Yay, I've been meaning to go through books and CD's. I've got a huge outbox now in my laundry room which I'm taking to the local market soon, anything that doesn't get sold will be taken to charity... can't wait!

Did you know the dictionary illustration of "clutter" is a Wham! album? It's so easy to declutter someone else's apartment, isn't it? You don't feel any attachment to their stuff.

Can't do it today but I'm definitely going to get rid of 20 percent of my books this week. I don't know if I'll be able to cull many cookbooks though. At least I'm down to only buying 2-3 year. I used to buy 10-20 per years.

A few years ago, I went through the process of selling all of our CDs online. We made hundreds (and hundreds!) of dollars, and cleared so much space. I definitely wanted to do that while there was still a market for CDs, before everyone only bought digitally. If you haven't done it yet, now is definitely the time!

I cleared out two shelves of binders from my Master's program this weekend. Feels so good to purge!

In half an hour I threw away 300 paperbacks and it gave me a lot of pleasure.
However I can't get rid of my complete Danielle Steele collection.

We moved overseas this summer, and in that process I whittled my huge collection of books down to just a favorite few. It was SO HARD since I loved all of them, but we couldn't afford to pack more than one banker's box worth. If it didn't fit, either it didn't get kept, or something else was taken out of the box.

Eventually I got a few hundred books (I didn't count, I'd guess about 400–500?) down to less than a hundred (I think it was about 70). A few didn't fit, but they were books I loved that I knew I couldn't get in the library here, so we brought them with us (about 15 books). The rest are in the states in storage until we go back.

Most of our CDs and DVDs (and Blu-Rays) belong to my husband, whom I can't get on board with this uncluttering business. We went through the collection together and he managed to get rid of some stuff, but not nearly enough (I think we got rid of two dozen movies and about as many CDs). I also had him sell any video games he never played (about 30).

With that money he bought a couple new games he's been wanting, and then we put everything into binders to save (A TON OF) space.

We now have four big binders (each hold about 200 discs) for movies and CDs, and one smaller one (holds 50-ish, I think) for his video games.

It's still a lot, but at least it only takes up half a shelf now, instead of two whole bookcases like before. Baby steps, I guess.

* the new games were a reward for getting rid of the rest. Otherwise he wouldn't do it. :P

Oh, heck. I culled the book collection last month, with the goal of weeding out 60 books. I managed to find 62 to donate.

Removing 25% of the books? That would take a lot longer than 20 minutes. A awful lot longer. But I will try to see if I can find 20 more books to give away.

I maybe own 50 books, total - if that. I have a handful of all-time favourites, but I'm pretty sure I'll have an easy time parting with the rest.

As for CDs, I've been meaning to make digital copies and donate/sell the hard copies at a local store (Deja Vu Discs - CDs, DVDs, Bluray, games, etc.).

I'll be having a much harder time with movies; the boyfriend and I are big movie fans.

i've been meaning to mail a book to a friend, because I think she'll enjoy it... But now I might send her a couple I think she'll enjoy...

I have so many books, so I better start crackin'....

AND WOW, I can't believe the things you're getting rid of... Your record collection. Geez, High Five to you! But this is setting a wonderful example of just letting go of things that weigh us down.

I'm having a hard time letting go because this time last year I had almost no furniture and I've spent the whole year adding. I still haven't quite achieved my dream yet, so the thought of purging. Eh, I'm not ready.

I have a ton of books, but I've been cutthroat before.

I don't have a lot of books. I have a 2 ft wide bookcase that has three shelves. I went through those about 2 weeks ago and got about 20 books to give away. I think I'll give mine to the library by my house...that way, if I ever want to look at it again, I can walk down the street and possibly check it out.

I REALLY need to do this to my daughter's books. We've never gotten rid of any of hers (except really baby baby books). I actually still have a lot of my books from when I was a kid at my dad's house, so I gotta put an end to the cycle of keeping everything for the next generation. A few favorites are great to pass down, but my dad has an attic the size of my house. I have about 9 square feet worth of attic space...the perfect amount for the really important things.

Whenever a new book comes into my house, one has to leave. I learned that watching you on Mission Organization when you redid Bryce's apt. Now, if only I could get my husbund to part with some of his CD's. He won't let go of any of them!

