Moving to a different house/condo/apartment can be looked
at in at least one positive way. The moving is a wonderful time
to sort possessions. Several times the problem of what to do
with books has been mentioned.
In forty years my family had acquired a great collection of
books of all kinds. Before we moved we told our kids to look
over all the bookshelves all over the house and to select all the
books that they wanted. We made the same offer to a sister
in law who is an avid reader and collector.
I selected a ton of books to take with us to our new--and
smaller--home.
Then we had a big three day yard sale with all the excess
"stuff" from the basement, garage, attic, storage closets, etc.
Wow! Did the people come! From early morning until early
evening.
(Hint for having a yard sale: Try to time your sale with other
sales on the same street. A neighborhood sale really brings in
the buyers.)
We had three and a half tons of books.
Starting out, the books were $1 or $2 for hardbacks and half
that for paperbacks. The second day we cut the book prices in
half. By the middle of the third day we priced the books at a
quarter each.
We had dozens of boxes of magazines priced at a dime and
later for a nickel. Two neighbors brought over numerous boxes
of books and magazines and donated them to our lines of reading
material up and down the drive and along the entire length of the
front sidewalk.
About five o'clock on the third and last day we were getting
ready to close up. One woman was going through the old
school books, especially the workbooks that the kids had used
in the elementary schools.
Thinking that I would hurry along her selections, I said, "You
can have any book in the entire sale for ten cents and a whole
box of magazines for ten cents."
She said, "I'll take every one of them if you will help me load
them into my car."
"Let's go," I said. "I'll pack and carry and you keep count."
I loaded up her trunk, then her back seat, and finally the
passenger side of the front seat.
I was curious about why the woman wanted all these books,
especially the school books.
She identified herself as the nun who oversaw the literacy
programs at the big jails and the big youth commission (the
long term jail for juveniles after sentencing). She said that
the programs were always short of books because of theft.
"Wait a minute," I asked, "You mean these are people who
are locked up and workers who are searched when they go in
and out and people who are watched by security cameras all
the time, and they steal the books?"
"That's right. We are constantly running short of teaching
materials and office supplies because of theft."
Anyway, the old books got a good home where they will
be used. I cleared out stuff that I couldn't take to our new home.
And I can't think of any book that I sold or gave away that I
needed since we moved.
One footnote: Almost all prisons will not allow donations of
books or magazines. If you want a relative or friend in prison
to have a book, the procedure is for you to order a new book
from a publisher or big bookstore and then have them deliver
the book.
Sometimes young women and men stand outside the local
post office with a box of "donated books to be sent to men in
prison." All these young people want is donations to pay the
cost of mailing the books. I'm pretty sure this is a scam.
Good luck in any moves that you make. As I said, a move
is a wonderful opportunity to clear clutter out of your life.
