Over the years I’ve collected an assortment of books of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. When I moved to a room with a whole wall of bookshelves, I was beyond happy. I finally had space to keep all my books in one place, rather than haphazardly homing them on every available space in my room – including the floor.

Last year when I moved to my darling little camper, my parents graciously allowed me to keep the use of my room back home, so most of my books stayed there. I did find space for a little shelf in my camper though – because how can you have a home without books? Although I started out with extra room, it wasn’t long until the shelf was stuffed and surrounded by books. (Which might be partly due to working in a bookstore, and therefore getting significant discounts on the books.)

This summer while I was visiting home and switching out what books I wanted in my camper (which was a normal course of action) and I realized I probably wouldn’t always have space for so many books. So, I gathered up a box of books of about 40 books that I knew I wouldn’t be re-reading. I planned to do the same thing in subsequent visits, which was kind of rewarding (de-cluttering is my favorite) and also kind of sad (because owning books is also sort of a favorite).

As it turns out, that probably happened a lot sooner than I had anticipated. At the beginning of this year, I found out I was going to have to downsize my book collection sooner rather than later because I was moving all my stuff back home to a new (smaller) bedroom.

I wish I would have taken good before and after pictures – or even counted the number of boxes that I gave to thrift stores… But, the process was rather sporadic and I didn’t think about documenting it until I was too far in.

In the end, I chose about two-fifths (I’m guessing about 250-300) of my books to find new owners and carefully divided the rest onto bookshelves that I pilfered from around the house. My room now has four bookshelves, effectively making me feel like I’m surrounded by books whenever I’m there – a delightful feeling indeed.

I still have some books that I’m not sure where they’ll stay, as my shelves are rather full… Overall, I’m thankful and happy that I was able to keep so many delightful books,  as well as being thankful that the books I didn’t keep will be able to bless others.