On having too much stuff; and history in the street

[rolanni]

. . .actually, that's history at the boat landing.

Yesterday afternoon, for reasons too convoluted to go into here in full, save they included an exploration of the town of Gardiner, and the local grocery facilities, as well as a lightning tour of downtown, where I am pleased to report the Blue Sky Bakery bakes on.  Years ago, I thought they'd last five minutes.  Shows what I know.

From Gardiner, it being a gorgeous day, we drove down to Bowdoin, and came to rest, as one does, at the public boat launch.  There we found large placards on easels, and large swaths of grass and parking lot marked out in orange paint.

We got out to inspect one of the placards and found it be a history of a large sailing vessel, the name of which escapes me now, which was built at Bowdoin in the 1800s, when Bowdoin had been a notable ship-building town.  About that time, a gentlemen came up to us and introduced himself as being from the Bowdoin History House, and explained that the display was to illustrate Bowdoin's history in the shipbuilding industry; the orange lines were there to demonstrate the size of each of the ships described on the placards.  So, we spent a pleasant half-hour with the gentleman, learning about the ships, and how the need for ships knees had just about deforested Bowdoin and the surrounding countryside by the end of the 1800s. . .and how, yes, Maine has always survived by selling pieces of itself until there are no more pieces to sell -- forests grow back eventually, and the ice industry was perfectly sustainable, but they ain't growing any more granite on those islands we took down to the tideline. . .

Anyhow, a pleasant afternoon, and I'm glad we played hookey, even though that means doing some Serious Catch Up today.

On another topic:   It transpires that we have Too Much Stuff.  This isn't actually a surprise; writers as a breed tend to accumulate books and papers at a rate that regular people find. . .rather horrifying.  But we also have things.  Things that people gave us; things we brought for ourselves because Reasons; stones and shells and pinecones, because I'm One of Those People who pick up rocks and pinecones and seashells and then become attached to them, and. . .long story short, we're going to have to reduce the things.

Back in the Dark Ages, before I met Steve, I moved every year.  Every. Year.  And it transpires that may have been a Coping Mechanism, because you really don't tend to accumulate much when you know you're going to have to box it all up and shift it in 12 months.  Living 23 years in one place gives one the illusion of permanence and we take on more than we need.

So, how-to questions:

I know some of my friends have had to weed their books -- and of you I ask:  How did you go about it?  Had you a system?  I also know that some of my friends have had to cull their Stuff, in some cases very quickly.  I'd be interested in hearing how you decided what to keep and what to let go.

And now, I'm off to play Catch-Up.

Catch y'all later.

Comments

Book weeding

[barb-in-md.livejournal.com]

Number one thing--book weeding isn't easy. Isn't easy at all.
However, I first culled out books that I had bought because I felt I 'should' read them and 15 years later, they remained unread. I sighed about the lost money, found a good used bookstore that gave me more than garage sale money for them and vowed to curb my buying habits.
Next to go were books that I had read once but knew I would never read again.
I still have a way to go, but I make a point of sending some books off to Goodwill every couple of months.

The chant of 'too much stuff' is heard daily at our house (which we have lived in for almost 30 years). I keep asking my husband to rent a dumpster--so far he keeps declining.

Good luck to you in your efforts to delete some of the Stuff.

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

Back in the Dark Ages, before I met Steve, I moved every year. Every. Year. And it transpires that may have been a Coping Mechanism, because you really don't tend to accumulate much when you know you're going to have to box it all up and shift it in 12 months. Living 23 years in one place gives one the illusion of permanence and we take on more than we need.

I hear you. Back when I was in grad school, I too did the Annual Flit, from one cruddy Philadelphia apartment to another (this includes the period when I had the upstairs bedroom in the house inhabited by the Satanist and his mistress, an experience which left me permanently unimpressed by any later Satanic panics on the part of the media); and my subsequent stint as a camp follower Navy wife didn't keep me in any one place longer than, at the most, about three and a half years.

All of that served to keep the Accumulation of Things at least somewhat in check, but then we moved to upper Coös -- at about the same time y'all moved to Maine, give or take a year -- and not only have we been accumulating Things at a steady rate ever since, so have our kids, and the sad truth is that when kids move out, they leave the greater part of their Things behind.

[stewart blacklock (from livejournal.com)]

We moved twice in 2012 (once out of our place into temporary apartment that we knew was temporary and once to our new place). Our biggest collection was books. We don't likely have as much as you, but 1,500 or so. We also had gone to kindle recently, but not done much about backlog.

