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  #31  
Old 01-15-2019, 10:09 PM
dirkronk dirkronk is offline
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Originally Posted by Glennwillow View Post
Some people don't get much joy out of reading; I do. I'll limit something else.
I'm with you, Glenn. I've been a collector (of widely assorted things) all my life, and most especially books and music. At one point, I had over 10,000 LPs, largely classical, purged that down to 4,000 rather special items, finally donated 3,500+ to a university a few years back and still have about 500 left (about a third rock & folk, a third classical, a third jazz). Haven't even counted the CDs, but there are probably 10 boxes full at my office...the only place I ever listen to digital format items.

And books...well... Thing is, I'm an advertising writer and TV/radio producer by trade, have been for nearly 45 of my 50 working years, so books have been important as references, tools (must have 20 different dictionaries, a dozen specialized thesauri, grammar and style guides, and on and on) and more, just at work. At home, my wife and I have extensive volumes on art, comparative religions, language, history, economics/investing and other topics of interest...plus Twain, Wodehouse, and a handful of other authors whose work I re-read on a fairly regular basis. Like some folks here, I've taken to utilizing the public library for new items to read, and haven't bought any new books in maybe five years. But I probably have 4 or 5 dozen books I plan to attack upon retirement, almost all nonfiction books that will require time and concentration to truly digest. I'm still a couple of years out from that point (waiting 'til 70 to boost the 401k).

All of which means that the culling process seems to be getting harder, not easier.

Dirk
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  #32  
Old 01-16-2019, 01:20 PM
Muddslide Muddslide is offline
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I am a librarian by degree. Lifelong book lover and, at one point, a collector with an impressive library of my own.

All my books, music, movies, art, keepsakes and musical instruments/gear were wiped out in a flood in September, 2010.

Since then, by design, I own very little.

I do now own a handful of books, some movies and music, but I keep it minimal.

Either online or through an actual library system, I can access almost anything.

I don't feel the need to own every book I enjoy or may want to read someday. I don't care for audiobooks or e-books either, really...still prefer the old school experience when reading for the most part. But I really prefer not being weighed down by "stuff" or possessed by possessions.
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  #33  
Old 01-16-2019, 02:03 PM
mr. beaumont mr. beaumont is offline
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There's a lot of less useful clutter in my life I'd pitch before I ever decided to get rid of a single book.
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  #34  
Old 01-16-2019, 02:12 PM
Guitars+gems Guitars+gems is offline
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Paring my books down to 30 would be tough. But if I found myself in a position where I could only have 30, I could probably do it as long as I could keep my Kindle books, as someone else said.

We've always bought a lot of books in our family. I used to love shelves crammed full of books but at some point I started to see them as consumers of space and collectors of dust. I noticed that was true about a lot of other things in our home too, and we began a process of curating our belongings for only the best stuff, the things that yes, spark joy. I love physical books, the smell, the feel of the paper, but now I keep only books with pictures, like reference books (lots of jewelry making books) and books where I'm likely to flip pages back and forth; cookbooks, music books, books of poetry. That still amounts to a couple of hundred. Because I locate belongings according to use, the books are all over the house, jewelry books in my workroom, cookbooks in the kitchen, music books near the guitars, etc.

My Kindle however, has many, many books including all my favorite novels. I love having them all at my fingertips. Anytime I get a whim to reread a favorite, I can go right to it, no matter where I am. And who can not love the instant gratification that Kindle makes possible? I would fight before I'd give up that Kindle!

One of the books I read a couple of years ago on my Kindle is Marie Kondo's, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Really, the Netflix program is a disappointment compared to the book, which is much more compelling. One thing she said in her book is that people who are storage experts are really just hoarders. Think about that!
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  #35  
Old 01-16-2019, 02:13 PM
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About 11-12 years ago, we downsized from the house where we raised our kids to a condo and we got rid of the VAST majority of books. And then about 4-5 years ago we did a major remodel in our condo and basically eliminated a LOT of walls and hence, wall space for bookshelves and that type of furniture. At that point we got rid of almost all of the rest of our books, minus a handful of coffee table books that we really like (and don't work very well digitally), and CDs, and videos and DVDs, etc.

