How to Declutter Your Bookcase

by Freedom on June 13, 2013

I read an interesting Dear Abby the other day.  It was about books and being unable to let them go.  I can relate to keeping books as I used to do this myself.  Each time I finished a book I would place it on my shelf.  I’m not sure when I started this or why I hung onto these books.  I noticed I did it more with fiction, especially during a couple years when I read though many of the classics.

DEAR ABBY: I love to read. I have kept every book I have read, so I probably have close to 600 books in my library, which is actually a small room, overflowing with books and nothing else.

Why do you think I can’t let go of them? I lend them out to only a select few, and I always make sure they are returned. I could do lovely things with this room if my books weren’t in the way, but I can’t seem to part with them. — BOOKWORM IN NEW YORK

DEAR BOOKWORM: It’s probably because your books have become an extension of yourself. Because you would like to do something else with the space they occupy, sort through them and keep only the most precious ones. If there are titles you would like to read again one day, do as many others are doing — read them on an e-reader.

Here are my thoughts based on my own experiences.  I treated books like trophies of my reading conquests.  Completing a book would earn it a place on my bookshelf.  Of course all my unread books were there also, but now these completed books had special meaning.  While reading each book I was transported to far off lands and went on wild adventures.  Reading these books created memories almost as if I had actually been in the stories.

The attachment to these fond memories made it hard for me to get rid of the books from which the memories came.  Luckily I don’t read as much as Bookworm, but I did have several shelves in our office dedicated to my books.

A second reason to keep them was that I always thought I might read them again one day.  This is a common hoarder/clutterer mindset – that of “I might need/use/want it again someday.”  When I thought about this, I realized two things.

First, based on the fact that I have only ever re-read one book in my entire collection, it was very unlikely that I would ever re-read my books.

Second, There are so many wonderful books in the world that I don’t have any reason to re-read books.  Rather than re-reading and old book, my time would be better spent exploring a new book.

It took me several tries to declutter my book collection.  During each round of decluttering I would part with a few books.

First my not-so-favorites.

Then the unread books that were on my shelf forever, but I knew didn’t interest me.

The last round was just before our move when I knew I wouldn’t have room for books in our new apartment.  I got rid of all but the few that were unread, but I knew I would read.  I also kept a few reference books.

How to declutter your book collection

Here are three easy steps to declutter your book collection.

  1. Pull all the books off the shelf.  This gives you a clean canvas to work from and makes you commit to the effort of looking at each book and deciding if it should be placed back on the shelf.
  2. Take each book one at a time and ask yourself this question:  Will I read this book within the next 6 months?
  3. If no, add to purge pile.  If yes, place on the bookshelf.  You might try a trick that many people use to declutter clothing in their closets.  Place the book on the shelf backwards (pages out.)  In 6 months you can revisit the shelf and quickly remove all the unread books.

What to do with the books that aren’t returned to your shelf

One of the problems many people face is what to do with the books they are getting rid of.  You have five options.

  1. Donate them to Goodwill (or other charity of your choice)
  2. Sell them at a used bookstore.  This will usually get you cash or credit for future book purchases.
  3. Sell them on Amazon.  Reserve this for high value books only, as it is time consuming and time is the enemy of decluttering.
  4. Give them to a friend or family member.
  5. Trash them.  When the book is falling apart and too abused to sell or donate.

Some hoarders have a hard time parting with things due to their perceived value.  If you feel like your books have a lot of value, the best thing to do is to take them to a used book store where you can get cash or credit for your used books.  This is a very quick way to dispose of unwanted books while also getting a little something out of them.  Just be sure to not cash in all that credit at one time.  Buy only one book at a time and don’t buy more until you have finished it. 

Also, a final note.  I disagree with Abby’s suggestion to get your favorite books on an e-reader.  I’m not anti-e-reader, and actually quite like my kindle.  The problem is that cluttering up your e-reader is just as bad as cluttering your bookshelves.  My mother downloads free books to her kindle weekly and will never read all the books she has downloaded.

If you use an e-reader, be sure to remove completed books from the device so that it stays as clutter free as your bookshelves.

What is your book hoarding story?  Are you bookshelves overflowing or do you have a system for managing your books?

