Has anyone ever decluttered and regretted it (books particularly)?

[MuffinMclay]

I'm a great hoarder of books (have approx 5000), most of which are double-stacked on horrible Ikea bookshelves in our sitting/dining room. They looked nice in our old house, where the shelves fitted perfectly into various alcoves but here the overall effect is awful.

I'm in the process of redecorating and am sorely tempted to get rid of most of them and try being a bit more minimalist (apart from all ds1's coloured plastic tat, obviously).

Will I regret it? The alternative is to put them all into boxes in the attic for a year or so until we move to somewhere bigger.

I don't need most of them, but it feels wrong to let go.

I love reading, but try and have a good 'cull' every so often (charity shop or freecycle).

I also use the library and borrow books from friends. I have much less time for reading now and realised that I want to spend my reading time reading new books where possible.

Oh, and my dad is a bookseller, but specialises in illuminated manuscripts so not the same as my tatty paperbacks

Nope, I had a whole wall full of books. Nightmare to get rid of all at once, now I add them to charity bags that come through the door unless I think I will read them again. Now have about four small shelves - business, travel, poetry and a few ones kept for sentimental reasons. Never missed any I've given away.

don;t get rid of books.

I have done it (my entire collection of stephen king), and have spent loads re-collecting!!!!

better spending money on many new shelves

Message withdrawn

plus....what if there is ever a 'day after tomorrow'???

you can burn your books to survive the big freeze....

I've identified 200 or so trashy novels with no sentimental value at all which can go to the village fete book stall. After that it gets more difficult.....

I'm rather taken with the idea of storing them for a while, then rediscovering hidden gems.

I've paid silly amounts of money on ebay buying back books that I'd had as a child then got rid of.

I get rid of a load of books every time I move house - my philosophy is life's too short for re-reading, look at all the shiny new books that are out there!
I have very rarely thought, ooh, where's X? and that was usually because I wanted to lend it to someone...

Let me put my science hat on and run a swift calculation :

1. You have 5000 books.
2. A 300 page book, I reckon, minimum 5 hrs reading (massive variation obviously!) therefore 25,000 hours worth on your shelves.
3. You're a mum, so let's say you can read for ooh, 2hrs a day, so 12,500 days' reading.
4. Let's go mad and say you read 365 days a year (muttering and poking of calculator...) it would take you 34 years to re-read those books! And that's assuming you don't get any new ones or go to the library...

Get rid! Maybe you could test the waters with the bookswap here on MN, or there's read it swap it, which is good...

Oh well.. you didn't say that before
You may be better off keeping them then.

I wish I could send 2 hours a day reading. At the moment it is about 10 minutes, If I'm lucky.

Dh keeps asking helpful questions about when I'm planning to reread 'Africa: Geography and Development' (A-level text book, 20 years out of date) etc.

OH hell, I should not have read this thread...we are moving from a massive old barn of a house to a caravan and the stuff I have amassed over the years is astonishing.
I feel that my books are like best friends - some of them I have had since childhood and others were there when things were meh. Almost 90% are reference. There are now about 2000 of them and despite fishing out two carrier bags of paperbacks that just 'appeared' I could not just ditch them.
It would feel awful.

Never - I declutter rarely but it leaves me on a high for weeks afterwards. I never regret it (although I never get rid of anything too precious)

books are good for my soul...I am not for getting rid of my soul, nor am I for getting rid of books!!!!

would give up my DH before my books!!!!

DH got rid of loads of books years ago (pre us) and even now still goes on about what he 'got rid of' he's now (not so ) slowly rebuiling his collection,

Bookmooch is great - doesn't necessarily decrease the actual number of books, but you send people books you no longer want, and get books you do want.

Thinking about it, we probably have upwards of 500 books

I blame DH

Muffin - you need to practise shelf control.

This is a strategy where you have (say) 30/40 bookshelves. Once they are full you HAVE to take some books to the charity shop. You can carry on buying to your heart's content but the books are not allowed to spread further.

Easy

And no I have never regretted taking books down to the charity shop - you just know when you are not going to reread a book don't you?

I am of the mind that once my books start to take over, DH will build me a library!!!

my plan will one day have it's reward

DH and I had a book cull a couple of years ago. We took them to a second hand book dealer, he picked the ones he wanted and gave us £20. The remaining ones we dropped off in a charity shop and spent the £20 on a nice lunch with DS before going home. And we haven't missed any of the books yet.

I too had 5000 books until moving here. I had literally three weeks to get rid of most of them, as there was no way they would fit in here. They were all on purpose built shelves lining the second living room at the other house - I do miss them and am hoping to replace them all in the future.
If you don't re read them, then get rid. I kept all the ones that I loved or knew that I would definately re-read at some point.

You need never regret a book now we have t'interweb.

I decluttered thousands a few years ago. Gave them away to charity shops, schools, an amateur theatre, friends...sold a few.

It was like gaining several extra rooms in the house. Made room for a piano, spare bed, desk for dd and generally more light and air.

If I want to read any of them again I can find second-hand or library copies in seconds online.

If I know I want to re-read a book but can't remember what it's called, or who wrote it, I can type in a few details on Mumsnet and someone will be back with the answer in a flash

Go for it!

Or don't get rid of any but stop buying any more - use the libary and borrow from friends - works really well

Now I do sell and give away books, but still possess ooh, three or four thousand. And I re-read books. And I belong to the library. I am a natural speedreader (this is not showing off, I justam and it drives some people insane because I can get through about 300 pages an hour if I am interested).

I have also always hoarded magazines. ANd many, many people have suggested that this is a sign of mental illness and I should throw them away BUT I am now steadily and cheerfully selling the collection on EBay and making a nice little non-declarable untaxed income out of old music papers and silly teen mags from 1986. So (once again) BOLLOCKS to the minimalists.

I love reading and books, but as a Forces child, and now a Forces wife, I've realised that hoarding books isn't an option. I don't really keep any, apart from a few sentimental books from childhood. Like madamez, I can read v.quickly (given half a chance by the DS's), so I dread to think how many I'd have if I'd kept every book I've ever bought.

Luckily I've got a few friends now with excellent collections that I'm slowly working my way through. Between that and charity shops / swapping with my mum, I read loads without having to keep any.

Re decluttering in general, we have lots and lots of other clutter. As we always live in rented houses (Navy), we never have great storage. We moved nearly a year ago, and I've still got 9 large boxes to unpack. Not counting DH's video collection in the loft, which now fills another 9 or so boxes. However, I love decluttering, and never regret it. I just can't find anything else which I can get rid of!