At this point almost all of the media that comes into our place comes and goes electronically. We own some music that's digitized on a computer but the vast majority of our listening now is through a streaming service. All of our video comes in via streaming. And all of our books come in via Kindle. My wife is a prodigious reader, going through several books a week most weeks. She borrows most of her Kindle books from the library. I'm always working on a book or two, but I read very sporadically, for shortish periods, and not fast, so I'd almost never finish a book during the borrowing period. So I buy them, but just not that many of 'em. So we have a decent sized library of stuff we own in Amazon's cloud (I've had a Kindle since the first generation in 2007 or 2008, which is also when we downsized, so it was nice of Amazon to launch the Kindle when I really needed that kind of technology).

But we have almost no music, videos, or books physically in our home and we "own" precious little. I guess we own our Kindle books, and could probably just pass our account over to one of our kids and they could change the name and credit card numbers on it, so I guess we can pass that stuff on. But just like we got rid of a lot of physical books, I expect we could also get rid of a lot of virtual books with them being missed...

So yeah, way less than 30 books and records and videos and anything else of the type.

-Ray
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  #36  
Old 01-16-2019, 02:41 PM
Muddslide Muddslide is offline
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I wonder how much of this may be due to age.

I have a couple of specific things about my life that made extreme downsizing a good idea.

One was having lost everything. The other is the fact that until last year I moved very regularly...in 50 years, never in one home more than 3 years and a huge number of moves that were interstate or cross country.

Plus, my wife of 21 years left me for another sap a couple years back and my kids grew up and flew the coop.

But when I was younger--even with all that moving--I had vast amounts of belongings and collections of books, music (including lots of vinyl and cassettes), tons of movies, art, weird knickknacks and a collection of vintage sci-fi and monster toys, Halloween memorabilia and more instruments and music gear than I can even recall.

I feel happier being able to travel light and have no clutter, but I plan to buy my first home this year or next...it may be that I acquire more stuff, but I'm also 50...not "old" maybe, but perhaps old enough to not care to accumulate a bunch of things aside from bathroom and kitchen necessities, new decor, wall art, new furniture...but keep all else to a minimum.

My mother used to say "You spend your first 50-60 years accumulating things, and the rest of your years divesting yourself of it."

Obviously that isn't an objective truism, but I wonder for other people if just the process of getting older plays a role in this.
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  #37  
Old 01-16-2019, 04:17 PM
Nyghthawk Nyghthawk is offline
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Originally Posted by Muddslide View Post
My mother used to say "You spend your first 50-60 years accumulating things, and the rest of your years divesting yourself of it."
My wife and I are moving this year for the first time in 21 years. It is amazing the amount of unadulterated clutter (including literally hundreds of books) that one can accumulate in that much time!

We are downsizing from a 2700+ square foot behemoth to a more reasonable 1600 square foot retirement home. We are going to do some serious weeding out!
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  #38  
Old 01-16-2019, 05:22 PM
Muddslide Muddslide is offline
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Originally Posted by Nyghthawk View Post
My wife and I are moving this year for the first time in 21 years. It is amazing the amount of unadulterated clutter (including literally hundreds of books) that one can accumulate in that much time!

We are downsizing from a 2700+ square foot behemoth to a more reasonable 1600 square foot retirement home. We are going to do some serious weeding out!
I bet it will feel very good to you both.

Libraries enjoy getting book donations if they are in good shape. CDs and DVDs/Blu-Rays as well.

They may not end up in the collection but if not, they will end up in a library book sale which also helps the library and, by extension, the community.

You might want to check ABE Books online if you think you might have anything valuable. A lot of books that are certain editions or which are out of print can fetch quite a bit.

You didn't ask, but I'm going on:

Larger items like furniture and things such as clothes, kitchenware, assorted miscellany, can be donated. Some places will even pick up the things you are parting with, and Goodwill at least if not other places will give you a form that allows you to write off your donation on your taxes.

