Hello, my name is Jen and I’m a book hoarder.
Instead of downsizing, I bought a bigger bookshelf from IKEA.
This was a big project for me. The bookshelf pieces have been sitting in boxes on my floor since mid-March. Finally, after our trip to Austin, TX and the Easter Holiday, I was feeling inspired and motivated enough to tackle it. The first step was to build the new shelving unit. Then I took all the books off the old shelves. Next I re-homed the black shelves to organize my closet and my husband’s office. Then we painted the wall. Finally, I sorted and purged books and re-shelved the ones that I couldn’t part with.
I took a few days to get all the books back on the shelves because I made my simplified Dewey Decimal system a little bit more complicated.
I ended up gathering up 2 small/medium boxes of books to send to my almost 3-year-old “nephew”, 2 paper grocery bags and one medium box of books to trade for store credit at a new local bookstore, several books to sell on Thriftbooks (for about $15 in store credit), and a couple nice sets to make into raffle baskets for a charity Christmas fundraiser. I was very pleased with the amount of books that I was able to let go of and pass along.
heavens to betty 