Christina asked: I had a question on how to simplify my bookshelves. I went to conferences on the value of collecting and keeping godly books and lets just say I’ve gotten quite a collection! How do you determine what books should be saved? My Aunt said the likelihood of my reading a book twice is minimal so I should just get rid of all of my books. But others say there may be books I want my future children to read for a “generational library” and that godly books are hard to come by! I definitely want to de-clutter my shelves but I really have no clue how to go about it! Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!!!
Books! Oh glorious books! I am a huge fan of reading myself and it can be easy to amass a large collection, especially if you practice frugal book reading and buying practices. It is definitely very wise to collect books, especially if you can choose them carefully. Books can be very dangerous as well. It is best to take wise precautions and ask thoughtful questions before even purchasing a book. These same questions can be asked as you simplify your collection.
Is this book beneficial and edifying?
Would I or did I grow as a result of this read?
Or is/was it fluffy (light in truth and not really stretching my understanding)?
Would I read it again?
Would this book help build mine or my children’s intellect as a result of this read?
Did it stretch me?
Does this book truthfully retell history?
Does this really deserve a place on my shelf?
Books you will find on my bookshelf include: Christian living (not just light weight books but books that really challenge and grow me spiritually), Bible-study helps, historical books (learn from history or we shall be doomed to repeat it – books that truthfully detail the past), good solid classics (that we enjoy as a family and/or my children will benefit from in the future), and lots of biographies. I love learning about the lives of those who have gone before me, especially missionary biographies. I honestly have only a few select fictional books.
There is definitely a place for fun and light reading, especially on those nights when you can’t sleep, but those books can easily be found at the library and do not need to take up space on your shelves.
If a book really truly deserves a place on your shelf, make sure it gets good use after you have completed it. Loan out your books to family and friends. Start a loaning library or donate books to your church’s library. Share your books and see others be blessed as a result. This is one simple way of being generous! Don’t just let them sit and collect dust for years…make them worth the purchase!
If a book does not deserve a place on your shelf, pass it on! Sell it on Cash4Books or Ebay or simply give it away.
Simplifying the Home School Resource Collection
For all the home school mommies out there, consider giving your input on simplifying the home school resources collection. Some of the above evaluation questions may be helpful, but I would love to hear from those with a bit more experience than I. 
Heather asked: I have 7 children and we are relaxed homeschoolers, so the education of my children partially depends on the material we have just hanging around our house, so I keep alot of books. I do use the library, but I also purchase many. There is no telling what the children will be interested in the next day. So getting rid of books is tough. Do you have any helpful guidelines on keeping/getting rid of books?
What tips do you have to share on managing the book collections? Do you have any specific tips for managing home school resources? Please share!
Hi there,
I’m just wondering if you apply this same criteria to the books for your children. We’re going to be simplifying in that department to make it easier for the littles to keep things tidy. Just wondering what your thoughts are and what you have done since there are soooooooo many books available.
Thanks!
Honestly, we buy very few childrens books. We find all these in plenty at the library. But if and when we do purchase we try to follow the same guidelines. Classics and newberry award winners that have stood the test of time.
Thank you so much for posting my question! Your suggestions and everyone’s comments were very helpful. I think I’m ready now to tackle my bookshelves!
Thanks!
Chasity, I agree! It’s wonderful to have a bunch of books that you can lend to friends.
I think you need to add “Will I use this as a reference at some point in the future?” to the list of questions! ESPECIALLY if you homeschool or may homeschool someday! Or even if you don’t, but you have kids, stuff like church history books and textbooks from seminary or Bible college can be absolutely priceless! I got rid of some of my seminary books and the same year was kicking myself because I was hired to teach at a tiny Christian school, and missed those books countless times.
Books like that should be treasured, not thought of as “clutter”!
