Goal Week 1: Books

The most annoying thing to move last year to the new apartment was my sofa, which got stuck within the angled doorway to my living room blocking both the doorway and the hallway and the stairwell. (Getting it through, was like giving birth to upholstery.) The second most annoying were the books. So this week's goal was to go through all of my books, and significantly pare them down.

Holy crap, look at that mess!

I love books and while my bibliophilia is nowhere near some cases I have seen, I do have quite a few.  I am a pretty avid reader and having the books you read around is a like looking at cherished memories of stories you've enjoyed, or classes you have learned from. Working for the publishing industry, it is also incredibly easy for me obtain books and add to the collection, rather than borrow from the library or a friend.

The cats tried to help too. By playing and chewing on the boxes. 

The rule I guided myself by, was I had to be able to fit the books within my bookcase. If it did not fit within the bookcase something had to go. Some of them were easy. Susan Sontag's On Photography? Kandinsky's Art and Spirituality? They were things I bought in college and really only kept because they made me look smart, cultured and educated. Honestly though, who is going to be looking through the bookshelf in my bedroom to judge my biblio-sophistication? Others were hard. Teenage paperbacks, I read a dozen times when I was fourteen, but never once since. Little by little though I got myself through it.

A total of 151 books will to be donated or sold.

In the end I came up with 151 books that will be exiting my apartment. Most of the books will be on their way to Good Will this weekend. A handful of them that are worth some money used, will be put on EBay or Amazon sellers. If they don’t sell within a month however, they will go to charity as well. 

Much better. 

Goal Week 1, mission complete!

Goal for Week 2: cleaning out and organizing my closet, dresser and drawers.