Last week we took all the DVD's and games (and, videos, despite not owning a machine that works!) off the shelf for some building work to be done. I went through them all and identified about 50 or so which I thought we could pass on. Then we ran out of time, and I put them all back on the shelf :-( Sigh. I really need to get them out of the house. And also go through the books and CD's as well.

It's hard to get around to looking at them when they are neatly shelved and not causing a problem, where there are other categories of 'stuff' which are not tidy and clearly out of control!

Last fall, in preparation for a move overseas, we culled our book collection. It was probably the hardest thing to de-clutter for us. We brought 1 box of books with us and everything else we saved went to storage. We probably cut our book collection down by at least a third to a half, but that still meant we had 18 boxes full!

Since we catalogued everything in LibraryThing, as we've been here and realised we kept things we didn't need to (inevitable), we've been tagging them with "toss me". That way, when we move back and unpack them, we don't have to make the decision (the hard part) again.

DVDs we found easier to do. We kept just 2 of the IKEA dvd boxes of our absolute favourites (about 30). Selling our used DVDs was very satisfying -- it was surprising how much money we had tied up in that Stuff.

My best advice to others struggling with the books/media de-clutter is to do it in small bits iteratively. Each time you go back, you'll probably be able to find at least a couple things to you can let go of, that you couldn't the last time. Doing it all in one go is a LOT harder. We probably reviewed our books 4-5 times in the couple months leading up to our move. Each time it became easier to let more go.

I'll be saying good by to my movies on VSH tape. There's no chance I'm going to watch them, I'll send the VCR to the Outbox as well. There's also a great deal of software discs that can go as well.

The only problem with getting rid of CDs is that you can have digital disasters and if you've gotten rid of the CD, you no longer have a back-up. For something you really love, hang on to the hard copy.

I clean out my books on a regular basis, with my library being the primary recipient. They've gotten LOADS of books from me, a lot of them very pricey architecture and art history books, some of which I got in Europe. They were thrilled to have them and I'm now their favorite patron.

Absolutely loving the free Kindle for Mac app I'm now using for books; looking forward to getting an actual Kindle.

We have well over 1300 DVDs and bluerays taking up shelves on one whole wall of our office, not including stacks of VHS movies and TV series on DVD and I can't get my husband to part with any of it or transfer it to a binder...oh well!

@JMD: Think of getting rid of the books as creating space for the stuff that is out of control. That's my biggest problem, too. If it is on a shelf and neat and organized, it isn't clutter to me either--except that there's no room to put away the stuff on my tables. There is a relationship between the two!

I will have to take some time to do this. 25%? That is truly an extraordinary amount.

I did it !

I don't know if I put 25% of my books in my Outbox, it feels more like 40%.

I had two motivations. First one, a friend is moving and giving us his beautiful, sleek and modern bookshelf, but it is smaller than the ugly bookshelf we have now. I'm putting a bookshelf in the "Outroom" (thank you basement) !
Second motivation: I have (had) a huge collection of very rare, very interesting books about French litterature. I spent two years hunting them down at thrift stores, bookstores, marketplaces, etc. I've been treasuring them because they are truly great and very hard to come by, even in public libraries. And I've never opened one since 2002. So, I'm giving them to my old university's library. I know for a fact that they don't have them, and I hope some students will put them to better use than I do right now.

The hard part will be to convince my husband to seriously edit his cd collection tonight... I mean, he keeps copied cds ! What's the point, there's not even the original cover on those !

By the way, about the record collection. My dad had one two, that he gave away and sold a few months ago. I only kept one record, the soundtrack from 2001, a space odyssey, because I love the music, the film and the album's cover. It's now framed and I love it !

I'm all for editing my book collection -- which I try to do twice a year -- but Maxwell's comment that "Books are collections of old thoughts" has got to be one of the silliest things I've ever heard, and certainly the most ridiculous reason for paring down a book collection.

I'd love to have that record collection (well, I could do without the Wham LP)! Last year I began buying used records in hopes to start a collection, and I've just come to the conclusion that it's more expensive to get into, and more difficult to find the gems than I had hoped.

Because I live in Louisville, KY, I don't know that shipping 400 albums would be very cost effective. Correct me if I'm wrong...

I guess this means my Real Simple magazines that are hiding behind the couch and have been lugged from apartment to apartment since 2005?

