Inspired by Marie Kondo, we have embarked on an epic house-sorting adventure. Successfully did all the kids‘ books yesterday. This is our not finished „adult“ book pile. The couch is actually holding two rows of piles.... After putting it all together, the next step is to go through them one by one and keep the ones that make us happy. Good luck to us!!!
When I finish a book, my husband or my daughters read it, then we give them to friends or charity.... when I was younger i used to let some books on benches with a note : good book for free !
Good luck to you
Good luck! Once you start it gets easier. First I wanted to keep all my books, now I think who would like to read this book too. I still have all the books to go through that are stalled at my parents in the loft (when I moved to UK from The Netherlands).
I thought I had lots of books but you beat me! I do like lots of book cases full of books but agree there can be too many & no good keeping the ones you don’t care for. Very interesting photo!
Congratulations on your mammoth book uncluttering. This 2019 is dh an my year to unclutter. We have started on hard copy files and other papers with books next---and you have inspired us--Thanks
What a great way to start the year! I know that there will be a lot of happy people to get the ones you decide to give away.
A great photo that really tells a story.
You have The Master and Margarita! I was just cataloguing my husband's copy into his Goodreads database. Now, to decide what to do with his tens of thousands of books . . .
BTW, have you see the Netflix original series about KonMari method? Her folding methods are just regular Japanese folding, but her way of looking for things that spark joy and thanking the things you are getting rid of are uniquely hers.
@jyokota I DO have two Master and Margaritas - one from home in Russian and one in English, although I should say so much charm and humor is lost in translation.
And yes - I've watched all of the episodes already. I do like her way of looking at things that do not prescribe anything specific (how many of what to keep etc...). I like that her approach rather places the decision-making on the individual who can then follow his/her own principles on how to shape their environment, as long as it is a conscious choice. This approach just made sense for us as our main problem is the "ballast" stuff we keep dragging along just because we never stopped and took the time to make these decisions: gifts no-one likes, old things that don't fit the life-style anymore, stuff kids outgrew, things that travelled with us from country to country but do not make sense anymore etc... It just so much gets in the way and has frustrated us both. .... Oh... and the fact that she is Japanese helped a lot of course - I am still trying to figure out the best way of getting into learning Japanese (my dream!!!!!!!) The Japanese program at our university does not take auditors, unfortunately, no matter how much I tried.... But just hearing her speaking it in the show is a delight! ...
Kids watched the show too - they are very much decided that we as a family should go on an extended trip to Japan, and they have a list of strong favorites to visit: I am embraced to say that the things topping their list are "The Cat island" (Aoshima), and the Pokemon-Cafe in Tokyo. :)
@cocobella That is a good idea of leaving the books around for the takers! We also leave across from a "little free library" - I am planning on leaving some books in there over time :)
@ulla That's good to hear and I hope to achieve it at the end of our endeavor. I hope we won't run out of steam - so far, everyone is on board. We might be at a low point once we get to toys - there might be two reluctant participants then who would want to keep every little broken piece of everything.
@annied :) I think we had a feeling that if we wait a couple of years, the task will become impossible. Plus, we do have a small house, so that's a cheapest way to get more space to breathe.
@vera365 -- come visit me in Chicago (since I had to cancel our rendezvous in Germany!) and I will talk to you in Japanese and you can talk to me in Russian :)
@vera365 -- and I completely agree with you that it's how she inspires us to do our own thinking and doing in the process -- 'homework' as Mari calls it. I am trying to downsize decades of stuff in a very big house full of storage space as I consider where I might live next -- definitely a smaller place. My husband collected many things that simply appealed to him, not specific collections, but random things of beauty and aesthetic pleasure and books, oh-so-many books. He had a very active Goodreads account, so I opened his computer and added some shelves entitled "Forever Choices" to indicate the tiles he had hauled all over the world but were now old, yellowed, dusty, and affect my allergies. "Contemporary Keepers" are the books he read and kept, but within the last two decades. This way, I have a record of his reading before I share the books with others who might read them now.
Oh! I can't believe I haven't told you yet but thousands of our collection of children's books are going to the National Children's LIbrary in Moscow! They are organizing a "William Teale Collection" of his research/professional books on literacy and literature!
I read Marie Kondo's book a couple of years ago and she inspired the beginning of my decluttering. And folding. I did accomplish some then but it has worn off as time went on. Oddly what has stuck through all that time was folding underwear and socks. My kids recently told me about her TV series and I started watching it to inspire me to get back to it. You have a lot of books! Let us know how it goes.
Good luck to you
A great photo that really tells a story.
And yes - I've watched all of the episodes already. I do like her way of looking at things that do not prescribe anything specific (how many of what to keep etc...). I like that her approach rather places the decision-making on the individual who can then follow his/her own principles on how to shape their environment, as long as it is a conscious choice. This approach just made sense for us as our main problem is the "ballast" stuff we keep dragging along just because we never stopped and took the time to make these decisions: gifts no-one likes, old things that don't fit the life-style anymore, stuff kids outgrew, things that travelled with us from country to country but do not make sense anymore etc... It just so much gets in the way and has frustrated us both. .... Oh... and the fact that she is Japanese helped a lot of course - I am still trying to figure out the best way of getting into learning Japanese (my dream!!!!!!!) The Japanese program at our university does not take auditors, unfortunately, no matter how much I tried.... But just hearing her speaking it in the show is a delight! ...
Kids watched the show too - they are very much decided that we as a family should go on an extended trip to Japan, and they have a list of strong favorites to visit: I am embraced to say that the things topping their list are "The Cat island" (Aoshima), and the Pokemon-Cafe in Tokyo. :)