Book Dehoarding

So I spoke about this briefly the other day, but thought it deserved it's own post. Book dehoarding that is. If you've ever been to my house you can see by some accounts that I'm on the edge of being a book hoarding. Others of you would say my diagnosis is classifiable. We will have been married for nine years this year. It's a good milestone to think about whether or not I've actually picked these books up apart from packing them up and moving them. If I haven't read it in a decade (because I certainly did read it the year I was engaged before that), then I think I can safely let it go.

So nearly daily I've been posting more and more books online. I have now sold and shipped five books to new homes and have posted an additional 62 books!!! This is a huge feat. Let me give you an idea of how bad it is. That biology textbook from freshman year of college? Wasn't that in 1999...? Ahem. Yes, and yes I still have it and have moved it at least six times to three different states. There's my Nancy Drew Collection volumes 1-19... from when I was like eight... All in mint condition apart from the dust they're collecting. I had envisioned passing them along to my daughter, but then I had a son.

Why do I keep all of these books? Well, obviously they were interesting and I might want to read them again, and then what would I do?! This is hoarding mentality at it's best! But, ten months in my Voluntary Simplicity Vow has taught me that if I will need it again, then I can always find it again. In the meantime, "If you have things you're not using then you have someone else's stuff."