Downsizing by the book

There’s no question, we love our books. They are like old friends that sit on our shelves and remind us of other times in our lives when we read them. It’s why we find it so hard to part with them. Yes, books fill our lives with wonderful experiences, but they also fill up our homes. So if you are thinking of moving in a year or in ten years, it is a good idea to start paring down your collection.

Spend 15 minutes once a week and follow some of these helpful tips to get you started:

1. Dedicate one bookshelf as your ‘keep shelf’ and start putting only the books there that you truly cannot part with.

2. Make a habit of taking current novels that you have read to your public library as a donation

3. Pass on a good novel to a friend and ask them to pass it on again once they have read it. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. And remember, you don’t want it back.

4. Find out which local universities/colleges and places of worship have annual book sales and start putting books aside for them. A liquor box tucked inside your hall closet would be a good place to store them (the box is not too heavy to carry out).

5. Check out your collection of encyclopedias, especially the annual updates. They are the ones probably covered in cobwebs – after all, thanks to the Internet, information changes, expands and updates so quickly, it all becomes out-dated literally as soon as it is printed. If you have annuals, start with the oldest years and start letting them go.

6. When it comes to your full collection of encyclopedias they are often hard to find a home for. They have to be EXTREMELY old, to be of an real monetary value (check out eBay) Most encyclopedias are just too dated to be of use but far too common to be of value. Try donating them to an art program or if the encyclopedia is leather-bound and looks nice, you may be able to sell it as a decorator's item. The best advice is maybe to start recycling them, once a week.

7. Recycle your magazines. They can accumulate quickly if you don’t keep up with recycling them. A client of ours was getting her home ready for market and had a room full of old magazines. There were always articles that she wanted to keep to refer to later. Now it was too hard to carry them up the stairs and even harder to drag the recycling bin to the curbside. Tip: Scan or clip the articles you want to keep and then recycle the magazine. If you are moving in six months cancel the subscription for now and renew it if you have really missed it when you get to your new home.

8. Take pictures of books that you think may have a high value and send their details to a reputable auction house like Waddington’s in Toronto (lm@waddingtons.ca) They have experts there that can help you determine the value.

9. Finally, consider an eBook. We got my 84 year old mother one at Christmas and now that she has mastered the technology, she loves it. She can make the print as big as she likes and there is a little light that illuminates the print. She is thrilled.

You can keep the memories of all your books for a lifetime, but by following some of these tips, you can allow others to enjoy them too.

Vicky Riley Keyes is the founder and President of Red Coats Moving Solutions Inc. You can find her at: http://www.redcoatsmoving.com