I've been going through books and magazines to empty my office in preparation for turning it into a nursery. We tried selling some to a used bookstore, and that was a horrible experience of condescension and measly pittance. We'd been taking others to Goodwill, which is worthy enough. But then a friend suggested I check and see if my local library was taking donations for any kind of book sale, and it turned out that the library has its own used bookstore, which raises library funds ()! I was thrilled. They accepted the books, of course, and the magazines were accepted by local branches at their magazine-swap tables. I have a new place to take books! Check with your library.

(Sorry about the code glitch. I was rushing and left out the quotes.)

I only keep art books and reference books (probably have less than 50, and my CD's are in binders (thought maybe I'll just get rid of those too). Now if I could get my boyfriend to keep his CD's in binders and get rid of all the trashy "Bloodlum" thriller novels. Oh yeah, and his college texts, and old cell phones and old DJ equipment and old PC and old cameras, and 3 boxes of wires, and old mattress, and old bedding, and and and...oops I got a little bit sidetracked. I will have to think of another category that I can clean up today. Maybe I'll do it electronically. Purge music and photos on my laptop.

I just gave approx. 15 books to my local library last week. Can I count those for today and just lay on my couch for 20 minutes.??????? Thanks to everyone who said "sure"

Woah. Sometimes it's good to listen to Nancy Reagan and Just Say No. I'll get rid of my trashy romances and *maybe* my past issues of Science... but that's it. Get rid of my college school books? Absolutely not. No-no-no-no. That education was expensive.

As for the rest of my books, they are like old friends. I could no more easily throw out the world of Narnia than I could delete my childhood BFF in my Friend's List. ;)

Really hoping no one is actually throwing books into the garbage.

There are alternatives out there: Try paperbackswap.com. List all the books you're willing to part with on your "bookshelf" and other users can request them from you. For the cost of shipping, you send it to them and in turn, get a credit for a free book. You can use the credits to request books (or audio books) from any other member on the site. If you don't want to replace the books you have, you can store the credits for later use. I was able to ditch about 25 books this way, and get about 10 new (to me) books that I really wanted, and store the remaining 15 credits for future use.

Also, to Riffraffa, sure ;)

in the beginning of the year, i finally bought three small bookshelves to house my books. unfortunately, i had three milk crates' worth of extra books that wouldn't fit. having neither the space for nor the interest in getting another bookshelf, i made a new year's resolution that i wouldn't buy another book until i had read all the books i have. that included acquiring books with credit at the used book store. thus far, i've read about thirty previously-unread books and shed about twenty. now that i've started, i plan to continue this resolution until i've really read all my books (which could be a couple more years, i fear). the really great, surprising outcome has been that i've read books i probably wouldn't have if i had continued to allow myself to bring new books in (including several bought for college courses that i <gasp> didn't read at the time).

I did this last weekend. Finally boxed up all of my texts like "Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy." Goodwill is about to get a decent gender studies collection.

@therecomesayes: i was an ethnic studies major, and for a while all my amazon recommendations were things like "colonial narratives/cultural dialogues" and "blueprint for black power"

I could not function with that few book shelves. One smallish wall, floor to ceiling is more generous. I re read books I love and would never get rid of them. I do pass on books that I am luke warm on and try to give them away instead of storing them in valuable space. I also borrow from the library if I don't want to purchase the book. I wouldn't give away books for lack of space, I would just add another shelf! Books are such a luxury! just sayin'!

I thought I was a home cure rockstar, but looking at my cumbersome bookcase is kicking my ass. This will be my hardest challenge yet.

You're so right when you say that books can become such a burden that they will prevent you from considering moving even if that is your best life option.

In the past, we not only purchased books with abandon; we inherited and were gifted with books from well-meaning friends. Now, we are the owners of many volumes which are not only useless to us but are boat anchors which prevent us from moving on from what we once were or aspired to be.

I have given some to the library but it is so difficult that I have to pull away for a while and then attack it again.

Meanwhile, we have shelves and shelves and shelves and shelves of paper bound into beautiful--and not so beautiful--volumes that are there for 'show'. Except the 'show' is collecting dust and angst for what we have become as a result of our 'collection.' It owns us rather than us owning it.

