After the huge challenge of last week’s project, develop a family purpose statement, I was relieved to read this week’s challenge – downsize my book and magazine collection.
How on earth can I possibly be relieved to have downsizing books and magazines on my agenda? I adore books and reading. I don’t have the same passion for magazines, but still. Get rid of reading material?
Yes, get rid of it if I’m not going to read it again. Get rid of it if I’m conceding that I never am going to read the book, despite it being a gift (actually, probably because it was a gift – I’d have never picked that out for myself, and my reading time is too limited now to spend it on something that doesn’t really appeal.)
The real reason this week’s project made me smile is because … I just did it earlier this year! Because we were moving this summer, as I packed up the house I worked hard to get rid of anything I didn’t want to move. And just thinking about hefting books around made it much easier to add items to the donate pile.
I still have enough books that most people wouldn’t guess I’d recently culled the collection, but they are all ones that I will reread, reference, or still plan to read in the (nearish) future. I don’t usually keep magazines except for a couple of cooking or baking magazines, and tend to demolish them as I tear out the recipes I want to try and then recycle what remains of the magazine.
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