I’m trying to clean up my office/studio, an area which was formerly an attic space. The first step has been to move the finished paintings out of there, and we are setting up a painting archive in our son’s former bedroom. I’ll do a post of that eventually; we got shelving from Costco and it is coming along nicely.
The next step has been getting rid of books that were up there. Note that these are all my books, unlike the major release of homeschooling books I’ve done in the past, that I blogged about years ago here.
Yes, I read the books I just got rid of; some were serious and some were fluff, some I loved, others I would not recommend. I only kept what I hadn’t read or what I want to either read again or refer to. I kept plenty of the the “really loved,” but let the rest go since too many books were clogging up my life. You can see in the photos in this post what I gave away– 12 boxes worth (including a few duplicates.
It felt good to donate them back to the same library sale that some of them originally came from. I adore recycling and zero waste. We’ll get a tax write-off too for the donation; in my experience trying to sell books never nets much anyway.
Now I can actually see what is unread and this is very exciting to me. I haven’t completed rejuggling my shelves, but wow, I already feel the fresh lease on life that will result from completing it.
Behind where all the paintings had been leaning is my collection of LP records, and that will be the next big donation to this same library sale. It feels odd but good to release albums I’ve kept since the seventies, which for at least twenty years I haven’t been even able to get to.
My New Year’s resolution was to find more margin in my life, and this has been a wonderful way to do it!
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4 Comments
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Well done Polly! I’m sure you feel lighter and freer!
I listened to a performance artist once, who took rooms in one of the London modern art galleries and while the audience observed, over a two week period he deconstructed and recycled everything he owned! How freeing that must be!! -
Very inspiring! Artful pictures of your boxes of books
Wish I could do the same! -
Dr. Phil. Bless his heart!
The world according to Garp…memories. -
Seems like a never ending process to let go. Hugs.
