December Purge

[HappyHiker]

Just finished our annual Friends of the Library book sale. A huge undertaking shared by a great group of book-loving folks.

We purged some old books (some in bad shape) that have not sold in several past sales. Hard for we book-lovers to send books to the "archive" but it costs money to store them and lots of human labor to box them and store them. So bye-bye.

We still have thousands and get donations daily so a fresh supply is always at hand.

And no other facilities want these old books--we've tried!

[iris lilies]

Just finished our annual Friends of the Library book sale. A huge undertaking shared by a great group of book-loving folks.

We purged some old books (some in bad shape) that have not sold in several past sales. Hard for we book-lovers to send books to the "archive" but it costs money to store them and lots of human labor to box them and store them. So bye-bye.

We still have thousands and get donations daily so a fresh supply is always at hand.

And no other facilities want these old books--we've tried!

i’m surprised you carry some books over from year to year for your sale. Of course no one wants them, old books are really hard to be rid of.

One of my jobs at a large public library system was to oversee the withdrawal of 100,000 items from our collections every year. For several years our library played around with book sales that were merely money pits. Never made money, certainly lost money, but I came to view them as community building efforts, even though it was a feeble way to be rid of all the books.

After years of that we identified a vendor based in Denver, Colorado, who would come and pick up our discards twice a year, or more often if our storage facility filled up. They sold what they could and “recycled” the rest. I never asked what “ recycle “means because I didn’t want to know, but of course they went in the land fill, where else would they go?

[HappyHiker]

i’m surprised you carry some books over from year to year for your sale. Of course no one wants them, old books are really hard to be rid of.

One of my jobs at a large public library system was to oversee the withdrawal of 100,000 items from our collections every year.

You're so right! It's a bone of contention for me...but I'm out-voted on keeping them versus not keeping them. And we also get the old purged library books which are not in demand...

We're quite overloaded with donations....

[iris lilies]

i’m surprised you carry some books over from year to year for your sale. Of course no one wants them, old books are really hard to be rid of.

One of my jobs at a large public library system was to oversee the withdrawal of 100,000 items from our collections every year.

You're so right! It's a bone of contention for me...but I'm out-voted on keeping them versus not keeping them. And we also get the old purged library books which are not in demand...

We're quite overloaded with donations....

My small local library here in town, which is part of a larger library system has two book sales a year. I stay far away from them because I have no interest in used books, the whole thing is so depressing for me having managed literally millions of discarded library books.

They have their book sale in their meeting room that my plant society wants to use in May, but we can’t use the meeting room because it’s full of stupid used books they’re organizing for their sale. Ugh.

yeah I sure know about the reluctance to throw away a book because I’ve heard that sentiment expressed, oh maybe 1000 times. Or thereabouts. I have zero tolerance for it. It seems people are so proud to display their virtuous view of saving books! I’ve seen little old ladies turn themselves in knots to give worn, dirty children books that are outdated to poor kids. The concept is disgusting.

[nswef]

We have Wonder Books, Frederick Maryland where they will take your old books and other media. I have gotten $5 twice for a small box of old books. As I cull the attic, I will drop some off every time I am in town. Pretty convenient. They also sell books on line. I've gotten bought a few. If you don't take the cash, you can get a $10 credit...I took the cash!Obviously I don't need a book!!!! https://www.wonderbk.com/

[Tybee]

Taking a really nice Quaker lace tablecloth to the Goodwill along with the new garland I bought yesterday to spruce up the old tree. Turns out, I like the old garland better. And a Christmas jigsaw puzzle that I started and didn't want to finish, along with a couple of pillow cases and books. Mad at myself for buying the new garland, but maybe someone can use it this year.

[iris lilies]

My sister in law is here, visiting with my brother. She is taking the small plastic wreaths I used to decorate my kitchen cupboards for the house tour. Yay!

[Tradd]

About books: I'm almost all eBooks these days. Some people bleat about "you're only buying a license for the book." You know what? I don't care. I don't have the space for all the books I would want to read. The library either doesn't have what I want or there are hundreds of people in front of me on waiting lists. So I buy my ebooks. After I'm gone, people won't have to worry about getting rid of tons of books and I won't have to worry about moving them whenever I move next. I have one small bookcase, and a few other books. That's it.

[rosarugosa]

Tradd: Different strokes for different folks, but I do really well with the library. I order the books online and get an email when they come in. My TBR list is so vast that I am usually reading books that I put on the list 1 -2 years ago and were often published a year or two before that, so I seldom have to wait for a book. When I do, there are so many books on the list for me to read in the meantime that I don't mind! Right now, there are 91 books on my list and about 30 that await me in the other room. I also find that when I'm spending too much time online, it works well for me to get a few library books, because those due dates light a fire under me! Most of the books will auto-renew, and most of the area libraries don't even charge fines, but I do always try to get a book back before it is due.

[Klunick]

Got rid of a wooden Santa that you put on tops of doorframe or cabinets. We would stick it on top of our living room sliding glass door when we had the 6 foot cat tree there too. Kind of give the cats a little Christmas decor in their corner of the room. We have a smaller cat tree there now and that Santa looked so out of place.