Emily

Purging and Organizing Books

This category was the one I was most looking forward to because I knew it would be the easiest. Contrary to Kondo’s findings in her reserach and day to day practice, I do not horde books. I have very little emotional attachment to books after I’ve read them, and I honestly don’t buy many books to begin with. I use the library or download an ebook if I have to buy a book. The few hard copies of books I do buy, I usually pass onto friends or my mom, and they do the same, so no book stays in our home for long. B is very similar – he mostly checks books out from the library or reads on his iPad, so we really didn’t have a book problem. What kind of English Lit major am I? For our garage sale last month, I went through our crawl space and pulled out the box of books we moved with us. We hadn’t touched them in two years, so they all went in the garage sale. I found all of my pregnancy and first year of a baby’s life books and boxed them up with some hand-me-downs for a friend. So when it came time to Kondo my books, I had about 10 to my name. I got rid of 7 of them. I have three books. So I moved onto paperwork.

But every time I walked by the kids’ rooms, I had a nagging feeling that I’d cheated. While I hope that my own tidying will spill over into the kids clothes, toys and books, my intention going into this was to simplify MY belongings. It’s hard for me to decide if a toy or book brings my kids joy. And if I have one criticism of Kondo’s book, it’s that it’s not totally applicable to moms. It’s perfect for single or married women with no kids. But I think there are just somet hings you save when you have kids. Does the bouncy seat in my crawl space bring me joy? I have great memories of all three of our kids bouncing in it, but it’s never brought me joy. But, I’m keeping it, because I have friends who are having babies, and when they come to visit, it’s nice to not have to bring a few things – so the booster and bouncer seats, the pack and play and a small box of baby toys will stay. Does the stack of Curious George books in Thomas’s room bring me joy? Goodness, no. I can’t stand that monkey and his irresponsible Man With The Yellow Hat. When is that man going to learn that you can’t leave that damn monkey alone? For the love. But the kids get a kick out of George. So I left their things alone.

But, honestly, their books were out of control. And I knew that by not touching them, I was cheating. So Saturday morning, B and Tom were at the golf course, and Nell, Pete and I were playing in Nell’s room, when I decided to take a look at her book situation. I pulled every book off her shelf and then brought every book from the boys’ rooms into her room, resorted them according to whose room they belong in, and then made a pile of books we never read to donate. And I was surprised by how many I knew the kids had no attachment to without having to ask them. Many of them I’d considered parting with but didn’t out of fear of parting with something someone special had given the kids. But the gift was given, it was appreciated and acknowledged and loved, and now it’s time to move on. We can’t hold onto everything forever. There were plenty of books we just had duplicates of or that never clicked with our family, but we know they’ll click with another family. So, I trashed the trashed books and donated the rest, and now the kids shelves are manageable.

After my donate pile was made, I put the books back on the shelves in rainbow color order. Because I’m a little crazy. That lasted until rest time, but at least the books are more manageable, and I know that the books we have left are ones that the kids truly love. Plus, with birthdays two weeks away, I know those shelves will get filled right back up.


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