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Week 3: Purge & Donate: Books


Week 3: Purge & Donate: Books

Sorry for the delay this week, again, been crazy busy.  This week is more of inspiration than tips, but I'm going to give you a few heads up about my book purging process. 

My under bed storage is prime retail space in my tiny apartment.  Before this post, I had a lot of books under there.  Most my books are old school books, and I don't think I will ever look at them again.  In fact, I haven't since the classes ended.  But don't get me wrong, I had a ton of other books that were non-school related.  {There might be a tiny joke in our house about my book hoarding}. It was time to purge...


Here are my tips for purging books:


Carefully go through your books.  Ask yourself these questions:

1. Is this a book I will ever read again?
2. Do I love this book?
3. Is this a book I want to pass on to a friend?
4. Do I have the room for this book?
5. Do I benefit from keeping this book?


After you've done that.  Make your piles.  The books you want to keep.  The books you want to pass on, and the books you will donate.  


I used sticky notes as my piles got smaller.  Before I donated, I checked the amazon prices of my stacks.  Much to my surprise, several of my books were still at a good resale value.  The process is actually really fast too.  All you need to do is: type your ISBN number from the back of your book into the search box, check the value, and then click the button to sell {as long as you have a seller account which is really easy to create}. As a heads up on amazon, they now take commission.  Maybe I was the last to know, but it was new news to me.  


If you have a large amount of books, you can check your local charities, libraries {so many libraries right now have budget cuts, it's a good place to start}, schools, ect. to donate.  Here are a few more places to start:

1. Freecyle.org
2. BookCrossing.com
3. Housing Works in NYC
4. PaperbackSwap.com
5. BooksThroughBars.org


The hardest step for me...is to actually drop my books off.  When you live in a big city, this can be a challenge.  Again, the bottom line: by purging, you in return have less stuff, which keeps you more organized.  

BUT, you better believe I'll be using this coupon over the weekend from Borders... 

I have yet to pick up a copy of this:

 

and a few off of Celerie Kemble's list on J.Crew :




Wow, I'm pretty sure I just defeated the entire point of this post, and this one...
have a wonderful weekend!

22 comments:

  1. Good tips for purging books- I have a ton that I read once and never again.... Happy weekend!

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  2. This is a great Blog, I to have trouble with keeping books. I just love them.

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  3. I just did the same thing... it's liberating. Great tips. :)

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  4. This might not work for you since it looks like you have a lot of reference books but, when I went through my book purge, I asked myself, "How does this book end?" If I couldn't recall, they went to my donate pile.

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  5. I'm coming to your house to shop next time you are in the purging mood :)

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  6. I am so going to buy a book this weekend with that coupon! so excited.

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  7. I really need my husband to read this. I am good about keeping only special and beautiful books, but HE has so many that are just dust-gathering ;). I am totally showing him your post!

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  8. My husband and I relocated from VA to PA in December. We had the hardest time getting rid of some of our books! We finally settled on our favorites, though some of them were kept simply because I love how pretty they are! :p

    Thanks for the coupon link! Oh, and be sure to enter my first GIVEAWAY! :)

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  9. Great advice! We have a ton of books around our house that we will never read again and we just need to donate them!

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  10. love your tips AND your book choices! enjoy the extra space and your new purchases :)

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  11. Follies of Europe looks interesting!
    I've just ordered this book from Amazon which I'm really looking forward to getting..see this on Lark

    http://the-lark.blogspot.com/2010/03/print-pattern-book-is-here.html

    Now where could I put another bookcase..
    Good questions to ask about keeping books though, I love to go back to a lot of my books but I can throw some out.

    Have a good weekend!

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  12. These are great tips. I'm in a book club and buy the books every month. I used to love the library when I was a kid but now I love owning the books. Fortunately I still have a little space, but my next step is to build a bigger bookcase! :)

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  13. i always buy books from half.com but never think of selling them. mostly, i just donate them to the library--for so reason if feels so good. i don't know why i'm hanging on to my hardback copies of the twilight series--i'm never going to read them again. this is a sign that they need to go.

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  14. Very practical advice, thanks! I, too, never thought about resale value. I like the sound of that! I also like the idea of using the proceeds from the resale to purchase design books! Yummy!!!!

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  15. Thanks so much the borders tip. I am going to see if we have a Borders in my area.

    Great Blog

    Mr. Goodwill Hunting
    http://g-w-hunting.blogspot.com

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  16. Great ideas. My parents need to see this post. They have SO many books they never read.

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  17. I'm such a book hoarder, these are great tips thanks for sharing!

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  18. Great tips... I need to purge some myself :)

    xoxo Laura

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  19. GREAT tip! The parking lot of the Whole Foods by my house has a big blue bin for book donations. Look for one of those. I will admit they often sit in my trunk for days at a time but they do eventually get dropped off ;) Marija

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  20. I love bigs and have tons . . . okay, hundreds. I have often purchased books from re-sellers on Amazon and was thinking of selling mine since they are in such great condition. How have you found the Amazon process for selling books? So funny that your post was about this today because I was going to post a Tweet asking if anyone had sold books on Amazon.

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  21. Hi I saw your blog. You have done a good job, I really liked your blog and very informative. I believe that many visitors will find it very useful to you

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  22. I can't find Week#2 of this organizing project. Help!

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