Good luck and congratulations on retirement. I will likely have to work until the day I drop.
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  #39  
Old 01-16-2019, 08:44 PM
Tony Burns Tony Burns is offline
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Its a good show , but you should take away some things from it and not treat it like its the bible . My family and i piled up our clothes on the bed and sorted them - It actually works , if It didn't fit or out of style or i haven't worn it in a long time -its going to charity . We also did this with dressers full of assorted stuff , and under the bed . i started on one of my book cases yesterday and got rid of about 40 books - I'm an artist and need references , but some of it i have out grown and it needs to be someone else's . I like the idea of less is more , or less to worry about -i also found some clothes i forgot about and now can wear them . I have some great books -that are going to stay - But I'm going to try very hard to limit anything i buy that's not necessary , I'm also going to try and borrow the books i want to read from the library - Now I've laid down the law about my instruments - but i am seriously considering selling 3-4 of them to lighten the load . It actually makes me feel good to get rid of stuff -
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  #40  
Old 01-16-2019, 08:50 PM
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I couldn’t do it.

I saw that recommendation and remembered that people don’t realize what they don’t know. Me included.

In my former life I practiced medicine. The side effects of chemo and radiation caused me to lose that profession. Once that change occurred I donated or discarded over 30 books that were entirely work related in some way.
I now paint( art, not houses[emoji3]) and play guitar. Art books work as a source of information and visual reference. They are not in digital format and most were printed in limited numbers long ago. Once out of print some of these books cost the equivalent of a nice acoustic guitar. It’s crazy but true.
I’ll keep my books and guitars.
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  #41  
Old 01-16-2019, 10:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Muddslide View Post
I bet it will feel very good to you both.

Libraries enjoy getting book donations if they are in good shape. CDs and DVDs/Blu-Rays as well.

They may not end up in the collection but if not, they will end up in a library book sale which also helps the library and, by extension, the community.

You might want to check ABE Books online if you think you might have anything valuable. A lot of books that are certain editions or which are out of print can fetch quite a bit.

You didn't ask, but I'm going on:

Larger items like furniture and things such as clothes, kitchenware, assorted miscellany, can be donated. Some places will even pick up the things you are parting with, and Goodwill at least if not other places will give you a form that allows you to write off your donation on your taxes.

Good luck and congratulations on retirement. I will likely have to work until the day I drop.
I cleared my mom’s house this summer. She was a lifelong reader but also in charge of her town’s Friends of the Library book sale. I donated most of her books.

The furniture went to a local charity that picked it up. Stuff they didn’t want I gave to friends and to a thrift shop that picked it up.

The process took a while. But I was really happy to see my mom’s stuff go where it was needed.

Muddslide’s advice is good. ABE books is a great resource if you think you’ve got a valuable book.
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  #42  
Old 01-16-2019, 10:24 PM
Nyghthawk Nyghthawk is offline
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I plan on donating to the local librarie, women's shelter thrift shop, and some stuff to the state hospital where I work. Last year the church had a garage sale find raiser. I hope they do it again this year.
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  #43  
Old 01-16-2019, 10:46 PM
Muddslide Muddslide is offline
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I plan on donating to the local librarie, women's shelter thrift shop, and some stuff to the state hospital where I work. Last year the church had a garage sale find raiser. I hope they do it again this year.
That is awesome.

YOU are awesome.

Re: women's shelters--I have worked with a number of them when I worked in library administration. They always need cell phones and computer equipment also.
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  #44  
Old 01-16-2019, 11:23 PM
Wadcutter Wadcutter is offline
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I think many of us here at the AGF are at that point in our lives, or may soon be, when we see or may soon be seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel” and have decided “Man I GOTTA start getting rid of some of this stuff.” 😂 Which reminds me of George Carlin’s famous rant about “stuff.” You can probably pull it up on You Tube I would think. Freaking hilarious....and so true!
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  #45  
Old 01-17-2019, 12:46 AM
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At a time, Sure.
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