Decluttering - but how do I say goodbye to books?

Where I live in Wigan there are some Book Recycle shops. These are marvellous places who rely totally on donations of your books to exist for others. There are hundreds of books for you to look through if you want another in exchange. My grandchildren love going to these book places and you just pay what you think the books are worth. The book donations and the cash you put in the box for those you take away with you are how these places continue to serve the community. Check out where you live see if there are any local to you or, if you want to try it, start such a thing up in your area. I am sure that there are lots of others wanting to join in with you.

We right sized last year, giving away about 60% of our stuff, mainly to friends' children. We now have a house which suits us with modern and some craft made furniture. We also gave away about a similar amount of our books to our local Red Cross charity shop, keeping some best loved books. We both download books but also buy new ones which we share and often then give away to friends. We socialise and go to theatre, cinema and art galleries about 4 nights a week. It's a great life, Long may it continue, I read a super short novella by Linda Grant called I murdered my Library while we were doing the same thing.
Having done all of this you can focus on the future rather than the past, enjoy.

As soon as I've read a book it goes in the charity box. I was attached to books until we moved house 13 years ago. I gave all my books away then, and found I didn't miss them at all. Just think of making someone happy when they buy your books at the charity shop.

I love my kindle , light in weight to read in bed and well lit to read at night and not cause a disturbance... It's kindle fires you cannot read in the sunshine as they are like small tablets, paper whites are great and small enough for the bath....just don't drop it.
My problem is I paint , I have my pics framed at quite a large expense , I put them into exhibitions sometimes I sell often I dont. So stacked against walls , under beds, cupboards full...here , there ,everywhere. And I paint BIG . We are hoping to downsize so the de clutter is on. My paintings really are like my babies I conceived them I gave birth to them.
I did take a heap to an animal charity shop oh what a palaver , they are big I am small . I felt as though I had murdered my babies....help please .

I know I'm drifting off the subject a bit but I have recently discovered an app called Overdrive which is run by the library service. I have become addicted to a particular writer who writes fantasy trilogies. I read the first book and was hooked. I bought the first 2 books then bought one on Amazon Kindle but because that was getting expensive, especially as there are about 10 books in all to read, I tried my local charity shops and library but they didn't have them at all.

Then I tried Overdrive which can access books from the whole of Yorkshire and other libraries and there they were. All the trilogies, FOR FREE. I can read them on my Kindle, tablet or phone, anywhere I happen to be. It's very liberating.

Sorted. You should be able to access most, if not all, of your books through this app if you want to read them again, and if you don't, what's the point in keeping them anyway?

I STILL have regrets about some books I gave away more than 50 years ago while I was in primary school. A gorgeous illustrated Heidi particularly grieves me. :'(
I would follow Anniebach's advice.... pack away some and store them for a few months. Make a note on the calendar, if you find the note with surprise the books can go with no regrets.

I decided some time ago to split books into 2 sorts those I really love and can't part with and the ones I just read and liked but wouldn't miss. So Austen, Atwood, Tyler and Munro will stay with me. The who-dunnits and other things I read on holiday can go. Well that's the theory, so why are my bookshelves still overcrowded? I have parted with many bags of books they just seem to keep multiplying.

I give and buy from various local charity shops and feel it would be an idea to write in a new purchase where one has bought it and then when it is bought again the next person does ditto.its journey would be interesting. Holiday makers take them to a different part to the country/world. I think books earn more in their charity circuit then they ever cost in the fist place .
I have a kindle but much prefer a paper book and think paper is due for a major comeback. Easier to read and you can drop them in the bath.

I can empathise about the emotional attachment we have to books! I had a massive cull recently, retaining only those books that I felt I would read again. I thought about which friends might enjoy the remainder and passed those on with the the instruction that they should pass it on to someone else when they had finished it. Anything else got taken to the charity shop.

Had I known about this excellent scheme at the time I would have incorporated it into my plans to share the love!

We have been clearing out too because of downsizing from a four bedroomed house to a two bedroomed apartment in two weeks' time. (Help!) However I do think books furnish a room and add interest for visitors,so I have kept at least half of them. We will find space for them somewhere and perhaps have another weed out when we buy more - despite possessing a Kindle.

