Day 8 - 30-Day Declutter Challenge . . .

The suggestions for today are:

• Donate old books and magazines
• Entertainment Stand/Area:  Go through and put in proper cases and get rid of old ones

After yesterday I'm happy to have a lighter day today!  The entertainment area is already done - that would be the CD and DVD cupboards in the sunroom.  I did that back on Day 3.  You've seen that photo already.  This is the before shot of the "entertainment area" that's not hidden in a cupboard, and the only difference in the after shot is that I put the pumpkin votive away and dusted the granite - which was pretty dusty.  Geez.  :-D 

On to books and magazines. The Second Chance Shop doesn't always take books anymore - they say they can't sell them.  Due to COVID, my local library is not taking any book donations, and I recycle magazines, again, something I just did, also on Day 3, with the mail and paper cleanup.  

So.  What to actually do today???  Well, I decided that the books could all use another going over and I managed to find a few that I no longer need.  There are books all over my home.  Books were one of the last things I struggled with when I was initially divesting stuff, and they've been culled multiple times so while I didn't get rid of a lot, I probably divested at least a linear foot, which is a good amount of shelf space!  I'm going to see what's in the Little Free Library - I might be able to divest some of these there.  Otherwise I'll try again with the Second Chance Shop.

 As mentioned, there are books all over here.  In my room - these are the "to read" books, some of which have been started and stopped over time.  I made a good dent here last year with my yearlong book challenge of attempting to read a lot of what I already had, but there is still a good variety here for me to choose from.

I managed to divest one or two and I vacuumed all the dust off them (and from behind the shelf).  So, even though not much left this space, at least it's cleaned up and I can see what's what.

My knitting and writing books, as well as an assortment of blank journals live here in my home office.  Yes, there are a lot.  I culled these a few years ago and while I think there might be a few more than can eventually go, they're not going yet, so no change here. 

In the kitchen I use two of the built-ins for books.  This one yielded a few cookbooks that I no longer need/want, and the fourth and fifth shelves had stuff on them that could go, as well as stuff that had gotten stuffed there at some point.  Papers . . . some were filed, some recycled, and some put in the box  to shred.  

Here is it is after.  It doesn't look all that better, but I moved some books from another location out both those shelves, and I've really been wondering what to do with all the Bibles I have.  I have my mom's, mine, and my dad's, as well as a couple of modern translations.  It would give me at least another 10" of space to let most of these go.  I've struggled with this over the years.  I can't just toss a Bible. So, I did a little searching and came up with non-denominational place called Love Packages.  It sounds legit and I can mail things book rate.  I'll be looking into that this week.

Here is the other kitchen shelf.  Other than a couple of books being shelved here from another location, no changes happened.  Almost the entire third shelf here is bagpipe music.  I'm not currently piping, but I don't have a better place to keep the music.  I should probably go through it all at some point, but most of the people I know who piped who might have been interested in it either don't pipe any longer or don't live near me anymore.

And tucked back in the corner of my guestroom is a short version of the shelves in my room and office. 

The books on the top shelf were re-shelved out in the kitchen, I put the old clock radio/CD player away - it works and I want to keep it!.  Papers were either recycled or put in the box to shred. Books on second shelf and notebooks from spinning classes were moved out to the kitchen, which left me with the photo below.  I'm trying to make a decision on whether I will keep this or let it go.  At the moment, I'm going to keep it because if I ever leave this house with those huge built-ins in the kitchen, I'm going to need shelf space.

It wasn't a lot of work today, but it was productive and I'm glad to have it done.  I did find four more magazines on the shelf in the kitchen that required my attention - all saved for possible recipes.  I found a few recipes and have recycled the magazines. 

8 days down, 22 to go!

I've looked at both calendars for this week and there is a lot of overlap and things done from the one calendar last week that are coming up this week on the second one.  I will be able to find things to do that will fill the days, however, so I'm not worried about running out of things to declutter  :-D  :-D   

Maybe a teensy bit of movement on the amaryllis today . . . 

 No one sings the blues like B.B. 

Merry Christmas, Baby . . .