I used to think I was emotionally attached to my books but I was able to get rid of 200 in the past two years. I realised I was only keeping them to ‘convince’ people that I was smart enough to read them. I can still start a conversation about books without needing to have them and my school library works just as well

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

I've definitely been there too. I felt a bit weird making this video, since I still have quite a few of those "look at how smart I am" books from college. As I mentioned though, I use them as functional decoration at this point, and they'd be gone in an instant if I didn't have the built-ins. Anyone who looks closely at my shelves will see Medieval Warfare right next to the Rivers of London series, so I think the veil of sophistication is gone.

@matthijsdeligt809

4 жыл бұрын

Cheers for this, I been tryin to find out about "help decluttering my home" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Ever heard of - Vanonnor Tenhloe Equalizer - (just google it ) ? Ive heard some awesome things about it and my neighbour got great success with it.

I read about 100 books per year, mostly thanks to ebooks and audiobooks on Overdrive. I have a small shelf in my closet of my favorites-the ones I have to reread every one to two years. I keep them in my closet on a high shelf so I don’t compulsively read the titles over and over-having titles in my face makes me crazy, even if they’re favorites. I’ve decluttered over 500 books because most of them lent to my fantasy self: “Surely I am the type of person to assimilate this type of material.” Once I realized how little I actually was likely to read that stuff, I got rid of it. It’s like I crossed 500 things off my to do list!

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Yessss! In the book The New Japanese Minimalism, the author describes maintaining our physical possessions as a sort of "invisible to-do list." Unread books definitely are nagging "to-do" items for me. So good to get rid of the ones we are never going to read and cross them off!

It's a great idea to read ebooks and then only buy the physical book if you really love it and know you will read it again! I'm trying to do this now after getting rid of several physical hundred books from my collection :) I am an avid reader and a writer myself so I like to keep my favourites to make my home feel like home, but I don't need excess books that I don't truly love.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

I think that's a really great idea! I too like my home to look lived in, so having some books around definitely helps to make it look personal and warm. Good luck with your pare down!

@chloecharlton3837

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you! You always give excellent tips :)

This video put me in the right mindset. Thank you. When you have to stack books in awkward places, it's time to organize or minimize. Documenting the books I've read but don't plan on rereading has been the most helpful part of the process. My only issue I sometimes have is coming across books I've written in.

I love all of these tips! However since books hold a great deal of emotional and sentimental value I find it really really difficult to part with them even though, logically, I understand everything you talk about. Giving away a book I read and liked would feel like giving away a friend. I thinks books and plants are the only two areas in my home in which I will never be able to be a minimalist. My ultimate goal for my home is to look like a library in a jungle :D I recently did manage to get rid of 20 or so books which is huge for me. My shelves are still overflowing. I still have to read around 50 books I already own. But seeing how many are unread does help to shop less.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

If "library in a jungle" is what you're going for, you may not need to part with many books. As long as that is in keeping with the goal you've set for yourself, you're golden. If, however, you do need to trim down those overflowing shelves to reach your goals, it may become easier with time. I've pared down my home in waves, so things I was unwilling to part with in a previous wave become easier to part with when the next wave comes around, and perhaps you will experience the same thing with time.

@marialooksaround

6 жыл бұрын

That is such an interesting observation! I think it does make sense that with time it's easier to let go when we already parted with so much. I guess that's why people always start with clothes - they hold less value and are a perfect training subject

I have a bit of a book buying (or shall I say hoarding?) problem, so this was very useful. Thanks for sharing!

An activity that I did that put my reading habit in perspective was to go to the library and check out every single book that appealed to me. 32 in total. They were super heavy it was stressful to keep track of them all, and by the end of the 6 week loan period, I’d read 4 and was overwhelmed/ bored with the rest. I knew it was a bad idea to check out so many books in the first place but now I apply that lesson to books I buy and own as well. If I only read 50-60 books a year, why would I own 200 books especially because I like getting new books from the library

Even after my first round of Konmari-ing my room I still had a lot of trouble letting go of books, and only managed to sort out a few that I once picked up just because they were cheap and on special offer. Watching your video now it actually gave me a better understanding of why I still couldn't really let go of so many other books, and I will definitely take your words to heart and remind myself of them when I do the next round of decluttering! :) I really like GoodReads as well, it is a great way to keep track of what you might want to read in the future without buying it instantly just so you won't forget about it! I really enjoy your content (and sense of humor), and I love the style of your videos! I'm already looking forward to the next one!

