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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to give all my books to the charity shop?

245 replies

Boomba · 19/05/2013 22:31

I'm fed up with all my clutter. I'm not really a hoarder, but very short on time and want to streamline so I can keep clean and tidy.

Ove got loads of books. In the sitting room 2 bookcases stacked 4 deep on each shelf.

I don't have time for reading anyway ant more. I've got a kindle

I feel strangely attached though. And a bit sad, that I don't have time for reading

Do you keep your books??

OP posts:

TwasBrillig · 20/05/2013 10:29

Ooh like that last sentence there! Good point.

I remember my dad taking me to the library next to school every Saturday and we'd both change all our books. There was always a pile of charity shop books to be read at home too. I take my children regularly and certainly they have a love of books already simply as its part of our family dna.

I'm hoping to encourage my daughter to think decluttering is a normal activity we do now and then. She's very good at collecting toys together she doesn't play with and I regularly help her cull her mountains of books.

TwasBrillig · 20/05/2013 10:36

The thick plottens last sentence that was. People have posted in between!

Lovely to hear some like minded philosophies.

NetworkGuy · 20/05/2013 10:38

Two of my three sisters (actually the younger two not the eldest) have started to 'declutter' so when they leave earth, their children are not faced with a mountain of 'junk' (not just books, but all sorts of memorabilia).

Perhaps because finally they and their husbands are retired, they see 'the end' coming in the next 20-40 years and know that when it comes to house clearance, their children would just hire a skip... hardly anything would be likely to be 'adopted'.

It was quite a sobering thought when they (independently) mentioned their current 'project's. Sorry, not the lightest of ideas when several of you mention DC, but something to consider in 30-60 years :)

apatchylass · 20/05/2013 10:40

Ooh not sure about the liberation from clutter. I'd get rid of all other clutter before most books. I do cull them once or twice a year. About 200 go to oxfam each time, but more come into the house. Kindles are OK, but I love to read in the bath, flick backwards and forwards through books, and most importantly DS 1 is a bookworm and strays upon all manner of books by looking at our shelves. He's a really precocious reader because of this. Wouldn't be if all the titles were locked away on a kindle.

You never know when a child might want to start reading. Libraries and Kindles are brilliant but it's not the same as having all those lovely ideas lined up in your house, whispering to be read.

trice · 20/05/2013 10:42

Ds is a terrible hoarder. He has every Beano since 1981 as he inherited a collection from sil. His room is almost unusable. He won't let me remove any of them. It is a worry.

NorksAreMessy · 20/05/2013 10:44

But "Books do furnish a room " :o

I am in the colourbetising school of book loving (see profile pic) and could only give away the brown books, because they are hard to arrange :)

We love our made-of-trees books. DD even works in a charity bookshop, but the traffic is all one way..IN to the house, not out

kelda · 20/05/2013 10:45

'I do love looking at others peoples book shelves but am massively private and hate people taking the piss out of me for reading romance and fantasy. Reading is for my pleasure and not to impress others.'

So true.

I have a big bookcase on my staircase. A friend commented that it was full of 'chick lit', simply because the pink/purply books are the ones that stand out.

I did ask her what is the problem with chick lit, and even if a book has a girly cover, that does not necessarily make it chick lit - Marian Keyes being a case in point.

kiwigirl42 · 20/05/2013 10:47

I've got one or two more books than normal too. They are just all so lovely and full of such beautiful words though. I've got a lot better though and recycle (friends/ charity shop) any I won't read again. I tend to buy books second hand anyhow so now if I find an amazing book (just read Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck - really powerful) I treat myself to a decent copy for my bookshelf. It has to be unforgettable for this treatment though.
I also have knitting/ spinning/ craft books but figure they don't count ...

MaterFacit · 20/05/2013 10:57

I've got about 1000 books (about a quarter of what I had a few years ago).

They are a mix of academic/high end non-fiction and trashy fantasy/horror novels that I read and reread in the bath or stick in a coat pocket/handbag. Much of it is expensive/not available on the Kindle and not available in the library, although I do use the library a lot as well. I read between 150 and 250 books a year and I enjoy (enough to keep a book) about 25-30 of those. Well written zombie novels are hard to find so I tend to keep those I find!

