A new Decluttering task will be published on the blog each Tuesday from February. I will share a link to the task on facebook and in the Tuesday Daily Task newsletter (subscribe to newsletter here).
Follow along on instagram with hashtag #declutter52
View previous Decluttering Challenge Tasks here
Books and Bookshelves
Do you have a excessive collection of books… cookbooks, fiction, how to’s or resources from high school/uni. A few years ago I gave our collection a really good clean out and it was amazing the types of books I came across. Resource books from TAFE that helped me to learn how to use WordPerfect (not sure if you remember that program, not sure if it still exists) but I didn’t need to keep it. A lot of the books from school, TAFE and hubby’s books from Uni were no longer relevant. We donated them just in case they interested somebody else.
Todays task is to:
- go through all your book collection
- Keep the ones you can’t part with
- Put the other books in your donations box or put aside to sell
- Place books back into bookshelf, see below for design ideas
I have quite a few cookbooks, I really need to purge some of these
Book Shelf Inspiration
neatly piled books in a shelf at the end of the kitchen bench | Tara Seawright
Rain Gutters will keep the books from falling off the shelf
I like how these books are staggered against the ornaments | the glitter guide
Give a boring old bookshelf a coat of paint and line the backing with some decorative paper/fabric | A Little Glass Box
Fill an old chimney with shelves and books | The Yvestown Blog
A great guide on how to style a bookcase, I love what Simone has done with her books, all grouped by colour | Honey and Fizz
What type of books will you be purging in this challenge?
I would like to see a photo of your purge pile on Instagram, use the hashtag #declutter52
Please join the Declutter Challenge, I truly hope that together we can make a difference in your home
30 comments
This is awesome. My bookcase looks like it will fall apart from all the clutter. Good timing 🙂
That’s great! Can’t wait to see the final result 🙂
I’ve just been thinking I need to clean out my cookbooks. I have several that I have never used, some of them I dont even like the layout, so I never really think to open them… my husband will be well pleased to see some of them go!
Well there you go 🙂
Hello, The pin it button for the book corner / guttering idea is not working. And the image cant be found by copy and pasting your url either. Can you please check if the pin it button has been activated on your end? I would love to do this one day 🙂
I cant pin anything from this post either! I love the guttering idea too and want to store it 🙂
Hi Katrina, I absolutely love your site, amazing information:) I cannot see any photos in this post:( I’ve never had problems before and all my other sites are working fine. Hope you may have a simple explanation for this, many thanks. Linda
Great timing. I didn’t even know about this challenge today but decided to do one of my bookshelves, it’s been bugging me for too long. Now have about 50 books to take over to Lifeline. Still a long way to go but it’s a start.
I also tried to pin some of the photos but the Pin it button wasn’t working.
That’s a great start Natasha!!
I recently purged our old unwanted books and put them up for auction on eBay. Only made a few bucks after postage but at least they went to people who needed them 🙂
That’s great!
Dammit! I just cleared out my bookcases last week – after being motivated by your challenges week to week!
Haha, you’re just ahead of the class!
I can’t seem to see any of the diagrams?
I’ve tried on a variety of browsers, and they’re all working for me. I asked a friend to do the same, and she could too. Have you tried a different browser?
I still can’t see any diagrams? As far as looking on another browser, sorry Katrina but i don’t even know what that means?
I’ve promised myself I will purge my books and make more use of my Kindle this year. This is the push I need! My personal tasks are: admit which ones I really have no intention or inclination to read again and get rid of them first, then the ones I can easily have electronic versions of. Then I can have a neater storage space for the ones I really love.
Jodie I have had the same problem since Thursday – I just can’t seem to get any of the pics etc on the blog – if I am lucky I will get the first pic downloaded and thereafter just blank. Very sad as I love the visuals 🙁
Just a follow up – I use Firefox as a browser as I always seem to have problems with Internet Explorer. Well after reading Kat’s note I thought let me quickly switch and see what happens when I use Internet Explorer (as I tried to view the valentine’s post and that also did not work) – anyhow it works! So Jodie if you are perhaps using Firefox maybe use Internet Explorer for the blog, it seems to work. Not sure what the problem is as Firefox always used to work, but appears that for some reason it doesn’t like it the last few days? Thank you for the tip Kat!
I have the same problem on the android phones. Have to use chrome!
Gosh – only 1 week to purge our books! I think I might need to spend a whole month to purge ours..
Well that is another job done! My books are going to our local hospital, they accept donations and then sell the books for a few dollars. All monies raised goes to buying things for the hospital such as wheelchairs or games for the wards and as an added bonus patients can pick up a nice book for about $3!
It was really hard for me to part with my books – I get a bit attached to the characters! So it was really important that I found a good way to pass them on.
Just saw this post, and I cleaned out my bookshelves last week (great minds think alike!). I store all sorts of things in my two large book cases from maps, photo albums, keys, kids games and toys and also… books! So, I keep two fabric covered boxes for kids toys/games, and have also sorted my books into colours. Looks heaps better… ! I am not on the lookout for a nice container for keys as they are just kept on a shelf, and can easily wander!
not = now! oops!
Yay! We made room on one entire shelf we didn’t know we had 🙂
great work!! Now what are you going to do with that shelf?
More books? Haha. Actually, it allowed us to move some books which were sitting haphazardly on top of other books into some of the space and we can probably file some more of our loose ‘stuff’ (the type you’re not allowed to throw away) into that space also. I just can’t wait until there is nothing that doesn’t have its own space 🙂 We’re really getting into your decluttering tasks and I want to thank you for giving us places to start when we’re overwhelmed 🙂 Also, when my husband argues with me, I tell him it’s on your blog and he listens more! xx
I really like how you implemented the gutters to the interior of the house. It’s good to know that this useful invention can be used for so many things. I agree that if we spare some time each week to declutter something around our homes, our lives would be a lot better.
NOOOOOOO!
I need help. Books are my greatest weakness – even more than shoes!
I have a study with floor to ceiling shelves on 2 walls.
I just can’t even.
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