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I really hope the tips work for you next time. I arrived at this list of tips with the help of my friend who is a bona fide book person, so they are book person approved. ;)

This was really helpful information. Thank you very much! I'll put these tips into my decluttering project.

I was looking for these kinds of tips. Thank you :D

I really appreciate the advice in this video. It's been a good two or three years of me trying to manage my book collection. I ended up getting rid of a ton of books (probably an entire bookcase of ones I'd been gifted, or would never read/read again) and now it's down to a few bookcases of some that I know I love and will go back to...and others that I have been holding onto just because. Your tip that books aren't a scarce resource is something I need to hear. I used to use the library so often, and I think I began purchasing books as a feel-good action that has now lost its novelty. Breathing room is something that my shelves need, and darn it, I'm going to give it to them! :-)

Books are something I can never get rid of. They are something, that since I was a child, I knew were things I wished to collect into a fountain of knowledge that my children and their children could have access to. It is my manifestation of a legacy. Not money or some business or some useless item, but a collect of things containing knowledge that could drive them into their own futures and help them develop who they as people as it did for me. I am minimizing so many other aspects of my life, but books and all the knowledge they hold I do not minimizing. I create space for them as needed and do not get more than I can care for, but I do slowly build my collection for the future.

Omg just what I needed thank you so much!

Feed that hangry kitten, lol! Great tips on decluttering books, thanks!

Good fresh ideas, cute cat, thumbs up.

Nice jacket it does make you look like so nice :) thanks for the helpful vids

@VestedInterests

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I have a trip planned in the fall, and, because I'm a nut, I've already started picking out what I want to bring. I will probably wear that jacket every day of the trip--I can't wait!

@absloutelyRasha

5 жыл бұрын

Sounds fun! Enjoy

Solid video! I definitely think there's an element of denial in most people's "need" to buy a huge stack of books every time they're in a bookstore. (I used to be this person lol.) I've sold the bulk of my books I've collected over time and the free space I now have is so satisfying. Now all my reading is done through libraries, including the occasional ebook. Now I basically just need space for the books I've checked out, and even if I end up with a big backlog I know I'll be returning them within a month anyway. It was totally worth the change.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

I bet it feel really nice when you return them and get that space back too. Nice job!

Great advice!! The idea of asking for ebooks from your library is a good one - I'm an academic librarian and the same is true for academic libraries as well as public ones. And I'm in a humanities discipline that's very old school and I got rid of most of my paper books and now read for fun only on an ebook. It's simply faster and less space-consuming at home.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

You bringing up academic libraries reminds me: I should have mentioned that, for people currently in school, a lot of universities require that course books be available in their libraries so students don't technically have to buy them. Rah. Maybe I can mention it if I ever make another video like this. Good for you, getting rid of so many books! I too have a humanities background, so I know how difficult that can be!

Great video! And I agree about finding new homes for books that you may only re-read 'someday' due to that book probably being accessible in a library or used book shop. Although, unfortunately, we had a traumatic bed bug event due to old books with loose spines from the library that brought the bugs into our home three years ago. We hadn't traveled in over a year and didn't bring anything used into our house and the only things 'used' and newly introduced were the library books. Now we no longer feel comfortable borrowing books from the library nor buying a used book - which is sad because we both love to read! So some of our older books we've held on to knowing that it's basically irreplaceable for us. Thanks so much!

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Oh my goodness, that's horrifying! You'll be safe from bed bugs with digital books, though I have seen the occasional digital "bug"/misprint in those as well...

Oh my! You’re wearing a BROWN blazer in this video. 😮 Anyway, great video as always. Gave me the inspiration to let go of those few I knew I would not read but held on to anyways. I also took the ‘give everything a home’-philosophy to the next level by deciding on a specific ‘home’ for each of my books, forcing me to think twice when acquiring new books. Thanks a lot! Keep up the great videos. Love seeing your journey through life.

@VestedInterests

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Oh man, I cannot wait to be able to wear that jacket again. It works really well with black. Re: books that haven't been read: To me, they're the worst because they not only take up space but they're a physical reminder of something I haven't done. Imagine if every item on our to-do lists were the size of a book, just laying scattered around our homes. That's what unread books are to me.