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Bicycle Commute in the Rain

by Freedom on June 10, 2013

Along with summer in my part of the world comes afternoon rains.  I’ve learned a few things during my last few weeks of bicycle commuting.

My initial plan was to bring a rain coat and some rain pants.  I lugged the rain coat and rain pants back and forth in my back pack for a couple months before we finally got some rain.  During the first rain storm I stuffed my backpack in a garbage bag and put on my raincoat and rain pants.

The raincoat and rain pants kept the rain out, but I had another problem.  They didn’t breath, and I started sweating… profusely.  Pedaling a bike is a good way to build up some body heat, and with all that heat trapped in my rain gear I was getting really sweaty.

So basically, I could be wet from the rain, or I could be wet and sticky from my sweat.

After that first rain storm I ditched the rain gear and decided to just get wet if it rained.  I didn’t have long to wait for another rain storm later that week and I tried going without any rain gear.  This worked ok, but with even a mild storm I was soaked through and through.

This week I tried something else.  I had read about people using rain capes.  I had never heard of a rain cape, but apparently it’s like a rain poncho without arm holes.  Rain capes may be common in other countries, but they are hard to find here.  Since I couldn’t find a rain cape, I decided to try an old poncho I had stored away.  I packed that in my backpack to try during the next rain storm.

The poncho actually worked pretty good.  I stretched it out over the handlebars and it kept me mostly dry by making a little tent over me and my bike.  Of course the storm I tested in was really windy, so my feet and legs still got wet.  If I’m in a more gentle rain shower with my poncho, I think I’d actually stay mostly dry.  Even better, I didn’t get all sweaty because I could get a breeze up under the poncho. Even better than that, when the rain stopped, I let the rain poncho fly up around my neck and it was an instant superhero cape.  :)   That made it so I could stay cool and look cool at the same time.  (I looked cool in my mind anyway, I’m not sure what all the motorists thought.)

The rain poncho will be my rain setup for the foreseeable future.

On the topic of rain, I created a rule of sorts of when I’ll ride and when I’ll drive.  I’m not such a hard core bicycle commuter that I refuse to drive on occasion.  Here are my drive vs. ride rules.

  1. I’ll drive If it’s raining in the morning.  There is no sense getting soaked on the way to work, especially since we don’t have showers at work.
  2. If the rain forecast is 60% or less, then I’ll ride my bike.  You’d think 60% is a pretty good chance of rain, but from my experience it’s more likely that it will by dry when it’s time to go home.

More often than not, I’ll choose to ride my bike if there is even a remote chance that it might be sunny on the ride home.  There is nothing I hate more than to drive to work because it’s supposed to rain, and find it to be a beautiful sunny day as I exit the building.  I’d rather ride home in the rain than drive home in the sunshine.

One more thing I should mention is that I leave my work shoes at work.  That makes it so I can wear my running shoes on my bike and not have to worry about ruining my good work shoes by getting them all wet when it rains on the way home.  Plus my running shoes dry faster so they are usually dry for the ride to work in the morning.

I’m really hooked on bicycle commuting and even rain won’t stop me.  It’s been great fun and I’m still very much enjoying the daily rides.  In addition to the rain gear I updated some of my other gear as well, but I’ll save that for another post so check back soon.

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Seven Day Cruise Behind the Scenes

by Freedom on May 24, 2013

In the last post I shared all the adventures of our seven day western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Dream.  Today I want to share some of the behind the scenes stuff.  Things like packing for the cruise, booking tours, money and expenses, and some other random details.

Packing for a Cruise

Let’s start with packing.  I read somewhere that most people over pack for a cruise.  I think most people actually over pack for most every trip, not just cruises.  This used to be the case for us too.

I grew up with the mindset that I had to be prepared for anything, and I packed like I needed to be prepared for anything.  That included lots of extra clothing and various other odds and ends that I should bring “just in case.”  Our typical luggage included a small roller suitcase, two huge duffle bags, and a bag for shower items.  The bags were so heavy it was a major effort to lug them around.

That all changed a few years ago when we started looking at being more minimalist.  We experimented with a long weekend away and packing just a single backpack for each of us.  The freedom and ease that came with packing light forever changed the way we packed for trips.

