Decluttering but leaving some personality in your home

snowleopard61

I welcome Kindles very much ... no, I don't want to buy one, but they increase the supply of books in the charity shops where I buy mine :-)

My local Oxfam book shop is so well-stocked and well-organised that for many authors you can almost go there and expect to find what you're looking for, in alphabetical order, just as you could in a high street bookshop - if the first visit doesn't produce what you're looking for, the second very often will.

I don't buy as many books as I'd like because even at charity shop prices I have to limit myself, but the free 'request online' service at my local library is invaluable. (Although I wonder how long it will last before the council cuts get to it.) But I rarely part with them, except for the occasional bit of real chick-lit, which I may enjoy reading but would be embarrassed to put on the shelf!

seafarers_wife

I adore my kindle and am in the process of getting rid of all my books. some i am keeping for sentimental reasons, but I cant justify the space they take up anymore. Our local library and charity shop are doing very well out of me at the moment, as ive gotten rid of 6 large boxes of books since I moved in may :eek: ok a lot of what i read is trashy mills and boon type stuff for an easy read, but there are "proper" books in amongst that lot as well. I do re-read and re-read books till they fall apart but I just have so many that its a choice of having a tidy clutter free house or having a pigsty of clutter as im not by nature tidy and have no space for a designated home library as much as I would love one.

sparklewing

I was completely against the idea of a Kindle as I adore books but now I have one I love it. All those books at my fingertips at any time. No more sitting in a waiting room somewhere wishing I'd taken a different book with me as the one I have wasn't what I was in the mood for.

I have 8 6 shelf bookcases upstairs which I'm going to charity shop. I'm planning to go through them and keep maybe 1 bookcase of my very favourite books and that's it.

lostinrates

ok, ok....so I'll look at a kindle. But I'm not promising anything....annoting is good news, but not sure about missing the smell and feel of a real book. And reading in the bath.

MessyMare

OH bought me a Kindle for Christmas last year, and I never thought I'd get rid of my books (at the time we were planning a trip to America and it was more to stop me using up our luggage allowance with books I think)...and I still won't. I'm an avid user of bookmooch so there's a constant flow of books in this house, but I've decided I'm going to start some sort of system. I'm keeping gifted books (there's a copy of Jane Eyre, a book of Shakespeare's sonnets and some Orwell and Burgess books my mum gave me. I won't keep any that don't interest me though, I will set those free), my Pratchett books (working very hard to get the entire Discworld series and I will own everything he's written one day), my Gaiman books and my Fforde books. Also any cookbooks, craft, gardening, anything instructional really. But a huge part of my shelving (we have one giant book case, and one of the shelves is taken up by my stereo) is taken up with easy read paperbacks, which I do read time and time again but may as well just have on my Kindle (along with trashy vampire fiction that I don't want anyone to know I read!). I have just started a list of things that I can set free from the bookcase but I want to keep in Kindle land

Hermia

LameWolf wrote: »

I used to have 20,000 books. No, that's not a typo, I did say twenty thousand!:D

Blimey! You could have opened your own library. I have a few friends who have thousands of books, but all admit they keep books they won't read again and didn't much like. I really don't get that. My boss just paid a removal company an absolute fortune to move house as she owned 5000 books. She admitted she will probably never look at 90% of those books again. I recently gave 4 big bags of books to the charity shop attached to the hospice where my dad died. They managed to sell several books whilst I was still in the shop which made me feel great about decluttering.

I used to be very much into the feel of a real book so was suprised at how much I love my Kindle. I don't have great eyesight and didn't realise how much easier the Kindle is on those of us with eye problems. My Kindle is full of books, but luckily no one can see the virtual clutter!

lostinrates

Hermia wrote: »

Blimey! You could have opened your own library. I have a few friends who have thousands of books, but all admit they keep books they won't read again and didn't much like. I really don't get that. My boss just paid a removal company an absolute fortune to move house as she owned 5000 books. She admitted she will probably never look at 90% of those books again. I recently gave 4 big bags of books to the charity shop attached to the hospice where my dad died. They managed to sell several books whilst I was still in the shop which made me feel great about decluttering.

I used to be very much into the feel of a real book so was suprised at how much I love my Kindle. I don't have great eyesight and didn't realise how much easier the Kindle is on those of us with eye problems. My Kindle is full of books, but luckily no one can see the virtual clutter!

I've never counted our books. I'm a bit daunted by the prospect...