@catherinemooreland

5 жыл бұрын

Indeed, the jacket suits you very well! I can imagine you get lots of joy out of wearing it. Thanks for the insight on the unread books, it sparked an aha-moment and now makes me reconsider the books on my to-be-read shelf. I might be an avid reader, but I’m also someone who ruthlessly eliminates anything that isn’t crucially important or truly satisfying. I think I’m going to start applying that philosophy to my books too. :)

I love the look of books and also keep them to some extent as decoration. I will try some of these tips as I’m curious to know how it would feel to have the space rather than the books.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Good luck! I'm a lot happier now that my shelves aren't so crowded, so maybe you'll like it too.

Great job !

hoopla is the same type as overdrive so you try hoopla as well just type in your library card as well

This is very timely, as our local annual book fair is in April and it is once again time to declutter my books. I got rid of six boxes of books about four years ago and now it is time to donate some more now that I have discovered minimalism. My big issue is unread books. I buy a lot of books in the areas of alternative health/spirituality and keep buying new books before I'm done with the ones I already have, which leads to a lot of unread books! I'm going to have to get tough on this go-round and be realistic about whether I'm ever going to read that book and if not, out it goes! Then, no swinging by the bookshelf when I go to the local health food store, which was a cause of a lot of my temptation! :-)

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

If it helps, it sounds like you have no problem finding books that pique your interest, and you know where to find them, so that might make getting rid of some easier. You can also try saving interesting titles to GoodReads instead of buying them right away, and then revisit your list when you're ready for a new one. Good luck with the book fair!

Overdrive is the best! I get all my books as ebooks/audiobooks from the library. There are some other apps like Libby as well.

Thanks again for another great video. Your hair looks divine! New hair product you can share with all of us curly heads? Thanks, and have a great week!

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Velvet Hammer by Drybar. Thank me later.

I like to try and find ebook versions of my physical books. I work at a library, so I usually donate there where I know others can enjoy them. A lot of my books have been cycling through the checkout process.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Good idea! I didn't know you could donate books to a library. It must be nice to regularly see other people making use of your old books!

@Seiferboi

6 жыл бұрын

It is. I've donated a lot of mine, but I also grab the withdrawn picture books. Like the kinds with medieval architecture and stuff. I use them as inspiration for some of my stories.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

I would be so weak for medieval architecture picture books...

Number 4 is a really good point for me... I already downsized a lot in the past but I still have too many unread books and not all of them am I really that excited about to read but it feels like a chore... I even thought about reading some of them as quickly as possible just so I can finally declutter them :D But why would I if it's not even something I really want to do? It's just some form of FOMO that makes me think that I cannot give them away before having read them.

it is hard for me to declutter my books ... they are like my little babies . im minimalist in every aspect of my life ( clothes bags shoes ect) but when it comes to my books i feel like i have to save them not only for myself but for my familly and my friends .

Audible books have been a life changer for me.

@VestedInterests

5 жыл бұрын

I've tried them, but I've never really gotten into them. I think I like the control of being able to go back and re-read something if I zone out or need another take. I do like podcasts though. I'm probably the last person to start listening to them (about two months ago), but I've been enjoying them so far. Perhaps they are the gateway to audiobooks...

@HustlerHarwood

5 жыл бұрын

I used to travel a ton. Imagine 3 hours in the car one way or flying at least 3 times a week. I can only listen to music for so long. Now I listen to comedians reading their books. It’s close to podcasts so maybe start there?

Do you have advice on decluttering series? Like for example Harry Potter.

I only buy books that I have read and love them. When I want to read a new book, I usually borrow from a library and if I really love it I will buy it. That way I don't spend my money in books that I havent read and probably don't like them. Also I love to reread my books or just read a little part and bring back memories from the book 📖

As a book lover, the struggle is real. E books are an amazing solution for those books that you don't yet know if you would like to re read or have on your shelf, you can always buy a copy later and keep it. Great video, very helpful. Thank you 😀

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Ooo, I hadn't thought of reading the e-book first and investing in the physical book later if you really like it. That's a nice idea!

In addition to Overdrivve, I like Libby and Hoopla. Hoopla offers movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and ebooks.

