Confessions of a Children's Book Addict

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This top image is the "before" image. And if I'm honest, I'll tell you that it's not all of our children's books. We have more in various places. In fact, I have what amounted to a trunk full in storage. This picture only covers what was in our home.

I am a children's book addict.

I confess that I've been under the understanding that you can never have too many books.

I confess that I have combed through yard sales and bought up to a hundred gently used books at a time.

I confess that I have received hundreds of books from friends that know and feed my addiction.

I confess that I have often been a quantity over quality kind of gal.

I confess that I have had buyers remorse over a book purchase because not all children's books are created equal and I failed to read the book before I bought it.

And I confess to keeping those sub-par books.

How We Purged More Than 200 Books

We regularly go through R's belongings and donate the things he has outgrown. At least twice a year. He's always an active part in the decisions, and he's very generous. But we have never carried this practice over from his clothes and toys to my his books. It was time.

I started by gathering all the books into one central location. I cleaned each book and assessed it for damage. I taped up any spines that needed mending. And I asked myself, "do I absolutely have to have this book?"

We had close to 500 books when I started. And after I finished cleaning, sorting, and deciding on which books I must keep... we still had close to 500 books. Apparently I could only part with those regrets I mentioned.

So then I asked myself, "what books could I part with, if they would make a nice gift for one of R's friends?" I made a tiny bit more progress. Not much though.

Then I brought out the game-changing question. I asked R, "which books would you like to keep, and which would you like to give away?"

He loves books. Truly. But he was able to quickly go through and tell me which he had to have, and which he no longer wanted.

It was hard for me. I had to force myself into keeping quiet when I really wanted to talk him into keeping them. I rationalized with myself. What good is keeping books that he does not enjoy? So I let them go.

We parted with around 250 books. Here, my friends, is the before and after.

I have one last confession to make.

My first thought was, "oh yeah! We have room for more books now!"

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