Clutter isn't good for anything. It started last Saturday when I went to a class called "Pretty...Simply" given by Kerry Shuey. It was all about minimizing our stuff so we could maximize our impact on the kingdom. Kerry shared some neat truths about our internal clutter and our external clutter. "A life filled with yesterday leaves no room for the joy of today." It was like an episode of Clean House without annoying people yelling at you. After I left, I was inspired.
Monday I cleaned out a drawer of clothes. You know, the clothes I've been keeping for three years just in case I ever loose my Bubba weight. Let's face it, if I ever do loose the Bubba weight, I'm not going to want to wear old clothes. If I loose that much weight, I'm going to buy some new duds.
Wednesday, I looked around our school room at another clutter hazard that is completely my fault: excess books. I really can't blame Not-So-Classic for his book collection, since it really only consists of ten books and two of them are Far Side Comics. I remember reading in a magazine about a place that buys books so, I looked it up.
Cash 4 Books is pretty self-explanatory. You type in the ISBN number of a book and they will tell you how much they will buy your book for. Pack up the books, print a shipping label and take it to FedEx. If you have a large enough order, they will pay for shipping as well. I packed up ten books and am awaiting a check for $26. That's money that was just sitting on my shelf doing nothing! The books that they did not buy are neatly placed in a box ready to be donated to the library. Hey, if I could part with them for money, then I could part with them for nothing.
But, Classic Mama, what if you need those books again? Please. Am I going to need books about teaching high school poetry in the next five years? Nope. If I teach high school English again (to other people's kids) then I'm sure I'll be fine. After all, I didn't part with my favorite things, just the ones that I really haven't used in ten years.
2 comments:
This just makes all sorts of sense, really it does.
As a reformed (and reforming) pack rat, I find some freedom in throwing things away or giving them away. Mostly, I give them to a local charity that picks up. The thing I can't bear to part with??? My Big Band CD Collection. Sigh. I've thought about the CD exchange - but I don't have anything I want. *LOL* SO I'll keep it...and get rid of other stuff.
You are a wise woman, Classic Mama, very wise indeed.
ANd those books that you might need...you will probably be able to find them at the library anyway. :)
WE have been selling books & CD's on half.com (here's our "store"). I will have to check out that Cash 4 Books site...THANKS!
A good one for dumping your CD's (and other media) is secondspin.com It works very much the same - you tell them what the CD is, they tell you how much they'll give - ship it off and get a check.
Thanks for sharing - i look forward to getting more books out of our house. (they're heavy to move too).
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