I happen to love books, and I have a lot of them. How much is a lot? Enough to be at the center of a clutter problem. The books I seem to enjoy the most are books on organizing. These books are infinitely helpful to me, and I have read many of them several times. My secret career fantasy is to be a professional organizer, evidently.
We have over 800 books total on every subject in our house, and most of them I have cataloged in LibraryThing. A major downsizing of our books is in our future, but not right now. This will be one of the most difficult decluttering projects for me, and I'll save it for one of the last projects. I will be mindful to donate the books that don't really represent my interests anymore, or books that I am sure I won't be reading again. I'm guessing most of the organizing books will survive the cut and remain with me.
To continue through the book How to simplify your life by Tiki Kustenmacher, here are some helpful hints on simplifying your things:
Throw away things such as
- catalogs that are over 6 months old (my rule would be to throw them all out: all catalogs seem to be available on the web now)
- maps more than 3 years old
- papers from college
- wall calendars from previous years (this is a difficult one for me)
- warranties that have expired (I worked on these just a few weeks ago)
- old travel brochures
Some rules for 'unpiling' are also offered in the book:
- consider box storage for some items
- create standing files; these should become part of your 'command central'
- work with consistency: employ consistent labels for files; log tasks on a calendar
- clear out material on a regular basis
I have enjoyed reading this book, but it won't be put back on the book shelves. It's a library book, and I'll be returning it to the public library tomorrow :-)
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