All Those Books, Part 2: What Now?

A few days ago, I wrote about how being gifted with an eReader has changed my life in a small, but pretty significant way, by allowing me to "let go" of all the books on my bookshelves.

But now that I've purged my bookshelves, what am I supposed to do with the books that used to live on them?

What to do with all these books?

I figure I have a few choices.  I could toss them, but for a book lover like me, throwing a book in the trash can is nearly akin to tossing a defenseless kitten into a raging river - unthinkable!  Not to mention incredibly wasteful.  So, tossing them is out.

I could donate them.  The local library always needs books, after all.

I could sell them in the tag sale we have coming up in a week or so.  But, then I'd have to sort them, price them, and try to sell them.  And if I'm lucky, I might get a quarter each out of them.

I was really leaning toward the donate option when a poster on a Thrifty forum I frequent let me know about Amazon's trade in program.

What?  What's that, you say?

You mean Amazon will buy back old books that I no longer want?  AND I don't have to pay for shipping??

Really, this sounded too good to be true.  But, I thought I'd check it out before I toted five and a half boxes of (very heavy!) books to the library on the other side of the county. 

Here's how the program works:

1. First you visit Amazon's Trade In page.  
2. Type the ISBN, Title, or Author's name of the book you want to sell into the search bar.
3. If the correct edition of your book is available to sell back, add it to your list.  Continue adding as many books as you'd like (up to $750 worth).
4. Submit your titles to Amazon, and print out the prepaid shipping label.  
5. Have the books in the mail to Amazon within seven days and receive store credit once they are received.  

Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?  But I wondered if it was really worth it.  I mean, with kids running around the house, do I really have time to sit at the computer and enter in dozens of ISBN numbers on the off chance that I might only be paid $0.50 for a book?  I chose five books from the "get rid of" pile and set about to see what Amazon thought they were worth.  To my surprise, Amazon wanted to pay me $15.60 for these five titles!  That's nearly $4.00 per title, and well worth the effort in my opinion. 

Naturally, all of the books I've chosen to get rid of won't qualify for the trade in program, but if I can sell back a small fraction of them, I'll be happy.  And, I'll have money (in the form of store credit) that I can use to buy holiday gifts this year!  The books that don't qualify will end up at the library, if I don't have a tag sale first. 

I've yet to finish my trade-in transaction, but I'm looking forward to sending off my first box of books this week.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Decluttering: All Those Books

For my 27th birthday, my Dear Husband was generous enough to gift me with an eReader, a Kobo.  I'm an avid reader, but never in a million years did I think I would ever be in favor of getting my daily fiction fix from a 7 inch electronic screen.  What about the paper*  What about flipping the pages?  What about the smell and feel of a well worn and well loved novel in your hands?  What about the romance, the timelessness of reading, dangit?

Photo Credit: jblyburg on Flickr

But despite all my best efforts to NOT like it, my eReader has quickly become one of my most treasured possessions.  It's light, it stores thousands of books, and it stays charged for at least a week at a time.  I can "turn" the pages with one hand, leaving my other hand free to, say, hold a nursing baby.  My eReader is one of those gadgets that I can't imagine living without.

Then I discovered a bonus benefit to owning an eReader: the possibility of finally getting to declutter my books and free up some much needed space on my bookshelves!  We have four full-sized bookshelves in our home, previously filled to the brim with dozens, if not hundreds, of books.  Paperbacks, hardcovers, children's books, cookbooks, fiction, biographies - we had a little bit of everything!  I never wanted to part with a book.  What if I wanted to read it again?

And that's the beauty of my eReader!  I can download digital copies of all of my books and store them in one place!  No more crowded bookshelves, no books scattered on the floor when the kids get into them, no more misplacing my favorites.  Once I came to this realization, I started purging.  And it felt good.

Over the course of an evening, I culled almost two hundred books from the shelves.  I didn't toss everything, though.  I kept the nice classics, the Shakespeare and the Homer.  I kept the books that didn't seem to be likely candidates for ebook download.  I kept the great children's books that my husband and I love and want to share with our children.  Harry Potter, A Wrinkle in Time, Shel Silverstein, among others.  Everything else was packed neatly into boxes.

I had made it through the difficult task of reducing our library from a few hundred books to just a few dozen, but then I suddenly had another dilemma - what do I do with all these books that I no longer want?

That, my readers, is a question I'll address in tomorrow's post.  But until then, how about sharing with me the titles of your favorite books?  Do you find it difficult to let go of a much loved read?

A Clutter-Free Home, One Room at a Time

Yesterday, my mom and my grandmother were kind enough to descend upon my house armed with energy and goodwill, determined to help me whip my full-of-C.H.A.O.S. home into shape.  You see, this baby I'm lugging around is due practically any day now, and it's difficult for me to do a lot of housework, especially heavy-duty housework, for any length of time.  I was starting to panic that nothing was going to get done in time, so I am immensely thankful they stepped in to lend a hand.  

And oh boy did they help!  By tackling the two most cluttered rooms in the house, the kids' rooms, they single-handedly knocked out two of my biggest sources of stress.  Before yesterday, I couldn't see my kids' floors.  Toys, trash and laundry littered every surface, and the kids could barely walk to their beds without falling over and tripping over the clutter.  Embarrassing? Absolutely. It's always bothered me that my kids' spaces were in such deplorable condition, when they should have had nice, clean, peaceful places to play. But, there never seemed to be enough time, or motivation, or help for me to tackle what I'd started to see as an insurmountable problem. 

I wish I had taken "Before" photos, even though I'm not sure I would have had the guts to post them.   

In the end, we removed seven (SEVEN!!) bags of trash and old toys from the two rooms, and the difference in space was unbelievable!  It was hard work for my mom and grandma, and all of their hard work definitely showed at the end of the day.  Now, my kids' toys actually fit in their toyboxes - the first time this has ever happened in our family!  And the kids were so happy and proud of their "new" rooms; they've been picking up their toys frequently (and voluntarily!) to keep their new spaces looking nice.  

I did learn something valuable about decluttering a child's room: it is definitely easiest to do when the child in question isn't home.  Then, there's no whining over which toys are going in the "toss" pile, and which are going in the trash. Plus, when the child returns home, the "missing" items are never really missed and instead they are forgotten about almost immediately.  What might have been a four day job had my children been home interfering with the purging process only took about six hours.  And what a difference six hours has made!


I'm looking forward to continuing the purging and decluttering process through the rest of the house, and keeping the kids' room clean and clutter-free.  We've instituted mandatory Toy Pick Up Time three times during the day: before lunch, before dinner, and before bed.  So far the kids are eager and willing to keep to the new rules.  I'm sure that'll change a bit as the newness wears off, but I'm confident we can keep control of the clutter now.  


Have you had a major success cleaning out a child's room or toys?  Do you have any tips or tricks to help others along?  I'd love to hear about them!