This might have backfired. I had two copies of the same book so I took one to the used bookstore to test out 'getting rid of books'. Once there I found out that I have a $97 credit! (proof I've parted with books before)

Tally: 1 book out, 2 books in & approx. 50 (?) more books to come in...yikes.

I once had nearly 1500 books and my first big move from an apt of 8 years cost $495 mostly as a result of the 43 banker boxes full of books. Two more long, expensive moves failed to get to me as much as the media decluttering did during an AT cure a few years ago.

It took 3 purges of directed donations to public and university libraries and their "friend" groups to get down to my core of about 200. I haven't missed the many books that often remained packed away in boxes move after move and I will be donating bunches of cds as well.

However, I caution anyone fully adopting an ebook/digital media route to read your user agreements before a disaster forces you to learn you were renting instead of owning. I lost some ebooks after an industry packing/licensing dispute a few years ago and a recent itunes library problem clued me in to Apple's single download policy.

I've returned to buying discs to preclude the need for numerous backups of digital files and to keep my Itunes lib from growing beyond a tb.

Last weekend I finally got through the piles of magazines, reducing them to three folders, and offered almost all of my CDs on Amazon today. Phew! Years ago my sister got all my vinyls, as she is the only one I know who still has a record-player.
Books are a lesser problem here, once a year we have a book-swap-party with some friends, everyone brings the books no longer needed and picks whatever he/she likes. The books that nobody of us wants anymore are brought to the library.
And: I got the flowers today, yesterday I just didn't have the time to buy some.

As much as I love books, I don't love holding onto them. I only keep my absolute favorites, and reference books.

I did have a issue with magazines... I kept a bunch of them that featured tutorials for projects I thought I'd do. I'd kept them for well over and year without completing, let alone starting, any of them. In the recycling bin they went.

oh no, don't want to throw away books! Okay, every once in a while we go through our collection and get rid of the ones that have no value to neither of us, but i could never let 25% get to leave the house. I actually read a book to my boys this evening that my mum used to read to me when I was a child.

I didn't think I was going to participate today, but when I reviewed my small book collection I did indeed find things I could part with. I was even able to immediately sell $50 worth! So it was a small reduction of an already small collection. Your 10% rule can apply to any size collection. Thanks for this! Woo hoo! I feel great.

i was thinking "books & media, the two things I actually keep in good order"...until I glanced at my bedside table and realized I had 10 books sitting there...and haven't finished one this year. Then I remembered the boxes in the basement of college books. Time to purge, but tonight I only have time for the bedside table as I'm leaving bright & early tomorrow morning for a work retreat...which will be good because it looks like tomorrow's assignment is a media fast and I won't have internet or cell reception. :-D

I've gone Kindle. So fabulous. I have about 20 favorite books that I keep. Of all the regular paper books I have read, I keep a catalog in a note book so I can alway find a favorite title or author.

Well I didn't realise how much of a problem I had with decluttering books, till I started feeling panicky about YOU getting rid of Ursula's books...and when you said you're getting rid of Cat Stevens, my palms literally started sweating! They are not even my own things and I am still anxious about it!
So no wonder I can't face getting rid of my own books or records.

I have actually decided to keep my old LPs, they are too special, and I don't have that many that they are taking up much room. As for the books, I have enough to fill a small library, but I will try to get rid of one, or even two today if I get really brave. I have recently bought a Kindle which I love, but the old books that I love are all my art and craft books, so hard to part with.

@Kinky Gazpacho, I didn't know that about 'renting'. Thanks for the info!

I have a friend who's greatly helped reduce my bookshelf footprint. We used to trade books all the time between 3 to 5 of us, but then ended up wondering what to do with the books once we were done. www.paperbackswap.com has been a blessing for finding our used books a good home! And for any new books we want? Three of us now have kindles, and we share them on amazon, so we can all be reading the same book at the same time! Love love love my kindle!

What's that cute little tree on the shelf? Where can I buy one?

I am so thrilled with the results from today. Here is my blog post with pictures and all! http://bit.ly/9vJMDs

I had already pared it down but realized I could do more. College was over 15 years ago - time to let it go! I'm keeping novels I will actually reread or books that can't be found anywhere. That is it. What is so amazing is that with shelves half empty I can see what I have and it makes me want to read what I have. I have an amazing poetry collection that I didn't make good use of because it was kindof hidden. Not anymore!

