Challenge #11: Spring Cleaning Your Books and Magazines

A special thanks to Sandy for recommending this one!

We are going into our bookcases, our magazine racks, the toy box, beside the toilet (?), beside the couch, in our nightstands, on top of the fridge, and into our video, dvd, and cd collections. We are going BOOK and MAGAZINE HUNTING!

Gosh, when I think about the books I have bought over the years…. Sigh! Some of the books were necessary. I needed them for university. The most expensive book I ever bought was $150.00 for a technical resource manual (and that was over 20 years ago). I have been dusting that book ever since LOL.

I also don't like flying. In my old job, I had to fly frequently to do safety audits and for training at other installations. I had this silly, crazy notion that I would "fly safe" if I bought a new book at the airport before I left. And since this "worked" the first time I flew, I kept on buying books. Now, you have to understand that I "needed" to buy a book for every flight. So when I flew from one plant in Oregon, to another in Manitoba, to another in Alabama and had to change planes six times, I would end up with at least six books (and another six for the trip home). Honestly, it worked every time! No problems with the planes.

Duh! And I don't even like reading in a plane. I never even cracked a cover. What was I thinking? Today, I fly without the books and yes, the trips are still safe LOL.

Nonetheless, you can imagine the stacks of books I had sitting at home from my "travel adventures." They took up too much space and had to go. I have never missed any of them.

So here is the challenge:

1. Start with the magazines. Gather up any magazines that you have read (or you know that you will never read – been there, done that) and get rid of them. Pass them onto a friend, drop them off at a nursing home or doctor's office, donate them to the library, check with a preschool (maybe they want them), or add them to your paper recycle pile. Out they go. It is amazing how much room one year of subscriptions take up. Do you still get magazines in the mail that you don't want anymore? Cancel the subscription(s). I bet your library gets the magazines. It won't cost a dime to sign those out.
   
   
2. Now onto the catalogs. Spring has arrived. That means the winter catalog should be showing up in your mailbox any day now. Seriously though, check through your stacks of magazines. Get rid of the old ones and the expired ones. Out they go. Put them into your paper recycle.
   
   
3. Phone books and old calendars. Again, get rid of the old ones. Are you saving last year's calendar so that you can transfer the birthdays into this year's calendar? May starts on Sunday. Take five minutes and get it done. That pin on your bulletin board can hold only so many calendars at once LOL.
   
   
4. This is a tough one: Books, books, and more books. How are you going to get rid of books you don't want anymore? Simple. One book at a time. It took me years to get rid of old university textbooks (I still have a few of them – but I still use those ones – once in awhile LOL). It took two seasons of garage sales to get rid of my "travel books." The first year, I pulled out all the duds. The second year, I pulled out all the books I knew I would never read again. I think I have about ten of these books left and they are my "backup, bathtub, reading books" for when I have nothing else to read in the tub (that's probably more than you needed to know LOL).
   
   I rarely bought children's books, even though reading is a very important part of our home. This was definitely a blessing. It is much easier to return books to the library, than it is to sort through books in a toy box. Go through your kids' books. Let them choose which books they don't want anymore. If you are still hanging onto the chewed up baby board books (and your kids are well into high school, you can let the baby board books go). By the way, I kept one for the memory box.
   
   
5. VCR movies, DVD's, Cassettes, Records, computer games, Eight- track Cassettes, and CD's: do you have any of these and no equipment to play them on? I admit, it was probably ten years AFTER our record player died and was replaced by a CD player that I finally got rid of my Grease, BTO, ABBA, Barry Manilow (my husband wanted to turn that one into a Frisbee), and my other record albums (they were snapped up at a garage sale). Honestly, I never missed them. (I do have the CD's for them LOL – and the Barry Manilow CD is hidden where my guy will never find it – hee hee). Go through your collection. Did you buy all the Disney kid cartoons for the VCR (and your kids have all grown up and now have DVD players)? Let the movies go. Let another family who still uses a VCR enjoy them. Make room for new music in your life.

Need some ideas on what to do with all these extra books, movies, magazines, and music?

1. Try to garage sale them. Paperbacks are only worth about 50 cents each. Magazine can be bundled up and sold as a lot (for about $1.00).
   
   
2. Bring books to a consignment bookstore.
   
   
3. Donate books to the library. I got rid of all my pregnancy books and early childhood "help the mom" books at the library. Any books that the library doesn't want to add into their catalog can be sold at a friend's of the library book sale. Call up the children's ward at the hospital. They may welcome a box of kid's books (or kid movies).
   
   
4. Donate them to a church, SPCA, children's group, school, or other fundraising sale.
   
   
5. Check out http://www.bookcrossing.com. A fun way to "release" books back into the wild and track where they end up.
   
   
6. Most libraries are not excited to see boxes of Reader's Digest and National Geographic magazines show up in their donation piles. Try nursing homes (especially if you have the large-print Reader's Digest), doctor's offices, the vet, the Laundromat, coffee houses, the hospital, and other waiting areas. You may have to simply add these to your paper recycle pile.)
   
   
7. And this is an idea from Sandy. I love it. Call up your friends and have a "book and magazine" swap party. Just remember to swap two of your books, for one of theirs LOL.

Return to "Spring-Cleaning With Attitude!"