Sometimes uncluttering your mind requires uncluttering your space. Last week my body didn’t want to cooperate with my head. I was stuck.
I have things to work on, but i was also overwhelmed with thoughts about which tasks next needed my attention. I know what needs to get done, but sometimes…what needs to get done isn’t what I feel like doing.
As I mentioned last week, I decided purging was the answer. It gave me a healthy amount of work where hopefully I would see progress without too much effort.
I emptied 2 bookshelves so I could move them across the room to a new location. Instead of putting everything back on the shelves, I decided that I needed to go through every item to decide whether to keep it, trash it or donate to a charity-based resale shop.
This was hard…not the deciding… but the reliving of my journey, my life. Every item was a story. An old photo or family memento, items from school days and LOTS of patterns, sewing and craft books. Some of these creative items where from when I was in high school! Alot were from my journey as a textile artist.
As a young person I started out with basic sewing, then as an adults I got interested in quilting. Traditional quilting became a passion and I devoured the topic. I took many classes and at the time there were more opportunities locally to take classes from some of the greats. I collected their books and other little tokens. I wanted to learn everything I could!
Now, I’ve evolved into a mixed-media textile artist. I no longer have the patience or desire to do traditional piecing or machine quilting, but I was so prolific back then. I bought so many books. But, now what do I do with all the books (see image with stacked books)? I could donate them, but I’m wondering if it is worth trying to sell them for a fair price online? Or is this me trying to hold on for a little bit longer…
~Nanette
You have gotten about as far as I did without a real plan how to finish the job … hoping you would come to a conclusion!!!
I’m going to try listing them. If that doesn’t work, I’ll donate to a local non-profit re-sale store. I’ll keep you posted!
Nanette,
I’ve been there. So many books that I no longer need because I’ve moved on. I ended up giving mine to a friend who had her own little library of books. My years of subscriptions to Cloth Paper Scissors went with her too. I won’t part with my years of Quilting Arts, or even some of the jewelry books. Your purge inspires me to do another one! Thanks.
For me it is a never ending task. I keep buying and collecting things and then get a bug to purge. Its been awhile with the books, but there were so many things that I just realized they had to go. I use to rip out articles from Cloth Paper Scissors and Quilting Arts and save them in a folder or binder. Going through some of these things, I just realized, nope!, I will not do that so why am I keeping it. It truly is a challenge to manage what to keep and not. I have some “really” old things that are even more precious that I refuse to get rid of…I just don’t know. LOL!