I think someone in these comments mentioned being wary of getting rid of cds...I have a few backups and then also offsite backup. Mozy.com is one - very inexpensive - about $5 a month. All my music is backed up offline (in case of fire) and in external drives. One drive here with me and another offsite with a friend....again - in case of theft or fire.

If you live in a high foot traffic area, try leaving a few books outside (ala Maxwell's old iPod) and see if you get any takers. I live in a neighborhood with tons of kids and periodically put out a book or two that my son is done with (usually board books that are too babyish for him now) and they're usually gone within the hour.

I love old albums, but I don't listen to them, I hang them up on the wall. I picked them up originally for each of my boys so they could hang them up in their rooms. Then, this summer we combined them to form a wall of albums in our family/media room. They look amazing!

I forgot to add that we've limited the albums to 22. I really wanted to buy more, but my son reminded me, "Mom! we don't need anymore." Out of the mouths of babes.......

Books, the bane of my existence......Ive given a ton of books from the last 2 cures to the library 200+(some were added to the permanent collections) yeah! I loved them all, BUT its such a RELIEF mentally & physically..
Stacked them to the side and then in small bunches 10-15 here and there whenever I had the extra 10 minutes to go by. A helping of patience since it Took A While.

New mags I circulate- read & pass it on- it is well read by the time it is thrown away and less mags in recycle piles. Much older mags I ebay.

When I hit 40 I decided that there was really no point to keeping the college books that I loved and hadn’t touched in a few decades…it was nice to let go! And of course this was possible after reading the section in the book about why we hold onto things and letting things go to allow more room to bring things in (physically and figuratively too!)

Earlier in the year, I went through all of my books and went from just under 60 feet of bookshelves to about 25 feet; including getting rid of bookshelves so I would be repopulating them.

Am moving more into digital books via the kindle, they have lots of free digital books.

My digital media is the next big chunk that I need to spend time on reviewing and sliming down. As I don't really see the storage, I tend not to think about it and doing the necessary pruning.

Phew ... my bookshelf has a breathable 10% + of space, but I guess I can't skip this cure however since .... I do have a PILE of magazine in my foyer. Time to tackle them ....

I aim to weed out the unused books that are collecting dust and will only keep my absolutely favorite ones...especially since I now have an iPad to help maintain book clutter. I just called my local library and they will take all books for their book selling fundraisers...Great!

The REAL challenge will be all the house design & jewelry design magazines...many bring me inspiration and so hard to part with...

No....I won't do this one. I parted with my CD collection years ago and have regretted it ever since. So instead of getting rid of my approximately 400 cookbooks I had custom bookshelves built. They are massive but I am not parting with a single book. Looking to build another matching bookshelf soon.

I live in a noisy apartment building. Our apartment is on the ground floor and people coming and going in and out, up and down the stairs is quite noisy. Our side of the wall that shares the hall is lined with three Ikea bookcases filled with books. These act as insulation and a barrier to sound. I've always collected books and my large collection works in a practical way, but I do constantly cull as new books come in.

I'm a little bit of a cheat when I get rid of books in my apartment. I'm married to an English teacher and it seems there is almost unlimited space in his classroom for his lending library. So any (appropriate) books go there.

I will not get rid of my CD collection. I will not go digital. That collection is a living breathing dynamic thing so it is definitely not clutter. I will take a closer look and see what CDs I can really get rid of though. I'm sure I have some from my college radio station days that I really don't listen to and never will.

I'm having anxiety over this cure. Most of my books are for reference. What if I need to refer to something I've given away? I'm going to do my best to purge. I like the idea of using paperbackswap.com.

Ugh...feeling....tightness...in my....throat.....

Will purge. Have a charity coming Tuesday. Perfect.

Oh dear. This is the one part of the cure I never really agree with. I don't think of my books as old ideas, and I do cull from time to time. But my books are my favourite things. Still, I'll give it a shot...using the Outbox method.

I did this when I moved a while ago. I still have room on my shelves. I try to only hold onto my favorite books that I will possibly read again and cookbooks and gardening books. My dad belongs to a book club and is always giving me books, so after I read them I put them in a box in the garage and when it gets full I donate them.

you still have to keep all those CD even thought they now live in digital format, ideally in a binder that takes less space. Reason being is legal you can't have a copy of a file without having "proof of purchase" sure you can buy off of Itunes and if the cops a come Itunes has a record of sale but if you burn a cd without having an original copy still you can't legally have ownership of the digital copy.

