Declutter Your Bookshelf & Papers

 My De-cluttered bookshelf ( (grouped by subject)

My De-cluttered Bookshelf (grouped by subject)

Today I am attacked my most dreaded foe - paper clutter. I periodically weed paper out, but there are some articles, notes and recipes that I have held on to for years. It is a pile that is about 6 inches thick, which may not seem like a lot, but when you consider that most are loose pages on various topics, it is quite a task. I managed to discard about 3 inches worth today, and will sort and de-clutter the rest tomorrow. I intend to keep only 1/2" worth of only extremely important documents.

As for the notes that I have taken on books that I already donated or recycled, I am typing them up to share and inspire others. I realized that I wasted a lot of time in college and after taking down notes on how to study, than actually studying! I also took down a lot of notes from textbooks, which is quite silly because I am a visual learner. However, I was a bit of an information hoarder, and dreaded forgetting things. Lengthy notes is not the solution, however. I think that mind maps or simple lists are a much more effective way of studying for visual learners like myself.

Here are some tips that I have learned as I de-clutter paper today:
1. If you can obtain it from the internet or an ebook, discard the actual physical article, book, recipe, etc.

2. For old class notes, discard if the subject has nothing to do with your life goals and career. If it is pertaining to a hobby, you can always obtain information online or through an ebook in the future if you are really interested in a topic.

3. If the notes are in relation to your career field, and you keep it to brush up on your knowledge, type of a list of keywords, and save on a document on your computer. You can always look up the topics online as the need arises or if you want to refresh your memory. Knowledge is in your mind, not in pieces of paper containing your college notes. Active knowledge that can be remembered and applied is real knowledge. Now I understand why many of the lawyers I worked with as a paralegal remembered citations so they can easily look things up, rather than keeping books upon books in their office.

4. Simplify the genres in your bookshelf. I used to have a lot more books, but I still more than I would like to have

I have replaced many of my old books with ebook versions since I have a Kindle now. However, I realized that replacing books with ebook versions is not the solution to the problem of too many books. I have books on different genres because I thought to be a well rounded person, one should read about topics in many fields. However, I realize that being a jack of all trades and a master of none has not brought me the results that I have wanted in my life. One of my desires is to be an expert in my field, yet not close minded to other subjects that interest me. Yet, having too many interests wares one thinly in their time, energy and motivation. I think it is best to have no more than three main interests in your life. This does not mean that you close yourself off to learning and other experiences. However, your time, energy and possessions should reflect mainly those interests and passions. The best case scenario is when all these things merge or overlap at some point, but it does not always work out so.

For myself, I have had to reduce my interests even further, and that starts today with the remaining books on my bookshelf. I have not de-cluttered my bookshelf in over 6 months, so it is time. I have accumulated more than I thought from Strands bookstore $1-$3 sales and from friends. Any new books read will be reading strictly Ebooks from now unless it is for school.

    

Inventory of Books: 67 ......... 26 Discarded today, 41 Kept
I expect to discard another 12 in next the 3 months as I have made a deadline to read them by then or discard them. I would like to keep only 30 books at a time in my bookshelf.

1. Languages ( Spanish, French, German, Hindi, Japanese) - 20 Books; Discard 11 & Keep 9: I am not going to learn German, Japanese or Chinese for my future career as I have not even completed my schooling for it in English. I have learned Spanish already in school, so I will keep a few books for when I travel. I have tried before and Mandarin is too difficult for me to learn to speak through a book, and I don't have time to dedicate to learning the script. I will just keep a very small phrasebook for traveling. I am keeping a French dictionary, a phonetic French phrasebook for traveling and 2 French readers that have both French and English as they are hard to find. I have wanted to learn French and Hindi for the longest amount of time compared to the rest, so I will learn French from an ebook I have. I will stick to picking up Hindi from Bollywood movies for now, and will learn it after I have mastered French. I am keeping the Hindi books - one of which is sentimental because a relative gave to me after visiting India, and the other of which is difficult to obtain.
2. 2 Books on Writing Short Stories - Discard all/2: I have had these for 3 years and have only written 2 short stories. Writing short stories is not natural to me as non-fiction or poetry.  I wanted to learn because I felt short stories are more likely to get published. Wrong reason.
3. Poetry: 5 -  Discard all/5: I have never read a book on the craft of poetry, although I have been writing since I was 10. However, I have had these 4 books for over a year, and have not picked them up once. I also have an ebook on writing poetry, so I will read that instead if I have time. English Romantic poetry and contemporary poems of the two authors, Haroldo de Campos and John Carroll can be found online. Although, I may not find as many as in the book, I don't have time to read all of them at the moment anyway.
4. Simple Living: 3- Keep 3:  I do go back and page through these books at times for inspiration, but the next few times I do so, I will type out ideas that appeal to me and post on this blog, so others can benefit, and toss the physical books. I am happy to see that a lot of new simple living books are being published in ebook format.
5. Art: 4 - Dicard all/4:  I can't afford to go to the museums a lot, so I kept these because they give in depth on the paintings and authors. I am not about to become an art critic, so I think the information provided on the authors and paintings on the museum sites will be sufficient. If I want to know more in depth about them, there is the internet.
6. Self Help/Psychology:  6 Books - Keep all/6 for 3 months only - After I read them in the next 3 months, I will discard
7. Minimalist Decor & Design Books: 5 - Keep all/5:  Guests repeatedly seem to like to look through, and I also find visual inspiration for de-cluttering and minimizing from them as they are minimalist style decor and architecture.
8. 6 Misc Books to Keep - 1 Sewing, 3 Barron's grad school exam study books, 1 vocabulary builder, Chicago Manual of Style, Bedford grammar handbook, pocket Thesaurus, 1 book on rhetoric
9. Law - 7: Keep all - Since this was my major in college, what I have experience in and plan on continuing my career in, I am keeping these books. However, I will only buy ebooks on law in the future as I do have 7 books on various topics of law currently.
10. Eastern Philosophy: 4 Books - Discard 1/ Keep3 for 3 months only: These are out of print, so I am going to read them, then discard them.
11. Cookbooks: 2 - Discard all/2: Recipes can be found online or in Ebooks
12. Textbooks: 3 - Discard all/3: They are science, history and general literature, which are not in my field, and which I can easily obtain information regarding online if I ever fancy.

Although I still have more books than I would like, many of them are quite small (no more than 1  width x 7 height), so a lot of space on my bookshelf. After 3 months, if I have not reached the deadline of reading the others, I will discard some more as well.

Please share your thoughts and your own experiences in paper and book decluttering.