How to Declutter Books and Make Sure You Don’t Hoard

Welcome to the Topic “How to Declutter Books and Make Sure You Don’t Hoard”

One of the joys that is thankfully still preserved in human art and passion to this day is that books are loved and collected. Even though changing times and mediums, books have persevered. They are one of the deepest and most accessible ways of experiencing literary talent.

If you’re an avid reader, then chances are your book stash isn’t doing too well these days. Because absorbing the stories and information that books offer is fun. But we’re not very intentional with putting them back right. 

This is why you most probably have a clutter of books to sort through. It also why we’re providing the exact guide, you need on how to declutter your books and make your life a little more manageable.

Firstly, Here’s How to Tell your Books are Alarmingly Cluttered

Not having distributed your books according to sensible categories doesn’t make a clutter. Sure, having your books organized according to genre or appeal sounds ideal. But if you haven’t done that, it does not necessarily mean your books are cluttered. 

Cluttered books mean when your literary collection is so messy it’s almost impossible to find a particular book.

Your books could very well be stashed in different places, and you might have absolutely no idea in which corner of the house they could turn up in. This is an alarming situation that requires immediate decluttering action. 

Before you get on to the actualities of decluttering, make a mind map and gather all the books you’ve put in different places in your house. After that, here are the rules you need to religiously follow for an efficient declutter. You can also read Best Eco-Friendly Gifts for Christmas this blog for information.

Prioritize Reasonably

The truth about book-reading and collecting is that sometimes we’re guilty of hoarding. Often, we become attached to some books. Despite knowing we won’t be opening their pages any time soon. 

At other times, we just have a very hard time parting with any book we’ve ever owned in general. This is the main cause why book clutters occur in the first place.

Be brave and go through your book stash to honestly discern which books you cannot do without. Also which could benefit from a new home and a new set of eyes to go through them. 

So, the first principle of efficient decluttering is learning to let go of that which no longer serves you. This is also a pretty great philosophy to apply generally to your life too.

Think of other Mediums

Since we’re now living in very modern and technologically-charged times, hardcopies and paper are not the only ways to read books. If you truly want to declutter, then a sensible move would be to read a lot of books in their soft version. 

This way, you can even hoard them on your reading device. Minus the guilt factor and build your collection without your space looking like an absolute mess.

Having a digital library is an excellent way to make sure that your book collection is compressed but not lost. You can still have all of your comfort books at hand while also making sure that the hard copies make it to deserving people. 

The best way to declutter books without having to trim your collection is to transfer as many books as you can to their online versions.

Set a Limit

Of course, collecting all the books you possibly can, and the thought of owning an almost unlimited amount of literary pieces brings you a lot of satisfaction. But be it soft or hard copies, infinite storage is simply not a possibility. 

That is why an important part of efficiently decluttering books and then beginning to organize them is to set a number that you won’t exceed.

Go through the books you have and gauge your reading habits, as well as how often you turn to reread some books that you finished more than a few times. In light of all of this, set a reasonable number and then curate your book collection accordingly. 

Without a particular figure, you’ll only keep going back and forth and never actually manage to declutter your books at all. It’s also important to remain mindful that the number of books you want to keep should be relative to your collection of them in the first place.

Stop Bringing More Books In

This might be hard to read and swallow. More if you’re incredibly fond of reading. But there’s no way you can declutter your books if you just keep ordering and buying new ones every couple of days. 

Eventually, all of your decluttering efforts will go to waste because piles upon piles will keep accumulating. 

This is not to say that you have to boycott buying new books forever. Instead, this is just a temporary break you need before you actually complete your decluttering endeavours.

Simply doing a subpar cluttering isn’t enough. Then adding more books in the midst will only complicate matters and discourage you from putting in an effort. 

If there are some new books you simply cannot do without reading, then add them to your online library and take a break from hard copies until you haven’t fully accomplished your book decluttering exactly as you pictured it.

Here’s the Takeaway

Giving things away isn’t easy, especially if it’s things as personal as books. The thought of parting with something we own, even if it isn’t exactly something we particularly love, is still hard. This is why decluttering books is going to require that you take a nice and objective approach. 

Gathering books isn’t the most sustainable thing to do either, so as you go through and apply all the above-mentioned steps, think of all the good you’re doing from an environmental perspective too. 

Besides, once you see how well your personal space clears up with simply some efficient decluttering, you’ll make it a point to keep sorting and filing through your books, so the same circumstance doesn’t repeat itself.

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