How do you get rid of books?

[catherine]

When we moved south we had an auction and got rid of almost everything. We hauled a small 4x8 trailer with just a few things. My books were the hardest to cull. I now only have one bookcase. It was really hard deciding what to keep. I kept telling myself I could buy things back if needed. I love my home now. I use all the things I own and have no clutter (other than occasional paperwork). Our wall coverings are photos or canvases of pictures we’ve taken from travels around the world. Our home is truly a reflection of who we are. We’ve radically simplified our domain and I love it! Upon our deaths, the place will be sold fully furnished, as is typical. I’ve set it up so there should no probate and, hopefully, an uncomplicated event for our son. Anyway, that is the plan!

I am with you. There is not one thing, out of the 75-80% of all the stuff we purged before moving, that I wish I had kept. My cousin, who is my age, lives alone in this huge barn-like house that she has lived in with her mother for most of her adult life. There is so much stuff in there, and she is not in good health. When I think about living in a place like that, I get anxious. And I get anxious for her, too! She has no children, so it will be up to her brother and extended family to handle it all.

[happystuff]

When we moved south we had an auction and got rid of almost everything. We hauled a small 4x8 trailer with just a few things. My books were the hardest to cull. I now only have one bookcase. It was really hard deciding what to keep. I kept telling myself I could buy things back if needed. I love my home now. I use all the things I own and have no clutter (other than occasional paperwork). Our wall coverings are photos or canvases of pictures we’ve taken from travels around the world. Our home is truly a reflection of who we are. We’ve radically simplified our domain and I love it! Upon our deaths, the place will be sold fully furnished, as is typical. I’ve set it up so there should no probate and, hopefully, an uncomplicated event for our son. Anyway, that is the plan!

I never thought of selling the place "fully furnished". Although I question whether anyone would buy the place and not think it would have to be emptied - ROFLOL. (That was a dig at me - not anyone else. LOL)

[happystuff]

I am with you. There is not one thing, out of the 75-80% of all the stuff we purged before moving, that I wish I had kept. My cousin, who is my age, lives alone in this huge barn-like house that she has lived in with her mother for most of her adult life. There is so much stuff in there, and she is not in good health. When I think about living in a place like that, I get anxious. And I get anxious for her, too! She has no children, so it will be up to her brother and extended family to handle it all.

One of my siblings is going from a three-story house into a two-bedroom apartment in about 2-3 months. Several of us have been helping her sort, pack, box, list, sell, donate, etc. It is SUCH a reminder that I want less stuff around for others to deal with when I'm dead. I'm STILL trying to declutter and scale down after a decade or two in this same house.

[rosarugosa]

It was one I grew up with, the Savannah Cookbook from the 1920's, with the poem foreward by Ogden Nash. My folks had my grandmother's copy, and I had one I bought as a young person, but I could not find it. Maybe it's in a box in the barn. That's a great project for today, see if there are any more boxes of books in the barn.

How cool! I've probably mentioned it before, but at our wedding, we had the JP read his poem "Tin Wedding Whistle."

Though you know it anyhow
Listen to me, darling, now,
Proving what I need not prove
How I know I love you, love.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Far and wide, far and wide,
I can walk with you beside;
Furthermore, I tell you what,
I sit and sulk where you are not.
Visitors remark my frown
Where you're upstairs and I am down,
Yes, and I'm afraid I pout
When I'm indoors and you are out;
But how contentedly I view
Any room containing you.
In fact I care not where you be,
Just as long as it's with me.
In all your absences I glimpse
Fire and flood and trolls and imps.
Is your train a minute slothful?
I goad the stationmaster wrothful.
When with friends to bridge you drive
I never know if you're alive,
And when you linger late in shops
I long to telephone the cops.
Yet how worth the waiting for,
To see you coming through the door.
Somehow, I can be complacent
Never but with you adjacent.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Then grudge me not my fond endeavor,
To hold you in my sight forever;
Let none, not even you, disparage
Such a valid reason for a marriage.

[Tybee]

How wonderful!!

Apparently when his family lived in Savannah, his father rented Juliette Gordon Lowe's house from Juliette Gordon Lowe, founder of the American Girl Scouts. It's a museum now.

I was hoping he was buried in Savannah, along with Conrad Aiken and Johnny Mercer, but apparently he is buried in New Hampshire!

[catherine]

What a wonderful poem, IL.

[iris lilies]

What a wonderful poem, IL.

that is Rosa who had that funny little poem read at her wedding.

We didn’t put that much thought into our nuptuals, we just went to the courthouse and got it over with

[catherine]

that is Rosa who had that funny little poem, red at her wedding.

We didn’t put that much thought into our nuptuals, we just went to the courthouse and got it over with

Oops, my mistake.

What a wonderful poem, rosa.

DH and I, because we love to complicate everything as much as possible, "performed" at our wedding. DH performed by memory the famous Shakespeare sonnet "How do I love thee," and I orchestrated a candlelighting ceremony where "the friends and family who light our lives," could light each others' candles like on Christmas Eve and then the last candle made its way up to the altar where DH and I jointly lit one candle.

[frugal-one]

I never thought of selling the place "fully furnished". Although I question whether anyone would buy the place and not think it would have to be emptied - ROFLOL. (That was a dig at me - not anyone else. LOL)

Selling fully furnished is routinely done here for mobile homes. And, many times the place is not kept as is.

[rosarugosa]

That sounds lovely, Catherine.

We got married in the bar of a very nice restaurant, and most of our wedding pictures were taken beneath a large picture of 3 naked men crushing grapes. I referred to them as my bridesmaids.