Books are one of those things that seem to multiply behind your back (anyone else?). I used to think books were something I could automatically keep, because well it’s a book. You can’t have too many books, right? Wrong! If you are trying to pare down on your belongings you should definitely take a moment and get rid of some of those books! It’s worth it when you end up with a completely empty shelf or two! Here are my tips and tricks:

1. Take out all the books you have and make a pile in the middle of the floor.  Out of this big pile, first, make a seperate pile of all your absolute favorite books. Come up with a max number that makes sense for you before starting to sort favorites (mine is around 10).  Make another pile of books you have that you haven’t read yet. Put the remaining books in the donate pile.

2. Out of the books in the haven’t read yet pile, get rid of any you’ve had for more than a year. Chances are if you haven’t gotten around to reading them yet you probably aren’t excited about reading them anyways.

3. Cookbooks are a tough one. I’d say get rid of all except your absolute favorite cookbooks because let’s face it, you get all your recipes off Pinterest anyways.

4. Keep a limit on the number of unread books you’ll keep in the house. It will stop you from going to buy a new book when you have plenty at home to read or it will force you to get rid of one you have that you don’t really want to read in order to get a new one you’re excited about.

5. Once you finish reading a book, immediately give it to a book-loving friend or add it to a donate pile (don’t put it back on the shelf!) so someone else can enjoy it instead of cluttering up your bookshelf.

6. One more thing: coffee table books. I’m definitely a sucker for a pretty book filled with pretty pictures but I have a rule for keeping these from getting out of control: if you don’t have it on display, get rid of it!

Sidenote* Investing in a Kindle definitely decreased the number of books I own, even though I’ll never fully be able to give up actual books!

Good luck decluttering those books everyone! :)