Over the past year (and especially in the last 4 months), I’ve been shifting the way I approach… well, everything. With three kids ages 7 and under, my house felt like it was a constant state of chaos. But it wasn’t just the kids, it was everything! My schedule, my office, my to-do list, my kitchen… my bookshelves.
Everything was simply overwhelming. I had too many things to do, too many books to read, too many projects going on at once.
And yet, when a Christian book retailer had a 99c sale, my little bookworm heart squeezed excitedly and that “Add to Cart” button got a hefty workout.
I think I bought 20 or so physical paperbacks. Can I confess something? I’ve still not read a single one I bought during that sale from 6 months ago!
But… since that time, I’ve started looking at things differently.
If you’re not familiar with the idea of minimalism, it “is all about owning only what adds value and meaning to your life (as well as the lives of the people you care about) and removing the rest.”
So… I’ve started aggressively getting rid of ANYTHING that is not adding value to my life (or my family’s) life.
I’ve donated kitchen supplies, toys, craft supplies, extra bedding, and more. I minimized my wardrobe. I even got rid of a dresser in my room because I reduced my clothing so much! It’s still a work in progress, but I’m amazed how much easier it has been to stay on top of the house when there is simply less “stuff” there to manage.
Don’t worry, I haven’t removed all color from my decorating scheme, and we still own a full set of 12 dishes and more than one towel per person. My kids have plenty of toys. But we own a lot less than we did, and I have a lot more peace.
My bookshelves, though? Still overflowing. So are my kids’ bookshelves. How can you have too many books, right?
Well…My minimalist mindset is starting to bleed over into my bookworm lifestyle. I don’t want to have shelves full of books that I own just because I want to accumulate books. I want to keep only books that add value to my life! I want to keep books I will actually read. I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a “minimalist bookworm” and I’ve created a few rules for my bookworm minimalism! I hope you like them and feel free to borrow them!
The “Borrow it First” Rule — I live in a small town with a very small library. They are wonderful about getting titles I request, but it’s a bit of a hassle to request something and then wait for it to come in… BUT — with my switch to a minimalist mindset, I’m loving the ability to borrow books instead of buying them and bringing them into my house “forever”! If I can borrow it — that’s now my preference. The other reason I like this rule is that buying a book means there is no pressure to actually get it read anytime soon. So it sits on my shelf and collects dust. But if I have to send it back to the library? I have to decide whether it’s worth reading now or not at all. If I read a book and then decide it has enough value to own, then that’s great! It brings us to the next rule, though!
The “Wait for it” Rule — If I want to buy a book (digital or physical), I must first wait one week. Do I still want to buy it? Or have I moved on or borrowed it instead?
The “1 in, 10 out” Rule — Despite clearing out boxes of books, I still have overflowing shelves. Before I can add a new book to my shelf, I have to get rid of 10 others. Eventually, this won’t be a practical rule, but I have a long way to go before all of the books on my shelf are truly adding value to my life.
The “Why do I have this” Rule –– I’m not much of a “re-reader” so keeping any books typically falls into a few categories. 1) Sentimental books (like books I treasured as a kid), the few I will actually re-read (looking at you, Mark of the Lion series!) or reference, and 3) Shelf Trophies. Shelf trophies are books I keep around because I want to be the type of person who as “The Odyssey” on my bookshelf. Same goes for “Pride and Prejudice” or the entire Peacock Hill Series by Elizabeth Maddrey and their gorgeous illustrated covers. I think the number of “shelf trophies” I keep will go down, but for now — these books bring me joy to own and I’m going to keep them :)
The “Free Book” Rule — If I wouldn’t pay to own this book, I don’t value it enough to manage it as inventory if it was free. I’m passing on free books from here out, unless I would be willing to pay full price for it and bump it to the top of my TBR list.
The “DNF” Rule — The last part about being a Minimalist Bookworm (for me!) is being willing to quit on a book that is simply not for me. That might be deciding to skim that non-fiction title instead of reading every paragraph. It’s definitely closing and deleting the file for a book I find has content I’m not okay with, or simply deciding not to finish a book that just isn’t hitting the spot for this mood reader.
So, are you a minimalist bookworm? Or are you a “Maximalist” who loves your overflowing shelves (or ereader!) and isn’t giving them up anytime soon? Let me know in the comments!
Tara Grace Ericson lives in Missouri with her husband and two sons. She studied engineering and worked as an engineer for many years before embracing her creative side to become a full-time author. She loves cooking, crocheting, and reading books by the dozen. Her writing partner is usually her black lab - Ruby - and a good cup of coffee or tea. She loves a good “happily ever after” with an engaging love story. That’s why Tara focuses on writing clean contemporary romance, with an emphasis on Christian faith and living.