We split items into 4 sets
A) Signed books
A few of those - all good memories including several authors who have passed.
We kept, we put them in a box that went to storage unit.

B) Books we read when we are sad / sick
These are the books that help you escape when things go bad. These came with us to temporary quarters

C) Books unlikely to read again
Went to Powell's (our new/used book store)

D) Books we would read again but didn't yet have in ebook
Note: We also put some of these in the Powell's box and just planned to buy an ebook copy when we wanted to read again. We also had some friends that had kids starting to read fantasy / sci-fi and so had them go through all our books first and let them take what they wanted.

This cut our books in about 50%. We slowly decrease even those since we find we enjoy reading more on our paperwhites and have a box to take back to powell's. It is still a lot of books, but more manageable. I really just see - for us at least - our physical books just eventually going down to those ones that have sentimental value. It took us 20+ years to get to 1500 paper back books. It took us <4 years to get 1200 electronic books.

I know not everyone can afford to convert though...but even so the system does work. It also strangely enough the same logic we used for clothes (keep for memory, pass on what you don't use, keep what you use). The ideal of course is to limit the memory items.

[grassrose.livejournal.com]

This.

The hard part is avoiding getting sucked in, when you rifle through a couple of pages to see if it's something you would re-read.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

My sister and I had to cull stuff rather violently when we cleaned out Mom's house. What we kept, boiled down to intrinsically valuable or Really Old. Actual silver, rather than plate, for example. Or some hand-made walnut dressers from the 1800s and hand-woven linens that allegedly dated back to the Old Country. As in, German Mennonite stuff from the 1700s.

Anyway, we heaved Dumpster-loads of stuff. And now we're verging on the same for Wife's mother's house.

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

What Jim said.

The other thing - it should be personal to you not just interesting. So the personal snapshots from Japan as opposed to the coffee table book.

If you can buy another one on eBay if you change your mind, let it go.

Books - I got nothing. (I've got about 10,000 books of my mother's, grandfather's and great grandfather's in storage, plus the 15,000 in my own huge house.)

On stuff though - Pick something of a reasonable size - a full size clothing dresser or similar and designate it for "sacred memories." Or a few boxes or something. And put the stuff that you are agonizing over in those even if it is dumb.

Purging

[florida native (from livejournal.com)]

At some point several years ago, it became clear we had too many books. (Yes, that sounds impossible, but it was very true.) Nearly 3 decades in the same house and having only moved twice after marrying before purchasing the house, we had never really had a large purge. Yes, we traded books at the local used bookstores, but only those it was clear we would never read again.

The way my husband and I handled it involved each person going through the bookcases a few at a time. Basically, one person did one or two bookcases at a time, identifying books as keep or giveaway. The other spouse would then go thru the “rejects” for each bookcase and put the rejects, that they agreed with, in produce boxes – the prior “rejects” they wanted to keep stayed on the bookcases. Both parties had to agree to get rid of a book. Of course, signed or valuable books were retained or put aside separately. The basic premise was the book had to have sentimental value and/or be expected to be re-read to stay on the general bookcases.

As the rejects accumulated, we stacked the produce boxes in the corner of the living room. I think we had 2 dozen produce boxes at the end. A large percentage of these were very old books acquired in our teens/20s and kept even though our reading tastes had changed over the years - not valuable for trades or as collectibles.

We then gave friends the opportunity to come over and take books that they wanted to actually read. We also took boxes to our local SF convention, put them in the con suite with a donation jar with the proceeds going toward the convention charity. We took books to our local SF club events on occasion, especially parties. The remaining books went to our local VA clinic to be split between their lending library and the volunteers quarterly book sale.

Of course, we had plenty of time since we were not planning on moving - just trying to deal with an over accumulation.

[lornastutz.livejournal.com]

I too have a history of moving often...pretty much keeping only my books.
I recently Really weeded them. If it was something I would read again & I really enjoyed the fisrt time it got kept. End result about 50% gone (about 300 books).

[drammar.livejournal.com]

I've done 2 major book purges in 42+ years of being married, both required by moves. My requirement for keeping a book boiled down to: Will I read it again? Do I want it because the book is "special" in some way? Hard choices, but the second purge was easier than the first. I donated books to hospitals and nursing homes, gave some to some of my daughter's friends who were SF readers, held on to a few that I thought I'd want to share with my grandchildren one day. I now try to give away a couple of boxes a month just to keep the bookcases from getting overloaded, and I use FreeCycle for that.

