The Konmari Method: Books

In this post I’ll tell you all about how I went about completing the second category of the Konmari Method: Books.

Are books sentimental to you? They are to me. Doing the KonMari Method on books was kind of like tackling the sentimental category.

I love to read, and I had lots of books from many different genres. There were a lot of books I hadn’t even read yet! Some books, like my Jane Austen classics, Georgette Heyer romances, and a few other definite favorites (that I link in my Fall Favorites post) definitely easily spark joy. Others I thought would spark joy. But really, I had no idea. You can’t actually know if it will spark joy until you lay everything out, pick up each item individually, and find out.

As I’ll get into below, I didn’t do a strict KonMari on my books. (Looking back, I should have, but at the time, I was tired of going through all the books after very recently decluttering them. And they’re heavy.) I plan on doing a second KonMari in the future, since I’m still developing my meter for what sparks joy. Next time, I’ll get help pulling down all the boxes. In the meantime, here is how I went about sorting my books this time.

The Konmari Method: Books

If you’ve been around here from the beginning, you may remember me writing about my infamous Room of Crap. And yes, my books are stored in there. In this Room of Crap post I finally got started clearing some stuff out of there, including filling up two boxes of books to be donated.

Since I had so recently gone through my books, I did not do a strict Konmari on them. M.K. has you pull every single one down and go through each one. I essentially did that with about 75% of my books the last time, and I was feeling burnt out with them. A good portion of my books are in storage boxes, and they are really heavy, and I didn’t want to pull them all out again.

So I cheated. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea in the long run, but I just wanted to get through this category quickly. (For your sake, when doing the method, do as our lord and savior Marie Kondo recommends and not as I do!)

What I Did

When I did my first book purge, there were a couple of boxes I didn’t really go through. It was the end of a long day of decluttering, and I was emotionally spent. I basically glanced in the boxes, decided it was stuff I’d just keep (because I had been keeping them since high school and moved them nine different times, so of course I was still keeping them…), and called it a day.

This time I was determined to go through those neglected boxes. I did a small scale Konmari and took the two boxes of books out of the Room of Crap. I pulled all of the books out, and set them on my bed. With the books separated form the box they’d been living in for years, I was able to pick one up individually. I think physically removing the box to a different room was also helpful.

M.K. tells us to hold the book in our hands, don’t open it or flip through it, and ask if it sparks joy. I did that, but I also had to ask realistically if I was ever going to read it again. The answer to some books was simply no.

For instance, I used to be very into reading books in the Star Wars extended universe. I had a ton of them – almost every book published in the EU. (This was back in the ’90s before the new movies were even conceived, and some of them were written even before the prequels. Does that tell you how long I’ve had them?) Some of these books may also be difficult to replace should I want to ever revisit them. But I could still stand to discard a few.  I had not enjoyed some as much as the others. I was holding on to them just because*. They did not spark joy.

*Beware the idea that you have to keep every single thing just because it is part of a set or collective. I had the misguided notion that I needed to keep every single book because it was part of a collective group of books. In actuality, I only need to keep the ones I truly enjoy. This applies to everything else in your house, such as sets of dishes, glassware, linens, etc. If you don’t want to keep the entire set, do not feel obligated to do so.

What I Could Part With

Out of those two boxes, I was able to set aside eleven books to donate. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

You see, books bring me joy. I have always been an avid reader, and I like to go back and read books I’ve enjoyed again and again. Having certain books on hand so I can pick them up any time I want to revisit them brings me a lot of joy.

Of course, I can’t keep everything. I just don’t have the space. That’s what the library is for. I can’t always find the exact book I want to read at the library, however, so some of those books, especially the ones I can’t replace, stay.

After taking out the books to donate, I was able to fit everything in one box. Hurray for saving space! Then I took a look through the rest and found an additional seven books in the Room of Crap to donate.

I also addressed the books I have downstairs – there were some lurking in the living room. I should have rounded those up and done them at the same time. Oops. I was able to discard four of them.

Yes, I haven’t purged a ton of books. Even though I have a book collection that could possibly rival some of those people’s on the show, through my entire decluttering process I’ve sorted out three boxes worth to donate. It’s not a ton, but it’s a lot for me. I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far.

I plan on doing the Konmari method again in the future, so I’ll be addressing books again at that point in time.

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Resources:

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The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Spark Joy by Marie Kondo

The Lifechanging Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story by Marie Kondo

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