I purged my books a few years ago and am happy for it. I could probably get rid of a few more, but for now they are pretty clutter free (especially now that I buy the majority of them for my Nook) ... All of my CDs are boxed up and stored away, everything is on my computer and there's no need to have the CDs sitting around collecting dust and taking up space in my living area :D ... it was a nice feeling to get rid of a few hundred books that I had not opened in years, though.

Please remember to ASK your kids what they are willing to part with from their bookshelf. It is respectful, and gives them an opportunity to learn tidiness and charity.

Pushed the wrong button on my iPod and wiped out my music digital library, so not getting rid of the CDs. It's been 2 years and I still haven't re-burn 85% of the original library, guess the heart is not into it.

Books? Okay, maybe now it's time to let go of the old text books..... Nooooooooooo I might still need them, like for work! As for non-reference books, I noticed my nephew have been helping himself to my books whenever he visits so that's my excuse for keeping books, for the next generation!

I've just come from sorting books donated to the friends of our local library. We also accept cds, dvds, videos. All the money we make at book sales through out the year goes to support library programs.

In the area of New England I live in, most libraries do this. I don't know what it's like in the rest of the country. But please inquire at your local library.

I, personally, find it much easier to donate a book or cd/dvd to the library, than to just toss it or put it in a collection box somewhere. We've donated most of our cds and probably half our books over the years I've been doing this. But I still am going to try to hit the 25% on the remaining ones.

Can it count that last week I donated 5 years worth of magazines? The art teacher at my kids' school was happy to take the MS Living & Southern Living magazines.

We don't collect DVD's & only have about 100 or so CD's. I like keeping the CD's for the liner notes & cover art.

Books have been purged over the years. I will work with my children this afternoon, but I don't imagine they will part with more than 1 or 2 apiece :)

Good luck purging everyone!

Too late. Did this ages ago. But most people forget that we have these amazing resources called "libraries" and "projectgutenberg.org." Even if you aren't buying into the whole ebook craze, there are ways to get your read on and keep your bookcases clear at the same time.

Hi everyone. Ok, so I find it super hard to let go of my books. I am a librarian and on top of all the stuff I borrow from the library, and advance reading copies I sometimes get for free, I purchase a lot of books, and have so many at home I really have no space for all of them. Plus I used to work at a bookstore and quite frequently kinda blew my paycheck buying books with staff discount, so tempting!

Anyway, here is a suggestion that I think hasn't been mentioned yet. When you finally decide which books you want to give away, you can do it through www.bookcrossing.com
It is free, and it is really cool! The way it works is you "release your books" for someone to find them and if you wish you can track where in the world they end up! So it's kinda the same as just leaving them out on your doorstep, but it gives you a chance of following the destiny of your once-loved books. It is all explained on the site, but basically you register your book on bookcrossing, then put a label inside of the book with a code, and "release" it wherever you want (a bench in a park, a coffee shop, wherever). If someone picks it up they will see the label and if they can log in to bookcrossing to say the book has been "caught". Then they can give it away again and eventually the book can actually end anywhere in the world!
I only found a book this way once, it was Anthem by Ayn Rand, someone had left it outside a bench at the library, and it was awesome!
Good luck everyone with your book/CDs/films weeding projects!

I transferred my CD collection to my computer. 75% of the CDs were stored in the basement storage unit and got stolen. :(

Hope I never have to produce evidence that I bought all that music.

I didn't meet today's cure's reduction goals because I'd already been keeping my printed materials collection slim. I'd already released all my AV media. My printed materials collection is on four shelves of a standard width bookcase. In :20, I recycled my 2007 Consumer Reports and continued to weed and organize my binders about my house pet whippets. My husband has far more, and larger, collections than I do. I'll share today's cure and he may take it as far as he likes with his books and media.

I got rid of my record collection years ago. It broke my heart, but when someone who was roughly my age showed interest, I sold everything to her for $10. It felt good that they were going to a home where they would be enjoyed.