In terms of non-book stuff, clothing was easy. Does it fit? Have I worn it in the last 2 years, and if not am I likely to wear it in the next six months? If no to both, then it was donated to charity.

For the rest, I've done the same sort of thing -- except that Bob tends to want to hold on to more stuff than I want to. He's right now up in the garage making way for the new freezer being delivered on Tuesday, and found a bag full of old cell phones along with a planter that I (thought I) had thrown out, and assorted "but I'll need that someday" things that are now in the trash.

[patknuth.livejournal.com]

Some people are able to take photos of items they are attached to, and then keep the photos instead of the items. I haven't decided if that will work for me or not. Good luck with thinning the possessions. I expect to start making a determined effort in a couple of years when I start thinking about retiring and moving.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

I recently went through a 'general' bookcase/storage bins. If it was something I liked, but was not attached to that particular copy for some reason, and I could get in from my library/interlibrary loan, it joined the Local Friends of the Library booksale

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I'll note, on the "Dumpster" front, that both my sister and I, and Wife and her Siblings, already had fully-furnished houses. So even functional furniture and appliances and china and such that we didn't need got heaved. I think the executor got some cash out of it for the estate.

[cgbookcat1.livejournal.com]

I periodically look through my clothes and put everything not worn in the past year in a pile. If it fits and I think I'll wear it, I keep it. Otherwise it goes to Goodwill. In addition, I have an "1-in, 1-out" policy -- if I buy a new item of clothing, I try to get rid of one.

Books are more difficult. If I haven't read it in the past 5 years and/or don't think I'll ever read it again, it goes in the giveaway stack. Periodically I try to go through some of my to-be-read pile and make decisions. I also try to get many books from the library (favorite authors excepted) and only buy a copy if I think I'll read it again.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Before the great move to New Hampshire, I culled my book collection down to a 1/3 of it's former size. Thousands of book were given away--some to friends, most donated to the annual public library booksale in Ithaca (largest booksale in the country.)

My criteria for culling books was "Will I read this (or will I read it again)?" If no, "Is it of overwhelming sentimental importance?" If no to both questions, it got donated.

It helps that when you reach a certain age, you realize that you can't possibly reread all the books you've read in the past thirty years, you need to make room for the new books you're going to read and fall in love with.

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

Normally I weed books by the simple idea of will I read it again or not. But sadly a couple years ago I had to jettison my storage unit where the vast majority of my books where stored and I simply had to let them all go without sorting out the ones I desperately wanted to keep. :( The other criteria is if it is research material I will need or might need or not.

[adriannem.livejournal.com]

I moved twice last year and may move again this year. I still have way too much stuff, and plan to start culling again RSN. Like Jim, I learned lessons in 2010 & again in 2012 when we cleared out MIL's house and then my parents house.

Criteria:
1) Will I use it?
2) Have I used it in the last year?
3) Does it make me happy every time I see/touch it?

Answer/action:
- no goes into the give-away box.
- maybe goes into the sit on it for 6 weeks box and try again.

On the book front, I upgraded to digital.
1) Books in the tbr pile that were still unread after more than a month got donated ... ::wince:: unread.
2) Books that I couldn't remember the plot - donated
3) Books I liked, but wasn't likely to reread - donated

I kept books I loved that I was likely to reread. This was a mistake.

Going to digital my rule is simple.
I get to buy any book I want to start reading right this minute.
I have to work very hard to maintain the corollary: "I don't get to buy this book because it's on sale."

So why was keeping books that I'm likely to reread a mistake? Because my iPhone/iPad/laptop is my new favored reading media. My library is always with me everywhere. My bookmarks are never lost. And those books I treasure? Have already been repurchased.

No. I'm not looking forward to moving again. But not having to pack a library makes it ever so much easier.

I have stuff I should sell. Maybe you have more time than I do. But what I'm finding is that "Should sell" gets in the way big time of removing stuff I don't use from my life.

