Declutter - an encouraging thread

[Housemum]

OK, so have been lurking/posting on various declutter threads - there are a lot of us out there trying to shift stuff. Anyone care to join me by sharing their small achievements in the hope of helping others to get motivated? Similar to the Flylady threads, I think, where they share their lists of achievements. I'll start off with my small achievement today - we have an IKEA tall CD rack which was full of assorted CD roms - I have been through them and ditched a pile 18" high of CD roms that I don't want or that are incompatible with our current PC. Straight in the bin as they are not worth anything, not even for giving away. I know it's not huge amounts of stuff, but they have been preying on my mind for ages.

Next up, the kitchen cupboards :)

Thanks. :)

Now I just need to do the rest of the house!

Help me to be less sentimental about books. We have literally hundreds of books I did a Literature degree 15 years ago and I still have all the books I studied. I find it easy getting rid of 'bubblegum' fiction, but all my classics Things is, I KNOW I'll never read them again.

If I'm honest, I think they're probably there as a 'badge of honour'! I was reading about 3 novels a week at Uni so feel they've earned their place.

I got rid of 2 boxes of books today, but need to get less sentimental about the others...

AllOverIt - you're looking at it in the wrong way. You're not getting rid of classics - you're giving a new generation of literature students the chance to read the classics of the past, just like you did.

I know just how hard it is, but I split my bookcase into 'books I genuinely will read again', 'books I won't actually read again' and 'books I won't read again but physically mean a great deal to me'. By lucky chance, I was able to do a charity book stall at a local University English Faculty, sold all my classics for £1.50 each, had a lot of fun recommending them to the young students, and made over £100 for Oxfam.

I now do regular culls of books and try hard to keep them in their allocated space. In theory, they only get shelf room if I will read them again.

The one good thing about classics is that they will always be available, so part with them in the knowledge that if you are desperate to read one again that you ditched, you can easily get it from a library/bookshop/download. I know what you mean though, I always scan a person's bookshelves. I feel that I'm giving away something of myself if I give away books - totally wrong, but hard to break.

Thanks guys. Just been chatting to DH about it. I'm going to take the plunge in the summer hols. Need to reclaim my shelves!