Over the years I have sold CDs (and made tons of money...although nothing close to what I paid for them) and donated books to a local library. This past "go-around" I sat down and went through ALL of my cookbooks (two stuffed bookcases worth and several high piles on the floor) and asked myself if I was REALLY going to ever make the recipes in them. If the answer was no...out it went. I eventually donated roughly 20 grocery store bags of cookbooks to the Salvation Army...and did it feel good!!! Do I still have a ton of cookbooks? Yes, but at least I know they are ones that I will use.

I have to admit that while I was going through stuff one morning, I had an epiphany (or as I say, "I finally snapped"). I couldn't stand looking at and trying to find a home for my stuff anymore. I had had it trying to save it for the yardsale that never seemed to happen. That is when I started loading up my trunk and making trips to the Salvation Army or to relatives' homes that wanted some items. Unfortunately it took me a while to get to that point, but thank God I did. I still have a lot to go through, but now my focus is much more narrow and I don't have any regrets. Once it is out of my apartment, I don't think of it ever again.

I decluttered a lot of our books, DVDs, and CDs (6 boxes worth) by sending them to our guys and gals in the military who were serving abroad. And it didn't cost a lot of $$ at all. Using this link:
http://anysoldier.com/WhereToSend/
I searched "books" to find a unit that wanted books, then I chose a unit with a lot of people (over 75). The US Postal Service has a rate called "Media Mail" that is dirt cheap. You can pack up books, magazines, DVDs, and CDs using this rate. It cost about $12/box. If you do this now, these boxes will be received in Afghanistan, etc. by Christmas. The thank you notes alone are worth it. And you'll feel great knowing that your old books found a wonderful new home.

Books are my true love. I may cull my collection from time to time... but purge seems cruel and extreme. I have another solution to creating 10% empty shelf space. Buy more shelves.

I agree with decluttering and getting rid of textbooks and junk you'll never ever use again. But if you're just going to clear 25% of your books to put whatever dumb trendy objects are popular on blogs now then forget about it. You'll be decluttering birds or owls or chevron crap or whatever you replace the books with.

I like to keep the size of my collections in direct proportion to how I spend my time. For example two of my favorite things to do are making artwork and trying out new fashions! My closets may be full of shoes and my studio is full of "just in case" supplies, but I cut back clutter in other areas.

My book collection is one place where I have pared down. I don't spend a lot of time in my apartment reading, so I only need to hang onto the books I reference often. My Apartment Therapy book is dog-eared and covered in post-its. Its books like those that always make the cut!

I'm really excited about this one. I'm really good at letting things go but I haven't gone through my books in a long time.

@gumleaf -- I had exactly the same reaction. I've kept most of my books from when I was young, and wouldn't you know, but one of the few books I didn't is torturing me, and I have been trying to find the title for 3 years so that I can read it to my own children.

So the bit about throwing out Ursula's books had me really upset.

My problem is magazines... I've had my nose stuck in a design magazine since I was 5, and getting rid of them is physically painful. I still recall articles from 20 years ago... I have clippings, but am awfully happy when I find intact magazines (found a stash of old Dominos recently, and picked up some great ideas which I didn't need a few years ago, but which are now perfect).

And CDs... I love the little package of a cd in a jewel box with cover art. Somehow, I just haven't found the binders to be very appealing.

I'm hopeless at this part...

to Hannah from Urban Stone Creative: Your solution works for me! There's always someplace you can cram a new bookshelf in, although eventually you might have to get creative.

I will read and re-read my books until they fall to pieces, and then promptly try to replace the same book while praying it hasn't disappeared from print. It seems like every time I read a story, I catch new details that I hadn't noticed before. I have a "new books" corner with fresh reading material, and if I like the new material, it goes on the forever shelves. If it's more "meh" than devoured, it gets promptly donated.

I will declutter elsewhere. Knicknacks, clothes, gadgets, cat toys... but once on my forever shelves, the book stays.

I would love to make a new home for your old records! I have just begun my collection and, and someone has said, find it quite difficult to find quality records despite my efforts of searching. Please contact me if you really are looking to get them off your hands.

I managed to remove 13 books from my shelf!