Its not to do with intellectualism or showing off as all the books in the lounge are my trashy novels , my serious books are in my study. When I was younger I would have cringed if anyone had seen my zombies/Mercedes Lackey collection, now I don't care.

Mintyy · 20/05/2013 11:02

Incidentally, anyone who lives in London or is interested in London, I can highly recommend this book - am enjoying it hugely at the moment.

Sunnywithshowers · 20/05/2013 11:12

Thanks Mintyy among my 'keepers' are books about London. It's fascinating.

Mintyy · 20/05/2013 11:16

Oh I highly recommend. G'wan and treat yourself.

KylaKevin · 20/05/2013 11:16

You have done a good work to charity your books because now it will be read by many people.

RedundantExpat · 20/05/2013 11:18

I have been debating this for the past 10 years especially as I move about every 2 years.

But I feel that my bookshelf is the only thing easy to keep orderly in my life house, so it has survived all de-cluttering attacks.

PavlovtheCat · 20/05/2013 11:20

Get rid. Then, you have lots of space to buy new ones! For when you might one day find time to read by lamplight with a glass of wine again.

PavlovtheCat · 20/05/2013 11:22

we put ours in the loft as DH could not bear to get rid. We have about 30 out now. plus a ton of children's books. DH used to be a huge reader, but now he listens on audio books instead. It's a bit sad as the kids don't see him reading. I am not a huge reader. I like the idea of it, but I always fall asleep reading.

Tailtwister · 20/05/2013 11:24

We have rather a lot of books. I love my cookery books and probably have around 200. The children have loads too (too many tbh), I'm guessing a few hundred at least. Then there's all the other books, mostly DH's and a conservative estimate for them is probably about 1000.

I very much doubt I could get rid of them all. I probably could let a good few go though. Some of the trashy paperbacks bought for holidays are obvious targets.

PavlovtheCat · 20/05/2013 11:27

you must never get rid of cookbooks. What if you get rid of the one that has that perfect biscuit recipe in, or that cocktail you never got round to making and now you are holding a dinner party where it will be perfect?

kiwigirl42 · 20/05/2013 11:29

damm it Mintyy! now got this London book en route on top off all the others!

happybubblebrain · 20/05/2013 11:38

The way energy prices are going you might need to burn them to keep warm one day soon. If you don't want them around you now, can't you store them somewhere like the loft?

TapselteerieO · 20/05/2013 11:42

I would get rid of 3/4 of your books, do it shelf by shelf, charity shops need books, you will have more space & need to spend less time dusting. I would aim to keep some books, not just for yourself but it is nice to share and pass books on, to friends and even maybe your dc one day. You get talking about a book or author you like with a friend or colleague they might never have read, you pass a book on it is great. For the books you keep find the least dusty way of storing them - we have a bookcase dh made it is only deep enough for one line of books, makes books easy to find and takes up a small amount of space.

Not a kindle fan - though I do sometimes read ebooks I much prefer holding a real book, can't imagine ever giving books up. I would have a library in my dream home.

Mintyy · 20/05/2013 11:43

A nice thing to do with so-called holiday books is to leave them in the cottage or caravan in case anyone else wants to read them. I do love getting to a self-catering cottage and finding that they have a few books, usually of the type I would never read, to browse through.

2margarinesonthego · 20/05/2013 11:47

I need to do it (get rid, I mean). I've got books all over the place, and the ones that are actually on bookshelves look a mess and are piled up, a couple of shelves have crippled under the pressure but I have still piled the books onto the slanting shelves. It's so blooming depressing.

My issue with getting rid of them is that I never finish anything (generally, in life!). Pretty much every book I think "well one day I'm going to read that in its entirity so I can't get rid". The reality is that I never will.

Mat leave coming up - I'm going to spend that time whittling them down. But tbh I've paid so much for them that I'm not sure I can just give them away, and we could really do with the cash at the moment.

It's a big problem for me but I know I will feel better if I just get rid of them.

nipersvest · 20/05/2013 11:50

we have loads of books and shelves in every room. i have to say, a lot of my friends and family have none anywhere in the house.

Khaleese · 20/05/2013 11:50

I removed half of our books ( hundreds) liberating.

Do it!

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