Crap surrounds me. I often feel discouraged about my messy house. Truthfully, though, it is nearly impossible to keep a neat and orderly home when you own so much crap. So, I am ready to declutter.

I opted to start with a minor project today. I’m tackling a small book shelf in our family room. It currently holds 175 books. As you can see from the photo, I have more books than shelf space, so 22 homeless books are just stacked on top of the shelf. Classic clutter. Do you want to know the most embarrassing thing about that unsightly mess? The books have been stacked there for so long that I had stopped noticing them. Yuck. They need to go.

As a writer, I read a lot. I’ve accumulated over 1,000 books over years. But why? There are only a handful of books that I read over and over, so why am I hanging on to all of them? Why am I letting these books that I am finished with hog valuable space in my home? Books that I found too boring to finish reading are also taking up real estate. Ditto for books that I liked but will never read again. I have collected many writing grammar/reference books too, but I bet most of the answers contained in those books can be found online. Finally, I went through a coloring book obsession a few years ago. I still enjoy coloring when I have time, which is hardly ever, but why do I need nearly 15 coloring books? Sure, many of them were gifts, but I should have tossed some older books when I received newer books. There is no way I will ever have free time to color all of those blank pages, so I need to weed out the ones which don’t appeal to me as much.

When I decided to start my decluttering project with one book shelf, I remembered Jerry Seinfeld’s classic take on most people’s tendency to hang on to to books once they’ve finished them.

 I am taking Jerry’s advice. Wish me luck, and stay tuned for an after photo. 🙂