There is one problem with packing for cruises.  That problem is the variety of clothing required for a cruise.  You’ll need warm weather clothing like shorts and t-shirts, you’ll need swimwear, you’ll need dinner wear, and maybe some stuff for your excursions.

We managed to pack most of our clothes and our shower stuff into one backpack each.  That’s the same we normally do.   We use travel size containers of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, and shaving cream.  Since I minimized my wardrobe, I didn’t even have seven days worth of clothing, so I packed 5 t-shirts and 3 pairs of shorts and did laundry half way through the cruise.  Even that turned out to be overpacking, as I only wore one pair of shorts for the entire cruise.  Part of the time I wore bathing suites instead of shorts, and the other days I just wore the same shorts over again.  I did need a fresh shirt every day as they got stinky from sweat.

Dream and Faith both managed to pack enough for the entire seven days without doing laundry.

The problem we had was dinner wear and snorkel gear.  The cruise had two formal nights, so I brought my suit and two dress shirts and Dream and Faith each brought two dresses.  Of course we all had to have appropriate shoes for these nights as well.  This meant we had to bring a whole suitcase just to hold our formal dinner wear.

We also had a duffle bag full of our snorkel gear.  This was a trade off, as we could either rent snorkel gear or bring our own.  Renting meant crappy equipment and added cost.  Bringing our own meant better equipment, lower cost, but more to carry.  We opted to carry more, but after doing it, we’re thinking about leaving the flippers at home next time and just bringing the mask and snorkels.

My Recommendation

For a long cruise, bring enough for half and do laundry half way through.  It lets you pack a lot lighter.  You’ll need a clean shirt every day, but shorts can be worn for multiple days.

I’m not sure what to recommend for formal wear.  It’s fun to dress up, but that dressing up required us to bring an extra suitcase.

Late dining vs early dining

We always favored late dining.  Somewhere along the line we heard that’s what all the cool kids were doing.  We were also night owls and preferred staying up late.  Things changed sometime in our thirties.  Maybe having a child helped change that.  On our most recent cruise, we chose late dining and towards the end we wished we would have picked the early dining.

Here are the things that are affected by your choice of late or early dining.

  1. How much time you have to get ready and rest up after an all day shore excursion.  Late dining gives you more time, but I think we would have been fine had we chosen early dining.
  2. Many of the good shows and activities occur after dinner.  The big shows usually happened after dinner, and after a long day, we were often too tired to make it after the late dinner.

If you are a night owl and don’t have kids, then the late dinner is best.  If you have kids or like to turn in early, then the early dinner is best.

Another option that I didn’t realize was an option was open seating dinner, where you could eat any time between certain hours.  Carnival had this option, but Disney did not.  We might check it out on our next Carnival cruise.

Disney vs. Carnival

We really enjoyed our trips on both cruise lines.  Carnival is less expensive than Disney, but in a way you get what you pay for.  Here are some examples of some differences.

  • The buffet dining on Disney was better.  When we got on the ship they had lots of seafood, including crab legs.  Carnival had more standard buffet items like you might find at a mid tier buffet restaurant.
  • The staff on Disney was just a little bit better.  They were more friendly and made us feel special.  On Carnival our dining staff made us feel this way, but most of the other staff did not.
  • We liked the dining better on Disney.  On the three night cruise we took, they had three different themed dining rooms and we ate in a different one each night.  Carnival has one big dining room and you are in the same place each night.
  • We like the music better on Carnival.  The Disney ship played Disney music the entire time.  We liked the party music on the deck of Carnival better.
  • The Disney ship had a movie theater, and that was pretty cool.  They were playing the latest movies from Disney’s studios.
  • The kids club was better on Disney.  They had a much larger space and it may be obvious, but they had more kids.
  • The mixed drinks were much stronger on Carnival.  The ones on Disney had no kick at all.

So Disney sounds great, right?  It is, but it’s so much more expensive, that we wouldn’t choose it every time.  We spent more on our three day cruise Disney than we did for an entire week on Carnival.  Carnival isn’t quite as good, but it’s still really good.  My biggest requirement for any where I stay is cleanliness, and both Disney and Carnival are top notch in keeping the rooms and common areas clean.

