STYLE Savvy: A Novel Approach to Cleaning the Bookshelves

Lisa Hess found a new way to approach her annual task of clearing unwanted books from her shelves.

Every December, we put our Christmas tree in the mudroom, a choice that necessitated moving things around to make room. The biggest thing we needed to move was a bookcase, one that always hovered somewhere between full and overstuffed. This move created the perfect opportunity for my annual Weeding of the Books, a task which I actually enjoyed.

Two years ago, we built our sunroom, (mostly) finishing it just in time to put our Christmas tree out there. It's a lovely place for it, and this location requires less moving of furniture as well.

As you can imagine, books usually appear under the Christmas tree, but that's just the beginning. For the past two years, we've been acquiring books, but the annual Weeding of the Books has fallen by the wayside. Consequently, that task was added to my summer to-do list.

A few weeks ago, I was all ready to dig into my annual Weeding of the Books, only to discover that my husband had undertaken a task of his own in essentially the same space.

Undeterred, I decided to pivot. What if I didn't do what I'd always done? What if, instead, I extended my Sunday sampling (it was Sunday, after all) beyond my Kindle samples (and newsletters) to my actual books?

Genius.

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I selected three titles that looked interesting and brought them out to the sunroom. Settling into my favorite reading chair, I decided to give each book 15 minutes. If it didn't capture my attention, it went into the donation pile. If it grabbed me, it got to stay.

I should probably pause here and note that these were all non-fiction titles. I'm not sure I could have started a novel, set it aside to keep, and started another without getting the characters and events all co-mingled.

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Sometimes organizing is a purely practical pursuit. Other times, we get to have fun. #CatholicMom

The verdict? This was fun. It's definitely not the most productive way to tackle this task because I end up with a pile of just-started books that I'll need to finish at some point. But, really, to be honest, wouldn't that have happened anyway? Deciding what to keep and what to donate inevitably requires that we determine the suitability of the things we have, which means taking time to look them over, at the very least.

While this new approach means that I won't get my annual Weeding of the Books done in a day, it does mean I'll get the opportunity to savor what's on my shelves. And, though it will require many sessions to get through my collection, that's not necessarily a bad thing. As long as I'm putting books in the "donate" pile, I'm creating space for the ones I already have, and improving the look of the shelves as I go.

Sometimes organizing is a purely practical pursuit. Other times, we get to have fun. Ideally, we get a little bit of both in every session.

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