One more advantage with e-books, especially if you are an avid book reader; you can always carry an entire liberary around in your pocket! :-)

Did you declutter Neil Gaiman (on the shelf beside you) or keep him? His ‘View from the cheap seats’ helped me immensely to get back in touch with my reading self and getting rid of snobbish aspirations. Reading what I want (I started with the entire LOTR 😃 and went on with old SF) was a mental decluttering that helped the physical decluttering. I also did the % open space rule. But my work related books are growing and I don’t have an office space for them 🙁. Also: not all books are easy to find again, especially older ones. The same goes for DVD’s. My favorites are scattered over different services which can become expensive and I don’t want to be at Netflix’s etc mercy for them. Did a 80% declutter, though.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Sure, older books, especially books that blend into "collectable" territory can be difficult to replace. I don't want to make sweeping generalizations, but even some older books can be found on Google Books, if you don't mind now having a physical copy. For DVDs, you can always rip the physical DVD to your computer and stream it to a larger TV using Plex. That's what I did with a few of my DVDs.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Oh, and I kept a few of my Neil Gaiman novels. Not because they met any of the criteria I mentioned, but because, as I said, I use most of my books as functional decoration now. I haven't read View from the Cheap Seats. Neverwhere is probably my favorite books of his that I've read.

I love books, but have realised that I don't need to own my favourite books. I borrow everything I want to read from the library, including favourite books that I re-read regularly. I have even given my Harry Potter books away! I know I will read them many more times, but I'm happy to borrow them rather than own them.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Bravo! I still have my HP books, and actually a relative ton of books, because of the built in cases that I'm pretty sure I mention in this video. I usually read my husband's hand-me-downs, as he reads a lot more than I do, but I would like to get back into checking out books from the library. As I am not a super avid reader, borrowing from the library gives me an added incentive to read faster/more consistently so I can finish a book before I have to turn it back in.

your hair

Great video with some awesome tips; however, not everything is on the internet. It seems to me that a lot of internet content is all the latest and greatest and so gummed up with advertising it makes finding information difficult, so some references books are handy.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

You know your own circumstances better than me, so if you have reference books that you regularly use, certainly keep them!

Preface this with I am a physical book kind of girl. I love the feel and smell and sensuality of paper. I doubt I'd ever be happy with an e-reader. I started a list this year of all the books I read. I want to see if I read as much as I believe I do and also how many books I reread versus how many I am reading for the first time. I admit I regret getting rid of probably 80% of the books I've ever had to cull, whether it was due to downsizing or moving. I love books, probably more than many of my other possessions. Since my intent is to stay in the home I'm in for the next 40 odd years, while I am conscious I cannot possibly acquire or afford every book I want, I am also not too concerned--at least at this point--about outgrowing the space I plan to store those books.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

If you've got the space and they don't bother you, keep what you love! I'm a little surprised though, from what you've told me before, that you have so much room for a lot of books, but maybe your house is larger or your current book collection is smaller than I'm imagining. I'm 100% there with you on the smell of books. When I was a little girl, there was a house whose backyard fence had a gate connecting it to the library that my mom and I used to go to. I dreamt of buying that house so I could be close to it. I will, however, give e-books credit for their discretion. I can read anything anywhere and no one can judge me by the cover of the book I'm reading!

@carolann811

6 жыл бұрын

It's hard to convey things adequately in KZread comments sometimes. You have the advantage; you can show pictures. I'm stuck with verbal descriptions and occasionally things get lost in translation. :) I don't know the square footage of the house, but I can say it's oddly proportioned. Tiny bedrooms, tinier closets, strange tiny rooms off bigger open-plan spaces. A downstairs bathroom that's bigger than my bedroom (which I recently had gutted--the bathroom, that is. I designed a walk-in shower that's 4 x 8 feet. Heaven. Plus there's still the rest of the bathroom.) The house was built by a man with a odd sense of proportion. It's under-utilized in some areas as well. There's a useless half-story loft that held most of the moved and now donated boxes. The stairs to that loft--which are massive--are being removed and a TV/bookcase/storage area will be built there.

