It’s nearly like someone giving me a book, which is also not a reason to hang on to it.īeing so, I’ve decluttered several books after concluding that I would have no interest in reading them if I didn’t already own them. But on the flip side, if I already don’t want to read it, then forcing myself to turn the pages is already devoid of value.Īlso, I bought many of my books from thrift stores therefore, does sunk cost still apply if I only spent fifty cents on it? Probably not. It may seem obvious, but I’ll say it anyways: there’s no reason for me to have multiple copies or versions of the same book.įor me, the question of “do I still want to read this?” can be a classic sunk cost fallacy since I already bought a book, then I feel as though I need to get my money’s worth and actually read it. For example, yesterday I decluttered a book because I also own the audio version and because it was a memoir, hearing the author’s narration won out. Owning Multiple Copies or VersionsĪnother easy consideration on whether or not to keep a book is if I own multiple copies or versions of it. For the others, I’m moving the catalog of my reading history from a physical space to a virtual one: my Goodreads account. For example, everything by Toni Morrison will stay. When it comes to the books I’ve already read, I decided to only keep the ones that I want to read again.

Why else would I keep so many books that I only felt so-so about? My books were on display like a conversation piece. I realized that I was doing this with my shelves at home, too. Like a game, we pointed to and discussed all the books we’d already read. Recently, I walked into a bookstore with a friend and stood in front of the “featured” shelf. The first question is fairly simple: have I already read this? Scanning my bookshelves, the first thing that became apparent is that I keep books as trophies. And in decluttering one book a day, I found myself running through a list of the same three questions. The first day was the hardest, but then the decision to declutter more books became easier and easier. Eventually, I listened to my logical brain instead of my emotional one and decided that I shouldn’t keep all those books. In reality, since most of the books I read now are from the public library, there was no practical reason to hang on like I was. It was almost as though I could walk by a nearly exploding bookshelf and affirm, “ah yes, I do like to read.” In sum, I realized that I kept my book collection in tact as a testament to myself as a reader. In the past few weeks, I started thinking more critically about why I was really hanging on to so many books (some I had since high school). I told myself that a book is not just a sweater that doesn’t fit right - it’s a whole story, a possible reference point, etc. Why My #1 Hobby is the Hardest to Minimizeīooks, unlike clothes, are harder to declutter because I’m better at inventing reasons to keep them.

Books to unclutter