I’ve been teaching my children to pack their own toys away, put things away before they take out new toys, and so on since they were about 12 – 13 months.

Well, I thought it was time to teach them decluttering.

Who would ever have thought I’d say something like they have too many books but they really did.

They had foam books, thick board books and even plastic bath books and material books. Lots of the books have been chewed on and are not looking great at the moment.

So I told them to go through their books and take away the ones they don’t read so I could give it to other kids who don’t have books

They decluttered these four plus two of their absolute favourites, Daniel and David.

I will admit that I was heartbroken when they tossed Daniel and David into the mix. Quite honestly I didn’t think they’d thought it through properly so the books have been in my study.

The next night Kendra asked Dion to read David. They looked through the pile and he said, “did you not give David to the other kids?”

Her little lip started to quiver and this is where I encountered a totally new experience – I have never before had a client cry for things they tossed out.

Then again, this little one is my daughter and I did have the book.

You should have seen the joy on her face when I produced David.

Of course a day or two later Connor asked for Daniel and I whipped it out straight away because I certainly don’t want to hear all that screaming.

These four books will now go because it’s been about 3 – 4 weeks and they haven’t even asked for any of them.

Poor Poppy Cat. This was one of their favourite books when they first started “reading” but I think I miss her more than they do LOL

I think holding onto the books for just a little while may be a good thing to do for kids who may not be fully aware that donate = gone for good.

Do you teach your kids to declutter?

What do you do when you want to hang onto something but they want to toss it?

Organise your home will help you declutter and get your home organised for the new year.

Do you remember my three desks?

I decided to get rid of the white metal one to make more space in the guest bedroom/ study.

Which meant I had to declutter some of my books yet again.

After
front

and side views

this bag with 5 books is all that was actually decluttered – the rest is pure organising which goes to show

you don’t have to be scared that you have to get rid of your stuff if you want to
organise your home

Remember all the books I decluttered during the August Declutter Challenge?

You might think that that would be enough decluttering for a few years.

Sorry, that’s not true. Especially if you love reading.

You see, I’m a reader and as such, I gather books all the time from a number of different sources:

• library
• bookstores
• friends (as gifts)

If I didn’t do anything with those books (well, except for returning those belonging to the library), I’d soon be inundated.

So I have to go through my bookshelves regularly and decide which books I’m going to “release” into the world again

Do you remember my rating system for decluttering my bookshelf?

This was in January….

and this was a few days ago, a mere three months later. 15 out – yay!

If you’re not a big reader or gatherer of books, you might only need to do a serious declutter once a year.

For me, it looks like every 3 months is about right.

Consider your lifestyle and then decide on your own decluttering plan of action.

Do this for every area of your life – clothes, kitchen stuff, paper (!), receipts, etc.

If you go to the shops daily, you probably need to clear out your wallet daily. If you’re like me and only go to the shops once a week, then weekly is fine.

When was the last time you decluttered your bookshelves?

Remember that we’re decluttering and organising our home offices this month. Today your challenge is to declutter at least 5 books or magazines.

When I finish reading a book, I rate it out of 10. If the book is an 8 or higher, I may keep it.

Most of them get recycled to the secondhand bookshop so that my bookshelves always stay neat.

(if you don’t want to post on the theme, go right ahead and post on whatever you felt like decluttering

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Here is my contribution for this week…

3 packets of 3 books each… I find that they give me more money or credit for the books if there are smaller batches, so I take them back in threes.

Also, if you’re wondering about the business card…most times the book buyer isn’t there so this way it’s easy for them to phone me back and tell me how much they’ll give me. I’m all about making things easy!

I leave these packets in my launch pad so I can just grab and go when I run errands.

How many books did you declutter today?

7 easy steps to organise your office MP3 and ebook system will help you get your home office organised and in tip-top shape. By the way, you get this entire system FREE when you sign up for the Virtual Organising Seminar on Tuesday 24 Feb.

This week’s challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures and talk about what you decluttered. If you don’t have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything – physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism!

How many books did you declutter this week?

Entries are still open for the messy, disorganised office competition. Don’t be shy – I want to help you

Books can be really, really hard to declutter, especially if you’re a book lover like I am.

I’ve shared before about my book organising system but basically here’s how it goes:

I only keep books that are 8, 9 or 10 out of 10 on my rating scale. I don’t keep all of them but those I do have are either an 8, 9 or 10.

This week I decluttered these three books…to the secondhand bookstore. (If you’re in Johannesburg, I like Bookdealers or Books Galore)

I usually take the credit they give me rather than the cash and when I run out of books from the library (when they just don’t have any good ones), I’ll use my credits for some secondhand books, like these.

Here are some more posts on decluttering and organising books – enjoy

Organising library books
Decluttering piles and piles of books

expectations
This week I’ve been feeling really lazy so I “broke loose” and didn’t do a thing in my business except lead a call for my Gold VIP Inner Circle and get out my organising tips newsletter, so I suppose you can say I decluttered some of my own high-achieving expectations.

This might seem like nothing to some of you but it’s huge for me to do nothing

Now for this week’s challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about what you decluttered this week. If you don’t have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything – physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism!

What did you declutter this week?

P.S. I’ve been thinking about doing this challenge a little differently next year. How about we have a specific area every week? It will be something small and manageable….what do you think?