish a book, I will either: keep it or donate it. That’s a pretty straightforward system I think. We’ll see how long it lasts.

What should I tackle next?