Looking around my overflowing dressers, wardrobes, and bookshelves, it’s definitely high time for a purge!
I find it hard to get rid of physical books, though, because it can feel like I’m admitting failure! Especially if it’s I got a book with high intentions of learning something from.
I mostly collect ebooks now, so my hoarding is less visible! But my children prefer physical books and they have vastly different reading tastes that dont overlap, so we are very quickly accumulating a ton of those.
I’m definitely with you on the “free book” rule. I only pick up free books now if I would have paid for them, anyway.
I own a kindle which does help with bookshelves. Last year I moved to a smaller place with less storage space. I donated and sold stuff. I had to give away my bigger wardrobe cos it wouldn’t fit into the hall and then my room. I did get a new one but it’s more streamlined but holds the same. I also donated a lot of clothes. I sold both the dining table and chairs as again way to big for this house and the kitchen table and chairs was too big also so have a much smaller mor practical table now/
Onto books. I did a huge cull of books sold a lot of the Love inspired books and also the heartsong presents as well some of the cozy mysteries. I had so many like you I bought on sale and many never read. One year I got around 20 like you at $1 I did read about half (e in the city) as I was away for a week and then read more but most times I didn’t get to read them.
I still have a pile in the cupboard which need to be covered for the church library and some will be given to friends in another town to sell in their church second hand store. I use to donate to the Library but as most of the books are several years old (I rarely buy a paperback now) they don’t take them like they use to.
If you are giving some away especially books you haven’t read see if your local library would be interested.
I did go from 3 bookshelves packed and with most shelves double packed and in the case of the LI 3 deep. to One bookshelf now with my ornaments and display items The second one with room for my photo albums and the other one with room. It does feel good to not have clutter everywhere.
I have a few signed books from some of my favorite authors and a few other Christian-based books. My kindle is a different story. I know I have way too many on it, and I do go through Amazon to my device and delete several at a time. My reading preference has changed, so I have no use for many of the books on my kindle now.
I think I am somewhere in between. I did clean out my bookcase and donated books I already read or didn’t think I was going to read. Now I am wanting to see if the books I have left can be found in my library’s ebooks. If they can I could donate more books. I have some signed books from favorite authors that I will keep because they do give me joy. I hope donating books will bring someone else joy.
I’m definitely a maximalist reader, and since I do reread (though not as much as when I was younger and had less books) I love having lots of books that I loved reading and will love again :)
I borrow books too, though my problem is I know my taste very well, so I end up loving most of them and wanting physical copies and then I end up with less and less space…but as long as the space is taken up with books I don’t really mind :’)
I agree with the dnf rule, I started liberally dnfing I believe last year. If it’s an ebook I give it 10% and if it doesn’t seem like my thing by then it’s okay to put it down and move on to something else. I only finish ARCs fully even if I’m not really vibing with them, because it seems like the fair thing to do.
I used to be an avid library book reader alas I am no longer able to get out and about combined with eyesight failure means paperbacks and hardbacks from the library is no longer an option. This was a great option living in a tiny apartment and moving frequently though.
Only a minimalist in my friends dreams, “why do you have so many books cf why don’t you have enough bookshelves”, lol. It broke my heart to have to throw away so many mouldy physical books, but we managed to save the handful from childhood and family history ones which are not replaceable. Each year when we spring clean I cull physical books for what is valuable to me.
I learned a few years ago if a book was a struggle to read, then it is ok to let it go and let go of the guilt of not finishing it – before it seemed so disrespectful to an author to not finish a book – but a couple of truly awful books helped me learn that [i mean ones where the story made no sense and chapters were repeated and out of order and clearly never edited]. Removing the download was the best I could do rather than deleting the purchase – not minimalist yet!
I think that I never know what the future will bring and I will download free books if an author offers them [as long as no newsletter signup is required] even though I may not read them for a while. Honestly I probably will never read all my tbr list but I have the opportunity to read many of them and reread others so I have no issue with retaining the choice to read them from my tbr list.
What an interesting article, for me the more stuff there is the more time is required to devote to maintaining it. With physical books I love rotating them with friends and eventually they end up in a library somewhere. For other physical items my preference is to find the item on a rehoming site and things I no longer need are listed there too. It is a far more sustainable option that I prefer. Thanks :)
I might have to pick your brain because i think I’ll be making the switch to minimalist soon.
