Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Monday, January 16, 2017

For the Love of Books

I purged books yesterday.  Books are always a difficult item for me to clean out, and get rid of.  

I have a bookshelf dedicated to homesteading books, herbal books, etc.  I have a bookshelf simply for my "how to" writing books, and a bookshelf for my fiction books.  

In my living room, we have a large bookshelf that still contains non-fiction books from my homeschooling days.  We kept most of them.  

I guess I have a terrible time donating non-fiction, considering how the internet is taking over the book reading industry.  My one college daughter has to get her books online, and read them from the computer.  They are not issued most of their books in book form anymore.  So sad.  Even one college book store in my home town closed for that very reason.

So......
.....books are difficult for me to get rid of.  I keep thinking, that when I have grand kids here, I'll want them. 

However, I purged.


I had many boxes at my disposal, so I filled many of them.  These boxes are free from the post office, and since I am not sending "military" boxes, I used them for my donations.  

I stopped counting books after I filled over 100 books into the boxes.


I had 1963 cookbooks.  And inside one, I found a torn page from a Woman's Day magazine.

Check out this recipe!
 

 It was so strange, I had to scan it and post it.  Hubby says, "you should try it" and "it might be good" followed by "or maybe not?"

What do you think?  I mean it has sausage, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, and coffee?  Doesn't sound too good to me, but a funny "find" in my book purge.


And because everyone needs to learn how to sail, I kept this book for years and years.  Most books I purged, were purchased used. About 99% of them.  I'm pretty sure sailing laws and regulations have changed since this book was printed, ha ha!  The price says $.95.


I had so many "president" books, just in case a kiddo needed to do a report or research in their younger days.

I had many of these types of books too. No surprise there.
 
And just in case you need to entertain and fancy up the table, everyone needs this book too.

This was my favorite "game" book for planning class parties when they still did them.  You know, the holiday parties like Christmas, Halloween, Easter etc.  I loved this book so much, I bought it when the library that had it, closed and sold all their books.  Now, this book is being donated to a family member who has little ones, and is very active with her kids school.  

The books are in boxes, sitting around the house, just waiting for a trip to the thrift store.  I caught Hubby taking a few out and reading the titles.  I told him, if he takes any out, he has to find a place for it, and not where it came from.  He told me, "you better not say you have to buy these when you have grand kids!"  

I even had bibles, bible research books, and whatnot.  When the kids were younger, I purchased bibles from the used book sales, so they had one for church.  It appears, I bought several of them, ha ha!  Now someone else can be blessed with them.

I must have started a chain reaction by my cleaning too.  My 20 year-old was be-bopping around purging too.  We started yet another box of clothing to donate.   

Books are a wonderful thing to have.  My donations will make someone else happy now. 

I know I'm happy now. 

And content. 




 
 
 

 

4 comments:

Mama Pea said...

My husband is the one who has books, books, and more books that need to be purged. But he won't do it until he "has time" to go through each one to make sure there's not useful information in it that he will need sometime. I wish he could catch your book clearing bug!

RB said...

Wow!!! Good job. I have a hard time giving books away too - and in truth, clothes, and shoes, and jewelry. I use to hang onto them for work, but don't have that excuse anymore, so I'll have to get busy come Spring, cause I don't want Bro Tom to get stuck with them if I'm no longer able to for some reason.
God bless.
RB
<><

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Mama Pea, when I finish reading fiction books, I pass them onto family too. That way, when I'm on a weekend trip with Hubby, I don't feel bad if I visit a used book store. I have more to purge, but ran out of boxes, ha ha!

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

RB, my kids are inspiring me to downside three bookshelves to one, then move it to a room we are making into an office space (too small to be a craft room, or I'd do that).