@carolann811

6 жыл бұрын

I still feel it's important to curate the items I decide to keep, even if I'm not technically decluttering them. Left to my own devices, I know I want to keep books just because they're books. :) (Especially old library disards. For some reason I love looking at the stamps and Dewey decimal numbers on those books.) So in the many boxes I took out of the house were outdated reference books from past writing projects along with books I have read that I know I'll never read again. Part of the reading list I started was to help identify new books I'm reading that I know I'll want to read again. I went back through a few shelves today with your advice in mind and culled a sizeable stack for donation. Even larger collections benefit from routine assessment. :)

Books have been such a huge crutch for me since childhood. I've always had stacks and shelves filled to their limits with books of every genre. We were flooded a few years back and that in itself "cleansed" an embarrassing amount of books from my collection, and I'll be honest...I think I may have missed maybe *one* of those since then. It was a rather eye opening experience, for sure. After a lot of thought and purging, I'm down to two shelving units and a stack of 'to reads' on my nightstand (we won't mention the three e reader devices). One unit is in my office and filled with all of the art/architecture/photography books from college...and those...those are my nemesis. They mock me daily. I can feel the side eye and disapproval radiating from that corner whenever I enter the room. The investment alone makes me cringe at the thought of parting with them. Not to mention they are just plain beautiful. But, I haven't opened most of them since the initial reading. So, I'm hoping these tips will help me deal with that portion of the collection...thank you!

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

Wow, thank you for sharing your story! That is really insightful: re: the flood and not missing the lost books. On another note, if you love the books, keep the books. If the books are mocking you because you never use them, but they were costly, I've mentioned this before but there's a name for this: sunk cost fallacy. I'm actually planning a whole video series about decluttering challenges, this being one of them. You've already spent the money. You can't get it back, unless you try to sell it, of course, so holding on to the item is really futile, and, in your situation, a source of stress in itself. More on this when I iron out my plan and start making the videos, but I wish you all the best of luck in the meantime!

@ThePocus6

6 жыл бұрын

Perfect! Thank you! And I will be completely honest with you regarding the flood: it created this really weird and vicious replacing/purging cycle, one that I'm beyond ready to end. You go through this tremendous loss, you FEEL the unwitting loss of "stuff". It wasn't your choice. You live without the "stuff" for a while, you sort of regret not having said stuff, and then you start to replace it all. We were way more fortunate than others, and I know this. But I still felt it. Six years of this cycle of replacing things that I thought I missed or needed, just to get rid of it at a later date. And to be perfectly real with you, of all the things we lost...the one thing I miss the most?? An immersion blender. And it's the one thing that I haven't replaced as of yet. Completely bizarre. I am so ready for this to be over, so this is the year that I only replace what we consume and slowly and surely weed out the rest. Wish me luck!

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

I'm fortunate to have not lived through something like this myself, but I can try to imagine. Our possessions can feel like a safety net, so, even if they are things we don't truly need, having them ripped away can make us feel really insecure/unsafe. Overcompensating with more things seems like a really easy and almost natural reaction to that, but I'm glad you're moving past it. Best of luck on your journey!

Ebooks, for those of us with aging eyes, are easier to read since we can increase the font size that best suits us.

@VestedInterests

6 жыл бұрын

That's a really good point!

Omg I can’t even do number one. My kitten eats them so I have them on a tall shelf the only place she fails to reach. But I find that I won’t read them because of where they are. I need a ladder to reach them.

🖐🏼🙃

I can't get rid of my college books. I regret getting rid of all of my notes and I wish that I had them back. My college science textbooks (10 of them) will just have to stay along with my photos. They bring me joy even though I don't refer to them, Oh well. :)

not hard for me, cause I just read the book one`s

you look and sound like a successful businesswoman

It sounds as if the more productive downsizing would have been to get rid of the bookshelves since they only encourage the collection of unnecessary ‘lifestyle props’ rather than actually useful books.

I don't understand how someone can keep books for decorative purposes only. I find that wasteful.

@VestedInterests

5 жыл бұрын

Books are not a scarce resource. People keep much sillier things as decoration, and they're not purely decorative.

70 books to read in not considered a pile of books to read.... right?! 🤣

Say goodbye to reference books?! That is undoable for me.

@VestedInterests

5 жыл бұрын

You do you; these are not one-size-fits-all tips!

@Phjghh

5 жыл бұрын

@@VestedInterests ?

@VestedInterests

5 жыл бұрын

I'm saying you should keep them if they really mean that much to you. These are just my personal guidelines, but you can adapt them however you see fit!