I’m more of a maximalist bookworm–it’s so hard to get rid of books! :D However, I am much more choosy about what types of books I will actually buy to keep on my shelves. Right now, I’m in the process of cataloguing my books, and I do have a small stack of books to pass along. (I’m proud of myself for that!)
I definitely fall into the minimalist bookworm category. I have some picture books and chapter books from when I was a kid/teen (although I should probably sort through them again), one complete series that I like to re-read, and a handful of other books. I am fortunate to live close to a library branch that still has a lot of books on the shelves and a sizeable catalogue that I can request books from. Also, as I got older up I realized that I am not a re-reader so there isn’t a lot of temptation for me to keep books around because I know that they will just sit on the shelf collecting dust.
I’m definitely a maximalist reader! However, I definitely don’t keep books that have questionable content (I usually find these only on my Kindle, as I’m really picky about the paperbacks I buy, and most of the paperbacks are ones I’ve won from authors that I know write CF). I also don’t try too hard to finish a book if it doesn’t appeal to me. Life is to short to force myself to read a book that I can’t get into! The exception is This Present Darkness, because it ALWAYS takes me to chapter 10 to really get into it, and then I don’t want to put it down!
I’ve been wanting to go the minimalist way for such a long time. What do you do when your hubs doesn’t have that mindset 😆. In all seriousness – I would like to do better. Like if we haven’t used it in the past few months, we can probably get rid of it. Thanks for the inspiration!!!
Good morning, I am a slow reader only because I like to really concentrate on the book I am reading, even though alot of the books I have read just keep me turning the pages , I too have books of when my now adult grown children with children of their own were growing up. Some books are just too hard to give up I just have to keep on adding book shelves in the meantime. :) Have a great day and a great week.
Oh yes — lots of “good intentions” for me, especially buying Christian non-fiction books!
That reminds me of when I bought a ton of Love Inspired books for $0.25 each at the Friends of the Library sale… I haven’t read any of them :(
I feel like clearing digital clutter is so hard… there is no “visual” reward for it!
That’s a great perspective. I hope someone will really enjoy and love the books I’m getting rid of too!
As long as it is bringing you joy to own them all — yay for more books!
Yes, for me it is 100% about reducing the time and energy I have to spend “maintaining my inventory”.
It sounds like you have healthy boundaries for what you keep and don’t!
Being choosy about what to bring in is a great way to avoid getting too many that are unimportant! I hope those books you are passing along find a lovely home that will enjoy them!
That’s wonderful! I’m glad to have had that revelation about myself also, I think it will help me immensely in the future.
You’re right — life is too short to read books that don’t grab you!
Good to know about This Present Darkness… it is on my TBR, but I’ve never read it!
Every piece of advice I’ve seen (with regards to the husband thing!) is to start with your OWN stuff and be ruthless about it. I have minimized my things and my kids’ things and things under my domain (the kitchen, for example because I do 95% of the cooking).
That’s what I’ve done and it really is rubbing off on my husband!
There are definitely some books that I will always hang on to and treasure!
My bookshelves get full. Periodically I go through and give the ones I wont read for a second time and either give them away or take them to a second hand place.
I am definitely a maximalist book owner. But I am trying to be better about only buying books that I actually want. I actually get a lot of ARCs and that is where most of my books come from. However I will defiantly go for all the free books. We do have a couple of kids books that we aren’t reading anymore but we want to keep for sentimental reasons.
But my sisters and I will clean out our bookshelves at least twice a year where we end up giving away tons of books. This has been really helpful to do because then we get to see if we are actually reading the books that we own.
I’m definitely a maximalist with my e-reader, but I love your rules, and I know I’d be applying them if I had overflowing bookshelves. ;)
I would say in the past I’ve been pretty much a maximalist bookworm. But I have found recently that changing just a bit.
Right now I have enough credit on my Amazon account to purchase several new books, but i have so many unread books on my shelves, that I can’t quite pull the trigger on buying more.
And I definitely will DNF a book with no qualms. I also tend not to keep books after I finish them except for my very favorites. I sell or donate them, and also ones that I really enjoy I set aside and send a box to my aunt at her Birthday and Christmas.
I LOVE this post – it’s totally me or at least I’m moving in minimalist bookworm direction :)
I have too many books my room is like a library I’m trying to finish some and get ride of them .
I’m definitely a maximalist bookworm and in so many other ways, I really relate to your feeling you just had too much stuff. I think I really need to start minimalising! I have been better with books in recent years just because I read a lot of ebooks, but there is definitely room for improvement!
