We had 1,339 books in our house in the year 2000. I know this because our youngest child counted them. It was partly my attempt to give him a simple chore each day during summer vacation and partly curiosity. I’m sure it’s over 1,500 by now because we keep adding and seldom subtracting books. I confess that the picture of the bookcase today does not contain books I am giving away. That’s a much bigger project than I’m up to right now. I did note, however, that I have 13 Bibles. Does anyone need that many? Yes. For my writing I often check different translations plus some are children’s Bibles. What I AM getting rid of, however, are catalogs. I threw away 10 outdated ones. One way to decrease clutter and paper is to reduce the number of unwanted catalogs coming into the home. See www.catalogchoice.org for help. When I feel braver, I’ll tackle the books.

Update: Read How Giving Away 1,000 Books Made Me Love Reading Again for inspiration.