July 11, 2008

ESTES PARK NEWS - With the kids out of school, I have been on a purging rampage all summer long. Last weekend I purged Hayden's nursery, while turning it into a bona fide toddler room. I'm sure if I had sat down and thought about each and every item I was purging, I would have gotten very sad. After all, the last baby is no longer a baby. But, I did it full speed ahead without giving myself time to mourn a babyless house. Besides, feeling nostalgic about my baby growing up has to do with Hayden himself, and not Hayden's stuff.

I was talking to my sister, Shannon, the other day, and telling her that I was absolutely drowning in purged stuff. While certain rooms are purged and are feeling cleaner and more streamlined than ever, the rooms that haven't been purged have become storehouses for the purged stuff. Shannon told me that I need to have a garage sale now. I told her that I can't have one yet. I'm not ready - my house is only half-purged. She pointed out that I have enough stuff already for a garage sale, and I need to clear it out to make room for newly purged stuff. That the garage sale, in my case, can be a two-sale process. Brilliant!

We moved to this house about eight years ago. When we moved here, we wanted to have a garage sale to sell the duplicate stuff we didn't need after combining households when we married. But, before we sold that stuff, I wanted to go through the rest of our stuff, too. Well, I never made it through the rest of our stuff. What I did go through happened in small increments. Over the years, our garage filled with stuff waiting for a sale. Our shed became the "garage sale shed". We've been waiting for years to be ready for a garage sale. And now, my brilliant sister has the idea of not waiting to be ready, but selling what is ready. I am so excited! We are finally going to get our garage and shed back. Why didn't I think of that?

So, mark your calendar: House Purge Garage Sale Part One - July 19 at 8:00am. (No early birds - We won't be out of bed yet.)

I've had a request to talk about book purging this week. I'm a bit of a book hoarder, so removing 75% of my book collection could be a bit challenging.

The first rule to remember, as with the rest of the house, is that I only have space to keep what I have space to keep. When I have books that don't fit on my bookshelves, I need to purge books until they all fit.

Peter Walsh, author of It's All Too Much, wrote that one of the main reasons people hoard books is that "people feel that owning the book is equivalent to owning the knowledge in the book, as well. [That] letting go of a book is tantamount to throwing that knowledge away." Of course, books that are collecting dust and are not in line to be read aren't giving me any more knowledge than I already have. I imagine it's all right for me to pass on my college textbooks now.

Peter Walsh also suggests that some people hold on to books because it's part of their identity. My husband, Josh, has about two-dozen books about kayaking. He's never read them and he doesn't plan to read them, but he has to own them because he's a kayaker. If Josh has a hard time letting me purge these books, I will help him explore other ways he can have the security of having a kayaker identity, such as... oh, I don't know... going kayaking?

There are several ways to purge books. If you are hoping to get money for them, I recommend taking them to a used bookstore. Do your homework - some stores offer cash, and some only offer store credit. The store credit is usually double what you would get from them in cash, but sometimes purging a box of books, only to come home with a new box of books, defeats the purpose. Keep in mind that a used bookstore only has space to store a certain amount of books, as well, so they likely will only take a small portion of what you want them to take.

There are also Web sites that allow you to sell your books to used bookstores. I've used www.cash4books.net. You enter the ISBN numbers of all the books you want to sell, then their Web site tells you which books they will buy, and for what price. Then, you ship the books to them, and they deposit the amount for the books, plus shipping, into your PayPal account.
 
If you don't need to get money for your books, donating is the best idea. Donating books that are in good condition to the Estes Park Public Library could put some of your books into circulation, and the remainder will be put in the Friends of the Library Book Sale, August 1, 2 and 3. The money from the sale goes toward supporting the library and its programs and services. Please make sure books are in good condition. There are some limitations on what they will accept, too, such as no computer or stock market books older than five years.

To maintain the purged status of your books, there's a fun Web site dedicated to passing books along when you're finished reading them. BookCrossing.com allows you to "set a good book free" by taking that book, writing a Book Crossing ID number on the inside cover, along with an explanation about what Book Crossing is, and then leaving the book for the taking at a coffee shop, waiting room, or any other appropriate place. The person who takes the book from where you leave it then goes to the Web site, enters in the book's ID number, and writes a little about who and where they are. They leave the book for someone else to take when they're finished with it, and through the Web site you can watch your book travel the world.

For the crafty type, there are many crafts that can be made out of your old books. Visit www.housepurge.com for instructions on turning your old books into wall sconces, bookends, iPod cases, secret hollow books for hiding valuables, table legs, and more.

Kristen Owen is a longtime blogger and registered eBay Trading Assistant. More information, topics, and helpful tips about House Purge can be read by going to the projects Web site at www.housepurge.com .