Simplifying.

I've never been what you would call a minimalist, not in any way. My idea of a cozy home is one where there are lots of quilts thrown across couches and too many books on the bookshelves. It won't look like a picture in a magazine, but it will be comfortable and lived in and full of things that I love. (Maybe that's the problem...I love too many things, ha! Right now my bedroom walls are overcrowded with art prints and pictures and embroidered pieces, because I'm trying to fit so many things that I love into one room.)

I am peculiar about being organized and having things in their place, though. I feel distracted if my stuff isn't where it belongs. I think I have to be that way, in this case, or things can quickly clutter up.

But lately it seems that certain aspects of Slow Fashion October have been creeping into other areas of my life. I've been trying to weed through my books and movies, deciding what should stay and what should go. I've accumulated a lot of them over the years, and for some reason, it has suddenly become overwhelming. I feel like I'm getting to a point in my life where I'm happy with less.

I love movies, and I like seeing movies that I've never seen before. But when it comes down to it, I have my absolute favorites that I end up watching over and over. So I sorted through my DVDs and ended up with a stack of nearly twenty movies. I've been systematically watching through those to decide if they're worth keeping or not. (So far I'm only keeping one.)

And then there are the books. I'm a reader...I accumulate books. I want my shelves to be full of my favorite stories: the books that mean something or the ones that I know I'll reread. I own a lot of books that I haven't read yet (too many), but I'm hesitant to get rid of most of those until I know what I think of them. But if I currently have zero interest in reading a book, it's probably time for it to go. I had an old two-volume set of Les Miserables. I'm always hearing about that story, and I'd like to try it sometime during my life, but right now? I have no interest in reading a huge book with tiny print that involves a lot of history that I know nothing about...so it's going. As for the books that I have read and thought they were just okay, why are they still taking up space on my shelves? If I know I won't read them again, why am I keeping them?

I'll probably take the DVDs to a thrift store, but I'm not sure what to do with the books. Any suggestions? Over the past couple of years I've donated a lot of books to the Little Free Libraries in our town, and I will be doing that again with some of these. But others are newer releases and in like-new condition, so I'd like to do something different. I looked into Paperback Swap, but it seems that they now charge fees. I might try to find a used bookstore nearby that will either buy them or trade store credit for them (our town, sadly, doesn't have a bookstore).