I am on a journey to live a life I love and to fill my life with the things that truly bring me joy... my dream job, loving relationships, financial abundance, a healthy mind and body, and a deep spiritual connection with all that is. I am living consciously to create a life filled with all the things I love.

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Friday, August 7, 2009

Decluttering Your Books

If you're an avid book-buyer like me, chances are, you have tons and tons of books that are you have been collecting on your bookshelves, waiting for the opportunity to read them all. But, if you're like most people, you're busy working and taking care of the family, and have other more pressing matters at hand, which leaves you little time to kick back to relax and read. And maybe when you get to those moments, you just want to do something a little bit more relaxing and uses less brain-power after spending a long day at the office. So, you might opt to watch TV or browse websites instead.

So, why hold on to all of those books? Are you REALLY going to read them? Chances are, you will lug them from home to home as you move, or you will accumulate more books that you want to read first. And this is how clutter begets clutter.

Let's stop this process of accumulation and start purging what we don't need! For me, I had to start with my bookcases because it was what has been taking up the majority of space in my home. No room for picture frames, photo albums, or anything else. Just piles and piles of books. Books that are interesting, for sure, but to be very honest, with all the things going on in life, those were no longer pertinent for the direction I was headed. So, I am purging, and purging, and purging.

In the past I've been so fed up with having so much stuff that I just amassed a huge pile of belongings and lugged them to Salvation army for a donation drop-off. Then, I discovered that they do not accept books! Oh my. So, little by little I was either posting books on craigslist or giving them away for free...until recently.

In this economy, I want to bring in any extra income while purging. So, in the past few weeks I have decided to sell everything and anything that I can that no longer serves me or my future (even if I have yet to use it myself!). It will find a better home with someone who will put the book or object to use immediately.

Sell Your Books!

Amazon.com
I've been very happy with the response I have received from Amazon. I have been posting my books up there and have sold between 1-9 books per day. Pretty amazing. Just search for the books you have, and there's a link that says "Sell yours here" under the Used and New Books link.

The money I've made has already been disbursed to my account. You can disburse your funds at any time. I'm a huge fan now and will use Amazon as my first go-to source for selling books I've read. Just list your books for a penny lower than what others are selling it for.

However, recently I've discovered a little drop in the volume of sales. I think my most popular books have already gone, or people are just not buying the books I'm selling right this moment. And there are books that I have that are not really worth that much and people probably won't be looking for these titles any time soon.

So, I was very excited yesterday when I discovered that you can sell books online to some booksellers! Don't hold your breath on this one because you won't make a lot of money here. Amazon will give you much more for your books, but it also requires you to pack and ship each one individually. I found an easy way to do this. Package it in a yellow manila envelope with some padding around each book and voila. Ready to ship via Media Mail. And make sure you send all your books via Media Mail. You'll save yourself a lot of money on shipping costs!

Other Booksellers Online Seeing as I am eager to get rid of the books that no longer serve me so that I can move on to decluttering the rest of my home, I discovered some websites online that will offer you some money for your books and will allow you to ship the books to them for free. This allows you to get rid of books in bulk. They do not accept all books, so you will have to list your ISBN numbers on various sites to see which ones that accept.

I've been able to package four boxes of books this way, and all from just one night's work. Amazing. And some of those books I did not think would sell anyhow, so better to sell them for something than keeping them in your bookcases forever.

Here are the websites I've used and had success with:
Here is another one that I ended up not using, but looks like it offers something similar:
If you live in the UK, I received a recommendation for websites there that are working for others in the UK:
It's often hard to let go of things we've hung onto for so long, but once you decide you can live without it, it is quite liberating to see your life become lighter and lighter. I love it and now I'm searching for more things that I can live without. Instead of being burdened by the stuff I own, I want to be free to experience more of life. And I can always just go to the library and borrow books if I ever need any of these books again! And if I can't find them at the library, I can buy books one at a time that I will read right away. No more stock piling books to read for a future day.

There's a decluttering book that I've been meaning to go through (that I currently own and have not given up for sale yet). I think I might try and go through it step by step and really focus on making this next year a time to only surround myself with the things I absolutely love, need, and find useful. I know my life will be more rich because of it. Decluttering is like a diet. You've spent time accumulating and amassing stuff, much like what happens when you gain weight, and it takes effort, commitment, and a burning desire to let it all go to come out victorious in the end. But it's all worth it. Come join me! Let's simplify our lives and lead a more fulfilling life, filled with ideas, experiences, and dreams rather than stuff!

Here's the book I mentioned, called One Year to an Organized Life: From Your Closets to Your Finances, a Week by Week Guide to Getting Completely Organized.


Great title, isn't it? Maybe I'll blog about my progress with it here. Use the "Decluttering" label on the right to find all my blog posts about this topic. Good luck with your decluttering project!

1 comment:

  1. . Use the "Decluttering" label on the right to find all my blog posts about this topic. Good luck with your decluttering project!

    ReplyDelete

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