Minimizing Monday -- book shelves (yikes!)
This morning I excitedly logged on to Handprints on the Wall to get my marching orders for the day. For the past couple weeks each Monday they have given a task to complete to help minimize all the material goods we seem to clutter our lives and homes with. These challenges have really spoken to me about a lifestyle focus of simplicity and I have enjoyed the process and new revelations I have found throughout. I still enjoy the clear counters I found in my kitchen last week. Unfortunately, Kendra had a "good-bye" post up. Due to an injury and the resulting unemployment and financial strain, she has to turn off her internet for the time being. She will definitely be in my prayers. I would encourage you to head over and offer some words of encouragement to her as she heads "off-line." I know the internet and blog world can be such an encouragement to stay at home moms, and I pray that she continues to find the support and strength as God alone can provide.
So, although I did not have an assigned task, I decided to continue in the Minimizing Monday theme and tackle my bookshelves. Now, this past year I already went through and weeded out about twice this amount of books that I did not want. Now I needed to weed out the things I do not need. I think that is the difference between decluttering and minimizing. Decluttering removes the clutter, minimizing only preserves the essentials.
As always, I know I could probably do even more. Someone else would still see 20 books I could do away with from their perspective. Minimizing continues even after the initial purge as the mindset takes hold.
Here are the books and videos that I removed from my shelves. Most of these I haven't used or could easily borrow from the library if I want to reread them some time:
Of course, as always, my kids had a hard time parting with their "favorite" _______ that I had put in the pile. However, I persevered and was rewarded with this:
That holds all my kids' current homeschool books as well as items I need to keep on hand for the coming year(s). I used to have the base of the hutch full of books as well, but was able to move all of that onto the shelves and still have some room to spare. In addition, I cleared off all the dog paraphernalia that we kept on the windowsill and stored it in the hutch now. Not only do I have a neater bookshelf, I have an almost empty windowsill (aside from the bag of library books).
Feeling motivated to minimize? Please, feel free to go after your bookshelves or some other deserving nook and cranny of your home.
So, although I did not have an assigned task, I decided to continue in the Minimizing Monday theme and tackle my bookshelves. Now, this past year I already went through and weeded out about twice this amount of books that I did not want. Now I needed to weed out the things I do not need. I think that is the difference between decluttering and minimizing. Decluttering removes the clutter, minimizing only preserves the essentials.
As always, I know I could probably do even more. Someone else would still see 20 books I could do away with from their perspective. Minimizing continues even after the initial purge as the mindset takes hold.
Here are the books and videos that I removed from my shelves. Most of these I haven't used or could easily borrow from the library if I want to reread them some time:
Of course, as always, my kids had a hard time parting with their "favorite" _______ that I had put in the pile. However, I persevered and was rewarded with this:
That holds all my kids' current homeschool books as well as items I need to keep on hand for the coming year(s). I used to have the base of the hutch full of books as well, but was able to move all of that onto the shelves and still have some room to spare. In addition, I cleared off all the dog paraphernalia that we kept on the windowsill and stored it in the hutch now. Not only do I have a neater bookshelf, I have an almost empty windowsill (aside from the bag of library books).Feeling motivated to minimize? Please, feel free to go after your bookshelves or some other deserving nook and cranny of your home.
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