Motion of the ship

We noticed more motion on our seven day cruise than we had on any of our other cruises.  We noticed that when the ship was moving faster it seemed to rock more.  It rocked front to back rather than side to side.  We were also in the very front of the ship.  I think next time we’ll try to get nearer to the center.

Shows

I think all cruise lines have great shows.  We have enjoyed every show we’ve seen on a cruise ship.

Shopping

On our recent cruise, we noticed a huge emphasis on shopping.  They had shopping info on the TV, half of the daily newsletter was full of on-ship shopping and sales.  I would have preferred to see more useful information in the daily newsletters.  They had some time of shopping show on the ship every day.  Every port we entered had a shopping mall that we had to walk through to get through the port.  Most vendors weren’t too pushy, but it was annoying to have to walk through all that retail before starting our daily excursions.

What you pay for on the ship

Many things are included in the price of the cruise.  All the meals are included.  There are some special dining options that you can pay extra for, but you can get all your meals for no extra charge.  On Carnival, the drinks included are water, tea, and lemonade.  On Disney they also included sodas, whereas on Carnival you had to pay extra for soda.  Alcoholic beverages were an extra charge on both cruise lines.  All the shows are included as are many activities.  Kids club was included until night time.  At night there was a babysitting fee.

Tours on-ship booking vs. private booking

Ship tours are really expensive.  The benefit is that it’s easy, doesn’t take much research, and you meet up either on the ship or inside the port area.  Private tours are less expensive, but you typically have to walk outside the port gates to meet the tour.

We booked private tours on our latest cruise before we left.  We found all our tour companies by reading the posts on the Cruise Critic forum.  They were much cheaper and we enjoyed all our tours.  Meeting outside the gates wasn’t a big deal.  We just walked through the port malls and the headed out the gates.

One thing we didn’t think about ahead of time is that you will need to tip your tour guides.  That cost us a bit extra that we hadn’t originally planned for.

That’s it for our behind the scenes coverage. If you have any questions about cruising, you can ask in the comments section.

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An Index of Our Crazy Ideas

by Freedom on May 12, 2013

Hello Friends.  I added a new tab at the top of the page as an index to all the crazy ideas we have implemented over the past couple of years.  It’s been a wild ride and I wanted to make it easier for you to follow along.  Check out the index and catch up on any adventures that you may have missed.

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Western Caribbean Cruise Vacation on the Carnival Dream

May 5, 2013
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We just got back from a new adventure.  As most of you know we downsized many aspects of our lives in order to make more room for activities and adventures.  We went to extreme measures in our downsizing, including selling our house, in order to make more time and money available for these adventures.  Last [...]

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Toxic Grandparents Update and a Diagnosis for Faith

April 22, 2013

In my Questions and Answers post a couple of people were curious to know the latest news on the toxic grandparents.  One commenter, Karen, mentioned that they were her least favorite posts and I tend to agree with that.  Karen also asked what his side would be, and I’ll share what I know of that [...]

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Questions and Answers

April 15, 2013

We’re exhausted.  With all the changes going on in our household, it’s no wonder we are wore out.  Within the last few months, we’ve moved to a new apartment, changed our last name, and I started biking to work. Change is good, but every change expends some energy.  There is some physical energy expended, but [...]

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You Don’t Have to Be Stuck With a Name You Hate – Our Name Change Story

April 7, 2013

In July of 2012 we took a ten hour road trip.  That ten hour drive makes for a lot of time to talk.  My wife, Dream, and I were happily chatting away when one of us mentioned the idea of changing our last name.  Our last name is often misspelled, often mispronounced, and is easily [...]

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Moving to Our New Apartment

March 31, 2013
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We’ve been in our new apartment for a week now.  We moved last weekend and spent much of the week unboxing and organizing.  After moving we met our new neighbor, you can see him in the picture at the top of the post.  We didn’t really meet him, but rather observed him from a distance.  [...]

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Charity Donations Made Easy

March 27, 2013

One of my goals when I decided to lead a more minimal life was to free up some money for giving.  Some of this takes the form of giving among friends and family – buying dinners, paying for events, and supplying the eggs for Easter egg hunts.  Some of this also includes more traditional charities.  [...]

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