Pretty in Pink Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Egads. I know some of you will think I'm nuts! We have so many books that are rarely used. I bought four years worth of TOG books (all subjects). My kids have shelves full of picture and chapter books just collecting dust. It's not that we don't read, because we do, it's just that we borrow tons of books from the library every week and mostly read those. I am seriously considering just donating 90% of our books to a school or library. Have you taken the plunge and lived to regret it, or are you glad you got rid of your books? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizabeth in MN Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I sold most of my fiction books in one purge. It was liberating to get rid of all those books! It's harder on my to sell kids books because I still want more children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookfiend Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 That is a serious investment. You could easily recoup 75% of the value by selling them in lots (by TOG level and year) on e-bay. Think of it as re-funding your curriculum choices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfatherslily Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 If you're not sure, then weed out half the books. I love books and my children look at them almost every day. I regularly go through them and purge the least favorite ones. My criteria is that they have to fit in the bookcase. When we start to run out of room, time to donate or sell!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Yes. Before we moved here I sold or gave away about 80% of our books. It was actually quite liberating and I made a ton of money. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baseball mom Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I am seriously thinking about trying to sell alot of our books. Especially the ton of fiction fluff books that are hidding in boxes where they have been for years waiting for me to get around to reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I'm planning on going through the book cases this weekend. What I don't want I'll list on PBS. It's hard getting rid of books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Just kids books? Yes. We saved very few of the kids books from earlier years. The ones we did save have sentimental value and are boxed up in the attic. My kids are teens now. They just aren't going to read the same books they read in elementary/middle school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 We have four dollar store baskets filled with board books and Dr. Suess type books. I have a few small boxes of books DH won't get rid of. I have about a shelf full of reference type books for school, and there's a handful of fiction books (Louisa May Alcott bundle, Narnia, and LOTR) that I kept. That's all that we have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I did wait until my youngest didn't need any of them. (example, when dd was about grade six or so, I got rid of all elementary books except those with sentimental value that I want to pass down). Since you have a baby, then you don't know if you would use any when you homeschool her. I have a boy and girl, and my girl had very different tastes in what she wanted to read. You are about to move long distance if I remember correctly..... so I understand why you might want to thin the books out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilly Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Egads. I know some of you will think I'm nuts! We have so many books that are rarely used. I bought four years worth of TOG books (all subjects). My kids have shelves full of picture and chapter books just collecting dust. It's not that we don't read, because we do, it's just that we borrow tons of books from the library every week and mostly read those. I am seriously considering just donating 90% of our books to a school or library. Have you taken the plunge and lived to regret it, or are you glad you got rid of your books? A few years back I gave away many of our books. I had been collecting books for years, and I had amassed quite a collection. The thing was most of them were never read even though we read all the time. I was packing up my house at the time, and I just didn't want to pack and unpack all the books. I gave them all away (I had no desire to sell them), and I have never regretted it. It was an easier move for me, and the unpacking took much less time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T'smom Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Egads. I know some of you will think I'm nuts! We have so many books that are rarely used. I bought four years worth of TOG books (all subjects). My kids have shelves full of picture and chapter books just collecting dust. It's not that we don't read, because we do, it's just that we borrow tons of books from the library every week and mostly read those. I am seriously considering just donating 90% of our books to a school or library. Have you taken the plunge and lived to regret it, or are you glad you got rid of your books? I'm one of those who thinks you're crazy! But I wouldn't mind taking advantage of that craziness- if you want to sell sets of TOG books, let me know! I'll buy 'em! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlylocks Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 That is a serious investment. You could easily recoup 75% of the value by selling them in lots (by TOG level and year) on e-bay. Think of it as re-funding your curriculum choices. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impish Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 LOL...I'm going to be buying all levels of TOG this coming year...for yr 2, anyways, and yr 3. For me, considering the age spread of kids at home, I won't be purging any books for a really.long.time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I haven't gotten rid of all of my books, but I have sold many of the SL cores I have purchased after using them. It always seems like the practical thing to do, but I always feel regret. This year, I am really sorry I didn't hold onto some of the SL 3 and 4 books because they would have been so helpful for some of the writing assignments my son has had to do through an outsourced class. But, I will still probably sell Core 5 when we are done this year because I know my kids are probably not going to use many of the books again. Basically, SL keeps us so busy every year, there is very little time for additional reading and when there is, I want the kids to have the chance to read something other than historical fiction. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtoamiracle Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I go through my sons books periodically and give what he's outgrown to friends or donate to the library. I probably have better books than our library for my son's age, so I won't be getting rid of them until we're done with them. I get loads of books from Goodwill. If I like them I keep them, if not I bring them back to goodwill. I have many favorites that I keep. After a few years, if I dont' care for them anymore, I donate them. I just donated my whole collection of Debbie Macomber and Mary Higgins Clark to the library. there's a library sale right now an hour from me. I'd love to go and get more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in CA Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I had somewhere around 3,000 books, but I purged the shelves at the end of last year, and now I probably have under 1,000. I kept the books I knew I'd refer to in the future, and separated all of the rest. Then I had an open house for the homeschool families in my town, and invited them to take whatever they wished. Honestly, it was emotionally very sad for me, to see the books go. Some of them I'd had since my dc were very young, and I had to swallow a lump in my throat as I saw them go out the front door. It's better though, that I did that purge. My household is neater & more pleasant without those books, and I've heard over and over from families who received books from me that it has made a huge difference in their homeschooling. Some people have texted me pictures of their little ones curled up with stacks of the books. I feel very blessed to have been able to bless so many people while streamlining my own household at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 About two years ago I sold or dontated about two-fifths of our books (mostly paperback fiction) and scanned nearly all the rest and recycled those because I'd had to cut off the spines to scan them. I can easily get fiction as ebooks from various sources and I love having our books still available as ebooks. No regrets, but we are an extremely mobile family. I'd had to mostly stop buying books for quite a few years because we already had way too many too keep moving on our own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Yes. For nearly 30 years I hung onto my books, fondly remembering how, in my younger days, I had friends who actually went over the bookshelf, grazed, and discussed what was there. After a good 20 years without ONE person glancing at my books, I got rid of them. I wasn't trying to "show off", but in the hopes of finding a closeted kindred soul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I have been purging as the kids get older. I kept a basket of board books for when babies visit. I really want to get rid of MOST of our books. We don't have very many (4 bookshelves), but I can get most on one of our many ereaders. And, I can have my guest room back to set up as a real guest room. I sell our books from year to year (except math and science). It gives me nearly enough money to buy our next years' curriculum. I say go for it!!! Take before and after pictures and let us see how it looks. Now, to convince my husband we don't need them all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarreymere Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 About fifteen years ago I donated over ten thousand paperbacks in a purge. I had to drive to six libraries to find them a home and still gave away boxes full. My older daughters cried. One still complains that I gave away her inheritance. I regret it. It's like a lost a lot of good friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglei Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Yes, I am in that process now, more than ever. I've had some books for twenty or thirty years (or more). I've re-read many of them many times. I have fond memories not only of reading them, but also finding them. Two sets of books in particular took me and dh years to find. I had fun scouring book sales and used book stores looking for them. (I also have hand-me-downs I've never read . . .) But, I am at a stage in life now where I want fewer things around to demand my time. Also, we are experiencing severe financial issues (ds is a two-time cancer survivor; throw in everything else that has happened, or is currently happening, and there are many times I can be really quite scared); so, trying to sell some of *my* books is a way of attempting to help us out some. Dh and ds think I'm nuts to be purging my books (and other things, too). At first, it was hard; it has gotten *easier* with time. Also, this may sound macabre, though I don't mean it that way. Having had to take care of our parents' things when they died made me more determined to not leave so much extraneous stuff for others to have to care for, make decisions about, etc., when my time comes. Dh and I did not mind having to do those final things for our moms (the dads had previously died); however, with everything else going on as well as the geographic distances involved, it added to the toll life in general was/is taking on us. So, overall, it has been a good thing to start purging books and things - and to know that others can now enjoy them. I frequent the library much more and feel good that I haven't spent a cent to read those books! Other posters have used the word *liberating* - and I agree! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingmydream Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Sometimes I do if we didn't like them or I don't think we will use them again. I always run out of room especially as the kids get older. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotAVampireLvr Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Our picture book collection has slowed quite a bit... My MIL buys them for us and when we have a favorite we've taken out from the library it gets put on our wish list for birthdays, etc. I no longer buy books for myself unless I cannot find them in our library system. I recently boxed most of them up and brought them to a book swap store for credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoughCollie Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 (edited) We got rid of 5,000 books in our house because we didn't have space for them when me moved to a smaller house. About 4,000 of those belonged to DH. I'm certain he moved a couple hundred of them with his bookstore inventory when we moved, but as long as they are not in our house, that is fine with me. I do not regret it. The kids kept everything they wanted, and those are in 1-2 Billy bookcases in each of their bedrooms. I do have a couple of boxes of books in the basement that the kids wanted to keep, but have outgrown. My books and homeschooling books are in 1.5 bookcases now. I'm about to weed that down to one bookcase because the vast majority of those books are not used, and will never be. DH continues to acquire books, but he keeps most of them at work, or in his bookcases in the basement. I'm happy because out of sight, out of mind, and because all of my wall space (and floor space) is not taken up with bookcases. I either read books on my Kindle (the vast majority are free) or get them from the library. Some of our discarded books went into our bookstore's inventory, but >90% were given to Salvation Army or Goodwill. Edited March 9, 2012 by RoughCollie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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