I started out with the first step according to the KonMari method, which is to pull out all of the books. In the book, she explains that just by looking at the title of the book isn't enough to choose whether you want to keep it or not. You have to take the book off the shelf and hold it and then see if it still brings you joy. (Kondo 87) So I piled all of my books onto my bed and continued on.
In my bookshelf, I had not only reading books, but also some old school notebooks, photo albums, and many more random items that didn't have a place really anywhere else in my room. So I threw away the old notebooks, and just got rid of the things that I just plain didn't need. Afterwards I was left with just the reading books.
The way to go through your books and pick the one you want to keep goes as follows, "Books...which fall into one's personal Book Hall of Fame... Next... books that inspired pleasure but didn't quite make it to the Hall of Fame." (Kondo 93) So I went through my own collection of books, and started to see which were in my Hall of Fame and brought me pleasure, and which ones didn't. I ended up keeping 5-6 of my favorite picture books and shorter chapter books that were some of my favorite while growing up and had made it to my Hall of Fame. Then I had books that brought me joy, such as my favorite young adult novels. These fit into the books that brought me pleasure. The rest of the books didn't make the cut, so I gave some to my sister and the rest went into the charity pile.
In the end, I was left with a third of the original contents of my bookshelf. I just made sure to organize the books and stored them the way that I liked. The bookshelf seemed way less cluttered and it felt really nice to only keep the items that brought me actual joy. Another part of the cleaning process was over, and I want to finish strong using the success I have had with the KonMari method.
Jasleen Virk
Do you have a large collection of books? If so, can you deal with parting with some of them, or do you need to keep them?
Kondō, Marie, and Cathy Hirano. The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of
Decluttering and Organizing. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
In my bookshelf, I had not only reading books, but also some old school notebooks, photo albums, and many more random items that didn't have a place really anywhere else in my room. So I threw away the old notebooks, and just got rid of the things that I just plain didn't need. Afterwards I was left with just the reading books.
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| Books to Keep |
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| Books to Discard |
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| Final Product |
In the end, I was left with a third of the original contents of my bookshelf. I just made sure to organize the books and stored them the way that I liked. The bookshelf seemed way less cluttered and it felt really nice to only keep the items that brought me actual joy. Another part of the cleaning process was over, and I want to finish strong using the success I have had with the KonMari method.
Do you have a large collection of books? If so, can you deal with parting with some of them, or do you need to keep them?
Kondō, Marie, and Cathy Hirano. The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of
Decluttering and Organizing. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Jasleen I really look up to your patience with organizing and deciding on what books to keep and what to throw out. As someone who likes to keep a lot of things from the past, this would drive me crazy haha! In regards of your question, I do have a lot of books I should throw out but have never gotten the chance to go through the book case. An example of that would be the old first grade books I have piled up, all of them were given to me as a child and I didn't really enjoy them that much. With that being said, reading your post made me open my eyes to the way I take care of items such as journals or various novel series I have. Cheers! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jasleen! Everyone and their grandma knows I have a large collection of books. Throughout my childhood and going on into my teen years, I was obsessed with reading and still am, but don't have the time. I still have books from my elementary school days that I should really get rid of. I have stacks of books stashed in drawers and stuffed into shelves barely organizing them by height. Since I am such a hoarder, I could never bring myself to actually throw them away because what if I wanted to read them again? Seeing this way of organizing them really makes me happy because I know I really should be more organized. I will definitely try out this method. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHey Jasleen!
ReplyDeleteWow! I could never part with so many books, it may just be something I've picked up from my mom, but it's once in a blue moon that we get rid of books, so my hat's off to you! Whenever I try to sort through any, I always find myself saying something like, "Oh, but what if I want to read this again??" With that, the book ends up still on my shelf, despite whether or not it's actually reasonable to think I'd read it again. I really like the method you showed, maybe one of these days I'll have to give it a go and see if I can help get my (and my mom's) book collection under control. Nice work!