Rubber Ducky Copywriter

Cleaning and clearing out my home library. Some wins. Some losses. Many lessons learned, especially about how to do this successfully.

Arms feel like overcooked noodles that were dried in the Sahara sun for five years, then recooked and left in water for another year. Ow.

Starting with how to clean out your home library without losing your mind and using this headline as my intro paragraph because my arms hurt and I don’t feel like making the extra clickety-clicks to make this paragraph text, so let’s all be glad I still care enough about spelling to hick the backspace key and try again.

Skip trying to inventory and organize out at the same time.

Using BookBuddy is easy, but pulling, scanning and labeling 39 books took 4 hours. Takes too long. And gives me too much time to get distracted or discouraged by reading books that I thought I’d lost but oh-ho-no there it is.

Sort into piles on the floor first.

In one working day, I pulled more than 100 books and organized them into Horror, Literature, Personal, Professional… and so on.

So much faster and easier. Plus, pulling the books from their shelves and putting them in towers helped me see each one outside of its designated spot, giving me a much clearer picture of how many I have and how important each one is to keep or donate.

Pull for donation at will.

As I move about the house and see a book that I’m ready to let go of, I pull it and set it aside. No waiting until I get to that shelf. Just pull, set aside, and move on with life. Prevents overthinking.

Aim for areas that bug you the most.

My office floor bugs me the most. So I aimed for those book towers first. And now I’ve cleared most of it. Do that, and it almost doesn’t matter how quickly you work on the other stacks or shelves because you’ve already fixed what’s prompting you to take on this insane task anyway.

Think of the person who’s next to get them.

“Getting rid of” books is harsh. A lot of people, myself included, think of them as not unlike tiny, paper family members. I love my books. I don’t want them to feel rejected. But I do like the idea of gifting them forward and making their next owner happy to find them at a good deal.

Pull. Bag. Donate. Done.

Put any books you want to donate in bags and boxes, immediately. Do not put them in a special place on the floor. No setting them aside for when you’ll get to them. No waiting for when you have enough to justify running the errand. And no giving yourself time to change your mind.

Pull ’em. Bag ’em. Donate ’em.

Donate whatever you’ve pulled at the end of that day.

Seriously. Don’t leave them hanging around. Don’t give them time to multiply. Or migrate back to their spots. Or for some well-meaning person walk by and say, “Are you sure? You love this one.”

Pull. Bag. Donate. That. Day.

Tolerate no distractions.

I chose my staycation because my husband is out of the house and unable to chime in or ask me where I put that one thing he needs but can’t find so can I come help him find that one thing five times?

At the end of the day, you’ll feel so accomplished and your body so tired that you’ll have a newfound appreciate for what your talent for buying books faster than you can read them is doing to yourself, your carpet, your bookshelves and your budget.

I know. I’m breaking my own rules for concise writing. I’m fine with that. This is not the world news.