I signed up for the Barbour cozy Mystery club 4 book a month I think it was or every 6 weeks only available by subscription. The Australian dollar was way better back then. I did start well and read quite a few then they kept coming and i was further and further behind. I think I read less than a quarter of all I bought and ended up selling the ones I hadn’t read (others are in the church library) for $1 each plus postage (I think they may have gotten a couple free). All but 3 lots where the lady never actually paid I learnt from that get money first. But it helped with costs associated with moving. I didn’t want to make a lot just get postage covered and a little extra.
On the free books I am like you I only go for ones I think I will read and then I still get too many. I rarely download the free book on newsletter lists. (Which makes it even funnier when an author who has a welcome sequence which I hate says in the second email sent 24 hours later now you have read your free book could you leave reviews at xxxx, even if I downloaded it I probably wouldn’t be able to get to it in 24 hours but thats another bugbear of mine )
Hi Tara,
The revelation of #minimalismForTheWin has revolutionized my life. The Holy Spirit inspired me as I was reading through the Bible with Valerie Comer and her group and we were in Chronicles where the temple was cleansed.
I am so grateful for Christian minimalists like Joshua Becker and the Minimal Mom.
I’ve also been gleaning from Diane in Denmark.
Dana K. White is fun, too.
As for books, I just have a few printed books – the rest is E-Books.
I’m definitely a maximalist bookworm. I’ve actually put my daughters childhood books that I started reading to them when they were infants in storage tubs so they’ll have for future children.
We moved into my childhood home with my Mom about 10 years ago. The house had all her things a lot from my childhood. We put the things we felt were important to us in storage. My Mom passed away last year. We still need to work through what we are going to keep and what we are going to save. The bookshelves are the last on the list since there is so many other things to go through first. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
I enjoyed your blog. I am a maximalist bookworm. I just calculated how many ebooks I have–4,396. Then there are the paperbacks. Did not count them, but there are quite a few. 😲
I congratulate you on your self-control of being a book minimalist. Not sure I want to do that, but I am trying to not keep books if they aren’t ones I want to re-read.
interesting rules
I am a Maximalist reader. I do agree with the DNF rule. I will give a book 50-100 pages, depending on the length of the book, and if I am still struggling to read it then it is time to donate it. My TBR is too long to force myself to continue to read something I am not enjoying.
“Minimalism is freedom. Owning less stuff is freedom.” – Joshua Becker
https://youtu.be/WkQwhi_tbZQ?si=qEQPrFyZUdwPtCE2&t=421
Two words: Used Bookstores!! They’re popping up all over the place! Comb your bookshelves for books you’ve read and you know you’ll never do a reread. Take a bag full to the used bookstore and see what they’ll take. In exchange they give you credit toward purchase of your next treasure! Awesome.
As for your purging, I did the same thing when I downsized from the big house we raised our family in to the cozy smaller house by the sea for retirement. Felt so freeing!!
Here are some of the best pieces of minimalist-all-around tips. Life-savers. Game-changers
https://nosidebar.com/the-20-greatest-decluttering-tips-of-all-time/?fbclid=IwAR2hoH6JJZPh5KSYXW0I-XtAesymv6V0zZfPN4c9WFVvM1fiGc8MWOhfJ5U
The Kindle was a marvelous invention for me because then I didn’t have to buy anymore physical books that I didn’t have any room for. I rarely buy anything for myself, so I guess I’m a minimalist.
Wish I could read more!
I am not a minimalist. I definitely can minimize a lot of what I have and I’m getting there (emotionally). I love my bookcase, and while I could have books all over the house, I don’t/won’t, because I utilize our library very much and love the e-book library I have on my phone now, so that’s helping so much with minimizing our books. I have lots of kids books, classics, things I want them to read, or that they love reading, but I also hate spending money and taking up space when they finish in a few short years and no longer read the books, no matter how good and loved they were (I’m looking at you, Elephant and Piggie books)
I am not by any means a minimalist reader. After I have read a book I will get rid of it, but it is nearly impossible for mr to get read of a book before I have read it or at least tried it. I have tried waiting on buying books (especially ebooks) before and then missed the sale price so it is a balancing act between buying something and waiting to think about purchasing it.
I’ve been leaning more and more towards minimalism for books over the past several years. I do most of my reading on my kindle app and use KU, so that helps greatly to keep books moving out. However, as my kids are busier with lives outside of our family (16, 14, and 11 years old), I find I have less time to work through those books on my KU shelf. Sometimes I have to return books that sounded great, but kept getting pushed down the list because something else released thst I wanted to read more.