Five Strategies to Reduce Book Clutter
Filed under: Healthy Habits, Home Organization, Organizing Products & Reviews
One of the toughest types of clutter to control is books. Books enrich our 
lives – they provide enjoyment, humor, an escape to other worlds and they educate – just to name a few of the benefits. We build entire rooms in our home as a shrine to our books and shelves from floor to ceiling are often dedicated to store our book collection. That’s why I said in the first sentence that book clutter is one of the most difficult habits to break.
We become attached our book collections and derive pride from a large and varied collection. So how can coveting books be a bad thing?
As the old adage says … too much of a good thing can quickly turn into a negative. And like any other possession, more of any possession that you aren’t using or enjoying regularly is clutter. Too often a book is purchased, put on a shelf and never touched again. Or the book is read, then put on a shelf to never be touched again. In either case, how is that book, now relegated to a book storage shelf, offering any function to your home or enjoyment to your life?
The downside to coveting books is that they take up a lot of space, they collect dust and moisture (that contributes to allergies), they can infiltrate every room and flat surface of your home, and they deprive us of open space for the possessions and activities that we use and do daily.
In my old life I wished for floor to ceiling book shelves in my living room that had vaulted ceilings, with a rolling ladder that I could climb to the top and get any one of the hundreds of books that I envisioned filling the many shelves. In this era of simple living I now view books in a different way. Now I view the habit of accumulating books and storing them on bookshelves like any other old, useless possession that doesn’t enhance my life on a daily basis. When you look at it this way, aren’t bookshelves just storage spaces for unused items to collect dust. I no longer give into the urge to purchase books that in reality I know I won’t touch anytime in the near future. And on the many storage shelves where my books were once stored, I’ve purged and narrowed it down to only my favorites.
Here are five strategies for keeping book clutter under control:
1. Pass It On, or Swap for Titles You Want
When you’re finished reading a book, pass it on to a friend or make a trade for one of her books you’d like to read. This allows you and your friends to read many books without each of you having to purchase and keep each book in your home. Here’s a great site where you can swap your unwanted books for titles you want – all free. www.PaperBackSwap.com
2. Use Electronic Media (E-Readers)
To a professional organizer, E-Reader technology is the greatest thing since sliced bread. A few of the top brands are:
In my next post, I compare these four popular brands.
The e-Reader allows you to download thousands of book titles from sites like Amazon.com, as well as from free sites like Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg is particularly good if you are interested in reading the classics.
E-readers are great when traveling especially. I have heard from clients that they loaded five or more books on their hand-held e-Reader that would’ve taken up half their suitcase and weighed it down too much to carry.
3. Frequent the Library
Your local library is a great option for current titles that you borrow, read, and return. No lasting book clutter. Before buying a book, always check to see if it is available from your local library. Most libraries will let you put your name on a waiting list for popular titles and new releases. Try to delay gratification by renting the book and giving it back when you’re done, instead of buying the book and adding it to your book storage shelves.
4. Buy One, Remove One
As I always suggest to my clients, if you bring one in, let one go. Make a deal with yourself that if buy a new book, an older one has to go.
5. Use Audio Books
I love Audible.com. I love the selection and quality of their audio books. Project Gutenberg also has many audio books that can be used with an MP3 player.
With my busy schedule, I now prefer audio books, which allow me to “read” while doing other activities like exercising, weeding, driving, or housework. They provide another way for me to read without any clutter.
So the next time you consider buying a book at your local bookstore, or on-line consider if you truly have time to read the book in the near future, or will the new book be relegated to your book storage shelves to collect dust along with all the other books you had good intensions of reading.
Originally posted 2009-11-22 15:44:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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I disagree. Books are not inherently clutter. Just because it is *possible* to leave a book lying around or place one randomly on a shelf does not make a book an agent of chaos in your home or workplace. Rather the challenge is that we do not treat objects *like* books with respect to a productive workflow.
Some more productive suggestions are as follows:
1. Buy bookcases with doors. This will prevent books from collecting dust while forcing you to be more deliberate about pulling them out and puting them away.
2. Slowly organize. Start by turning every book upside down. Then move them to the right place, right side up. If you do this for only 10 minutes a day your entire book collection will be organized in weeks.
3. Maintain a borrower log. Anytime someone wants to borrow a book, or sometime you receive a book on loan, write it down in the log. Keep this log with your books! You may want to use this as a way to write notes about a book you own as well, such as how you were inspired to acquire it.
4. Trade books for real clutter. Instead of getting rid of a book each time you bring a new one into your collection, use this as an excuse to get rid of something which has less value than any book. Throw out old papers, trash, or other unused items.
Don’t be afraid to collect books! Treat them with respect and don’t let them become clutter.
Yeah, it is too easy for books to take up space over time. While I understand the theory of frequenting the library as is presented here, the problem is that library books have a time constraint on them. It seems that with a library book, if, for instant, you start off having time to read the book, but then something comes up that you must abandon the book, you may not get the whole thing finished before you run out of time and have to give it back. (And the number of times in which you can renew any one book are usually limited.)
One thing that has helped me was that I registered some of my books on http://www.bookcrossing.com. (You have to be a member of the site to register the books, but it doesn’t cost anything.) The way it works is that one registers a book to get an ID number on it, reads it (or not), and then either sends to someone else (a “controlled release”) or leaves it in a random public place (a “wild release”). Ideally, the next person to “find” the book will go to the site and leave a “journal entry” regarding the book’s whereabouts (though there’s no promises about that). Bookcrossing helped me get rid of books that I had already read and didn’t want anymore as well as give me incentive to read books that I had gotten at one time but hadn’t gotten around to reading so that, when I was done, I could let said books go for someone else to enjoy.
Nowadays, I buy or otherwise obtain books (preferably used) with the intent of having them on hand just long enough to read them before I “release” them. I even have a blog devoted to this project:
http://rabpia.blogspot.com/
The “rabpia” by the way (and is really RAB-PIA), stands for “Read A Book, Pass It Along.” If you happen to stop by, feel free to leave a note. I should warn you that it’s a relatively new blog, and there may be bugs that need to be worked out along the way. Also, I’ve tried googling it and have yet for it to appear in the search results, so that won’t work. Nonetheless, the blog’s open if you wish to stop by sometime.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this article. I hope you are having a good year so far.