Over the past couple of years I have been trying to bring the book collection under control. I have always found it hard to part with books and I think it was because as a child it was drummed into me that books were precious.
I used to be able to sell some through an online charity but that became unviable with postage costs so I looked for other options. To date I have used the following.
Charity shops - with more than a dozen in the nearby town there are plenty of options
Drop-in centres and residential homes
The League of Friends at a local hospital
The Library for non-fiction and relatively new fiction books
Offered some for sale at a Table Top Sale along with other items
I have also discovered it is possible to sell through various companies online who even pay the postage if sufficient are offered at once.Books need to be in good order.
Other suggestions I have had offered to me have been FB and Freecycle.
Many books simply get passed on to friends and family although they tend to trickle back home afterwards!
Even with all these potential outlets I still find it extremely hard to part with books and am unable to help myself buying yet more when dropping off contributions at charity shops. I justify it by saying they will be read and handed back and thus help the charity twice over.

Ive got a kindle which I rarely use, I love my books but since being off work for a few months I have been given loads, so Im keeping the ones I already have which I reread again and again. Now any I am given I keep on my bedside table and once read they are given away without thought.

My downfall is the local charity shop which sells fat paperbacks at 1.50 for 4 so if I take any in I return with at least 4 more (if not 8) depending how much change I have in my pocket.
Also as someone else has mentioned that Christmas is just around the corner and all the lovely books will be published soon, I cant wait.

I have 4 bookcases and they are full to the brim but they are like friends, I guess that unless I have to downsize then they will be with me forever.

Wherever I am when I finish a book I leave it there for someone else to enjoy. It's surprising how many times I have seen someone pick one up and start to read. Makes me feel goog too

If you haven't used it in the last year get rid of it. My loft is now completely empty.

We were ruthless, though reluctantly so, though we still have boxes in storage. I have a friend who buys books from charity shops then takes them back to be re-sold. A plan for the future but it doesn't help with the present cull. For many practical reasons I now read on my Kindle. I am equally happy to curl up in bed with it as with a book, in fact more so if it's a long story which in book form would be heavy. There are some disadvantages I admit but it is a practical solution for someone who has gone through the downsizing process and is determined never to have to do it again. Shudder!

If you haven't used it in the last year get rid of it! My loft is now completely empty. Great feeling.

I keep trying. But I can't. I just can't get rid of my books Many of them are such old friends. And quite a lot of new ones. I have just bought the entire Poldark series!!

I'll leave it to my children to sort out.

Our local library will take hard back and paperback books in good condition - I've donated quite a few this year. We gave loads to charity shops when we moved. Does anyone have a set if encyclopaedias cluttering up their bookshelves these days? We do, although no-one has looked anything up in them for an age! They do look good in the bookcase though, which is the only reason we give them house room! Goodness knows who would want them if we ever wanted to give them away, they seem so dated now.

Dammit, what's so wrong with clutter? I embrace my clutter, wrap myself in it... anyway I've got a couple of Kindles, so it isn't getting any worse!

We use the library and each have a Kindle. Yes, we sometimes acquire "proper" books, and keep a limited amount in the house, especially non-fiction "useful" ones, (and children's books!) but if we're never going to read a book again, then it's given away to a charity shop. Can't face the clutter, otherwise!

I never thought I would get rid of my books. I had them packed in crates ready for our move then - just left them! Walked away from them. They would have swamped the new flat and I'd never have read them again. I haven't missed them or ever regretted it. I love my Kindle. Its got a red cover that opens like a book and is only ever for novels. I also love it because its got 200+ books on it already. That would have taken up so much space in hard copy!

BTW the only thing that makes decluttering easier for us, is to give away what we don't need to those who do. It takes a lot longer and much more effort than getting a skip and chucking it all in (I just couldn't) but it it a lot more 'rewarding' (and if you chuck it from a very high horse, it breaks anyhow ;) )

A nearby village has a free book exchange housed in its renovated red phone box.

Hôtels also love them for guests.

I have a Little Library outside my house.You can build one yourself or look up Little Free Library Project UK
This movement started in the States and is growing worldwide. Books are put outside in a weatherproof library decorated brightly. Neighbours + passers by borrow books and donate some too. It is such a neighbourly thing. Everyone loves it. You feel that your books are being appreciated all over again and it gets people talking.