I would strongly encourage keeping every book that meets the criteria listed on the posting. My husband and I keep a database of all our our books and opened up our little library to our small group. I may not read a book all the way through again, but there are many others that we know who could profit from the encouraging, scriptural teaching found there. I have benefited many times from borrowing a book from a friend who was “done” with the book.
I’ve been paring down my library, getting rid of a lot of books that I:
1 – haven’t read and never will, or 2 – read but will never read again.
On one of the personal finance blogs I read, the writer had a good formula for determining if something is worth purchasing in the future: Cost of item divided by the number of hours you estimate you’ll use it = cost per hour. Is it worth the cost per hour you’re paying or would you be better off renting or borrowing? I’ve been following this formula for a few weeks now and it’s really cut down on the number of books I buy or add to an Amazon wish list for purchase later. My library usage has gone way up!
We have sold many books on Amazon, or taken them to Half Price Books (if you’re not familiar, it’s a chain of stores that sells used books at least in the midwest). We also have a ton of books – classics and Christian books – due to my husband being an avid reader. We have considered donating many to our church, but haven’t yet mainly we haven’t taken the time to do it.
My mom recently joined a neat service online – http://www.paperbackswap.com. You can trade books with others for the cost of shipping a book to someone else. Pretty neat.
I’m busy unpacking boxes of books now. I don’t think I realized how many books we had until we moved. I’m going to run out of shelf space soon, and will need to start prioritizing what gets kept and what stays. Sadly, before we moved, we got rid of HUNDREDS of books – donating them to the library. We are all avid readers and love bargain book shopping. Unfortunately, unless I end up living in a home that has an entire room devoted to being the library, we’re going to have to start curbing our buying enthusiasm.
We have a MASSIVE collection of books, and when I say massive, I mean we have 5 full bookcases, and we used to have 8! Both my husband and I are book collectors, and we love having a large library. Over the last year, we have REALLY pared down our book collection, here are some of the things we did.
1 – keep the classics. We both studied in an honors “great books” program, and we still have a lot of classic literature hanging around – Plato, St. Augustine, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, etc. We also have a large collection of history books, and historical fiction. This is the core of our library, and we actually use these books a lot. We lend them out, and we pull them off the shelf and use them often. We pared this down by eliminating any duplicate copies of things, and getting rid of any copies in poor condition. We figured that if we need it enough, we will get it in a readable, usable copy that isn’t falling apart.
2 – keep classic kids books. Since my son was born, we have been collecting classic childrens books – picture books, chapter books, everything. When I was a kid, I read stuff over and over again, just because it was there. We want our kids to do the same thing, and we want them to have a great collection to chose from. For both my husband and I, books were our favorite “toys.”
3 – get rid of everything else, unless you love it enough to want to re-read it.
Another great (and fun) resource for passing books on is http://www.bookcrossing.com. I found out about it when I found a book left (on purpose) at a Starbucks. It’s free and easy and a great way to get feedback on the books you love. Also, it would be a great way to share good Christian living books. I have a hard time letting go of books. Especially the classics but this was a fun experiment for me.
Books are one of my biggest struggles when it comes to decluttering. For me, I try to stop it at the source, I avoid purchasing books I don’t think I will want to read or reference frequently because I know I will have a hard time getting rid of it once I do. Passing books on is also a great idea. My mom gives me a lot of her book club reads, those I am able to read and pass on to someone else.
We are homeschooling in the same “relaxed” manner as mentioned in this post. Only we are fairly new to homeschooling & we are teaching just two at the same educational level. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert or even experienced yet, but my thought is this:
I feel that part of homeschooling in this way is teaching our children how to find the information they are interested in. As my children’s interests change & they become interested in studying something new, I’d like to take them along on the journey to learn where they can go & how they can research a subject starting from nothing. The internet is a huge resource for us. Then we can find which books will be the most informative on the subject & we can 1) borrow the book from the library or if my library doesn’t have it, use interlibrary loan or 2) buy the book.
I hope this helps.
I have the criteria that if I can readily find the information in the book on the web, I don’t keep it.