Book De-cluttering

I will be moving out soon and so it is time to clear out all of the my childhood belongings and for me this meant sorting out loads and loads of books! I loved to read when I was little and I accumulated hundreds of books which for years have lived in the spare bedroom. Yesterday I boxed most of them up ready to pass on to charity shops ready for someone else to discover and fall in love with reading.

There were 8 boxes in total that I will be giving away to various charities over the next couple of weeks, along with a box for my niece to enjoy. There were also some books that I haven't yet read that I saved to go on my bookshelves once I move.

There were several things that I realised whilst clearing them out. The most striking thing was how emotionally attached I was to all the books. They remind me of a really safe and happy time in my life and because of this it did feel as though it was that that I was boxing up. Obviously this was irrational, but it is interesting how much books can come to mean.

The second thing that I noticed was the sheer amount of books that I had accumulated over the years and this made me thankful that I had taken English Literature as a degree at university. It is something that as a graduate I have come to accept was the right thing to do and it made happy to think that it is something that my younger self would also have approved of.

Another thing that I realised was that books last! I can still pick up these stories and re-read them and they might not be what they were then, but I can still enjoy them now in a different way. Of course this doesn't mean that I have to own them, but I can still experience them again if I want to. This year I have been working hard to read all the children's books that I never did as a child but yesterday helped me to understand that I can also read all the ones that I did read as a child too.

The final thing that I realised was that it doesn't matter if you're seven or a hundred and seven, there are always too many books and too little time!