[reedrover]

When we weed the bookshelves, there are a number of questions and mental contortions to go through. Books that fall into the giveawaybox suffer from one or more of the following:
- we can't remember the plot
- we can't remember why (or when!) we bought it and it is still unread
- there is a hardcopy AND a paperback copy of it, and it is not a comfort/airplane/doctor's office book
- it is only a paperback plot and it is a hardback book (give away the hardback, put the paperback on the shopping list)
- who am I kidding? I'm never going to re-read that series.
- we now have that in a compendium/omnibus, so don't need the separate paperbacks

of note: the Liaden Universe is a very good example of Too Much of the Same Thing. We have the original paperbacks, the re-issued paperbacks, the new hardbacks, the new paperbacks, the compendiums, the original chap-books, and a pile of Absolute Magnitudes. We *really* need to make a decision and get rid of some of these.

[gareth griffiths (from livejournal.com)]

Sadly my partner's reading tastes and mine differ (as do her views on tidyness). I fall into the hoarder category and see nothing wrong with bookshelves three deep and a few piles on the floor... That said once it gets to three deep so I'm unlikely to read the inner layer it is time to cull.

Much as everyone else - if needed for reference keep. If a comfort book - so glad to hear others have that habit - favourite books like favourite piece of music (but a bit longer) - keep.

If likely to re-read keep.

If print is hard to read - chuck if electronic available - sadly there seems to be a trend to smaller more spaces out font and I find it kills my enjoyment because it is an effort to read.

Clothes - if not worn for 2 years - throw unless great sentimental value.

What's harder is clearing the garage. Too full not only of my junk but also two children's junk (treasured possessions).

(Sign on our garage door - Junk is stuff you finally throw away the day before you need it).

... and the attic (loft) has all sort of things we'll never look at (like college lecture notes from 40 years ago).

[the wol (from livejournal.com)]

When I moved in 2001 from a place where I had lived for 21 years, thirteen bookshelves' worth of books got whittled down to seven (2 tall, 5 regular). My local contingent of Friends of the Library, who would come to my place and haul them off, made out like bandits. When I moved last month from the place where I had lived 13 years to a considerably smaller apartment, I sold the two tall bookcases, and divested myself of the equivalent in books. Again, Friends of the Library, who would come get them and haul them off, made out like bandits. I kept only "My Most Favorite Books" (books by favorite authors, including two who live in Maine, and those which I know I will reread) as well as some family heirlooms -- some inscribed books that were my aunt's, great aunt's, and great grandmother's. Since I'm retired and live on a rather tight, fixed income, the cost of a book is the overriding criteria in acquiring reading matter. Unfortunately, it is almost always cheaper to buy a used paperback than it is to buy the ebook. Therefore, there is a shelf designated "books to be traded/resold" for books that turn out not to be keepers. I had to grit my teeth and be ruthless, getting rid of many "treasures" that were doing nothing but gathering dust and taking up space. I had three garage sales, I sold things on craigslist, and I donated. I took some furniture to resale places. I was not as ruthless as I perhaps should have been. My current apartment is still jam crammed with stuff. I'm about to have a major clothing cull, which I should have done before I moved, but didn't have time to -- I had two months' warning that I was moving.

If you don't use it during your daily life at least on a monthly basis, and it is not a family heirloom, irreplaceable or something that has deep sentimental value, let it go. Only keep clothes that fit now, not that will fit once you lose a few pounds. You will not drop the weight and fit into it again. Get rid of it. I have a lot of "good" clothes I need to get rid of simply because I don't go to that many places where "good" clothes are required. We have a "repeat boutique" the proceeds of which benefit our local symphony orchestra. That's where about half of the contents of my hall closet needs to end up.

To keep or not to keep...

[epiphyllums.livejournal.com]

Do be sure that the book is available electronically before getting rid of it. Last week I was in need of a comfort re-read of _Heart of Gold_ by Sharon Shinn and decided it was time to by an electronic copy. I couldn't find it as a legal ebook. I did find it on the last bookshelf I looked at on the third layer. Same problem with _Wrapt in Crystal_, no ebook available. I also worry about only having an ebook copy when armageddon comes and I run out of juice on my iPad so the keep pile is a bit larger than maybe it should be.

[stitchwhich.livejournal.com]

I cull our bookshelves (ditto with the 'used to move frequently' past) using "when was the last time I read this and am I the least bit interested in re-reading it?' method. That is done one shelf at a time since our shelves are very long. The pile is placed on the kitchen table, where my husband is sure to see it. Beside it is a handled bag. All books he is uninterested in go in the bag, the rest are left on the table so I can re-shelf them while he's at work.

It is a slower method than most but it keeps the pressure of tackling a large job at a minimum and saves us from 'wild get-it-done fury' which often costs us books we wouldn't have normally tossed out if we'd weren't under presser to 'get it done today'.