Maxwell,
Great job on this and all your videos - very inspiring! I shall get to work purging some books. I recently performed a purge for 10% of my vinyl collection, thus I have some empty space on my shelves. Your well-loved vinyl would be in good company here. I have cherished my vinyl (also heavily from the 70s/80s/early 90s), and in the past few years have been the recipient of the collections of family and friends' records - what an adventure! My grandfather's 78s were all meticulously cared for (he even listed dates of cleaning), my mother's 45s are beat-up but an interesting jaunt through 60s folk and rock, my vinyl from the 80s are just like the 80s themselves: an eclectic juxtaposition that is like a music mullet. If you would like your vinyl to come back to life, I can help! The record player here is used every day!

I would love to add your vinyl to my collection.
I dig, collect and use old records to sample and make new music. Vinyl is as heavy as books. I recently moved and besides books those were the heaviest items by far. Can't imagine you'd pay to ship the collection but I'd make good use of them and they would go to a good home.

Thanks

I personally don't get why getting tird of all your stuff is so important. I do get why unused stuff should be moved out of the way or even better given away or sold. But getting rid of cds and vinyls ? "oh it doesn't take up space on a harddrive" - right except you need a player, a backup (don't want to loose it when the drive fails) and the quality ? why don't you digitize all your books and get rid of not 20% bu 100% because it sucks to read books on a computer and once the drive fails... same goes for music AND the player. Prices for decent digital players are horrible compared to decent CD players and record players. And whats wrong with the physical part of a record or cd. As you sit down to actually LISTEN to it (many of you probably just wander about and have the music running in the background but never really commit to listening to your music) it is nice to be able to pleasure your eyes with the ARTWORK of the record or cd. Whats wrong with books - they are beautiful....

I have held onto my daughter's (quite extensive) book collection as some of them we used to read over and over together. Looking through them still brings back happy memories for us both. I entertain the idea of her keeping them to read with her own children one day, which is sentimental nonsense, I suppose. I don't usually have a problem getting rid of things, but the books you read WITH your children are, for me, special. Also, children's books are often beautifully illustrated, decorative items in themselves. I have some vintage children's books from the 1930s, and have been thinking of having them framed to decorate a child's room.

You'll have to kill me before I get rid of any of my books! No way!
And my entire record collection is made of less than 50 pieces. No-no-no!

wow, as a librarian, I am not at all sentimental about books. My ex husband and I used to struggle with that. He was/is a keeper, I'm a read-and-give-away kind of gal.

I love records, though, and I collect them. So, I think I would have a harder time with that. I really enjoy throwing listening parties! There's something about the pop and snap of vinyl that is so satisfying. Also, the depth of sound is better than, IMHO, what's currently on my iPod. (Not that I'd be giving that up any time soon! You can't run with a turntable!)

Yeah, so, if you want to hand over your record collection, it will be enjoyed. Listening parties are fun! (Are you really SURE you want to get rid of it!?!)

After being overwhelmed by books, my own and inherited, I finally had to decide where my bookshelves would really live and the maximum number of bookshelves I'd have (otherwise the room would feel overcrowded to me). I went by category of book, pulling my favorites and setting them aside for the moment, then immediately boxing up the unchosen remainder for donation/sale. Since I'd already chosen my favorites, and knew they were 'safe', it was so easy to view the rest as visual clutter and get it out of the house! I still have a few categories to go, and occasionally I find a store box of books, but I'm happy to say I'm on my way to a properly curated reference library.

I'm appalled! I don't need fewer books, I need more shelves! I'm absolutely sure of this!!!!

If I don't see myself rereading the book, I normally don't keep it. This is perfect timing! I already know of a few books I want to purge from my collection.

My husband participated after he saw me working on this daily cure. He released two books and over a dozen music CDs.

Maxwell, I would L.O.V.E to have the album collection. My son and I could listen to an album a week and pull out lyrics from a song to do copy work and rewrite new rhymes. It would be fantastic and a really fun way to learn and recite poetry!!

I strongly recommend Swap.com for its ability to turn the books you've moved on from into the music, movies, games, and, yes, other books for which you've been wishing.

It helps with some of that feeling of responsibility over the fate of a book which seems to rest very heavily on some people. Goodwill is great for getting stuff to someone who'll love it—Goodwill knows way more people than you do—but if you need the confirmation that things are going to someone who definitely want them before you can feel comfortable letting them go, then Swap.com and, for other things, Freecycle and Craig's List can really help you make room in your life for what is CURRENTLY awesome to you.

Replace all media with a handheld computer.