Three Easy Steps to Parting With Books You Do Not Need

Parting with books is something that is difficult for avid book lovers and readers to do, but may be a necessary task to accomplish under certain circumstances.

Recently, I came across an article on Bustle's website titled, Get Rid Of Books You No Longer Need With This Easy 3 Step Process
by Melissa Ragsdale. In the article, Melissa Ragsdale wrote the following:

Moving is the perfect time for paring down and clearing out. And, since the heaviest parts of your move are probably your boxes of books, it's especially important that you clean out your bookshelf as you pack up. Trust me, you'll seriously thank yourself if you cut down your book collection before the big move.

But cleaning out your bookshelf is easier said than done. Books have an importance that goes beyond the typical object, and giving one away can sometimes feel like giving away a piece of your soul. Every book I've read feels like a close personal friend, and I have so many important memories attached to nearly every one on my shelf.

Then of course, there's the age-old conundrum of the books you've bought but haven't read yet. I certainly have had books sitting on my shelf for years, untouched. But the thought of giving them away is devastating. I paid money to take that book home with me!

Author and renowned organizing consultant Marie Kondo describes this feeling of attachment beautifully in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: 

"The process of facing and selecting our possessions can be quite painful. It forces us to confront our imperfections and inadequacies and the foolish choices we made in the past…The things we own are real. They exist here and now as a result of choices made in the past by no one other than ourselves. It is dangerous to ignore them or to discard them indiscriminately as if denying the choices we made…It is only when we face the things we own one by one and experience the emotions they evoke that we can truly appreciate our relationship with them."

I did listen to the unabridged audio version of Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up last year and enjoyed it... Admittedly though, I have yet to apply her methods to my own life! However, the silver lining her is that Melissa Ragsdale's article does give me a quick refresher on Marie Kondo's method for letting go of books should I decide to go decide to go that route.

Click on the top link to read the entire article to use the Marie Kondo method of parting with books.