PART 1. THE BOOKS: It started with a notice at our township library that they were having a used books drive. All I had to do was pull my car up to the curb and volunteers would unload as many books as I wanted to bring in. With Chris out of town on a business trip, I wanted to do something to surprise him when he got back, the way he builds me a piece of furniture every time I go to BlogHer. And the fact is, I’m a book hoarder. I was hanging on to decades of books, stacked three boxes high in our basement. That notice at the library was the jump start I needed.

I set aside 4 big packing boxes from product review deliveries and started sorting through the boxes in the basement. I made piles to keep, piles to donate, and piles to throw away. As a book lover, it’s almost painful for me to throw away a book, but if I came across one with a torn off cover or the beginnings of mildew, out it went. Into the keep pile went everything by my favorite authors – Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Jonathon Kellerman, Janet Evanovich, J.D. Robb, Patricia Cornwell, and into the donate pile went everything by authors I liked but didn’t love enough to give space to on my shelves – Tami Hoag, Sandra Brown, Lisa Gardner. I reminded myself that if I got in the mood to read something by those authors, I could get it at the library.

I filled up all four of those large packing boxes, plus three more of the original boxes from the basement. I tossed out several boxes that were so old, I knew I had used them to move books from our apartment to our first house, FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. I filled the trunk and back seat of the car with those seven boxes and drove to the library. You should have seen the look on the librarian’s faces! Apparently not that many people had noticed the announcement about the book drive. They said bring in my used books any time, they sell them in their used bookstore for fifty cents or a dollar, and the funds go back into the library. So, I went home and filled up four more boxes and drove back and dropped those off too. I didn’t get any pictures though

And you know what? I don’t miss any of those books at all. But it sure felt good to finally get rid of stuff I didn’t need that other people will want and that will help my library too!

PART 2. THE BEDROOM: Chris came home from his three week business trip last Saturday night, and besides surprising with the books, I wanted the house to be especially clean. I’ve written several times about what a slob I am, and I’m not a very good housekeeper, either. Chris is the one who does the picking up, and I didn’t want him walking in the door after sleeping on a plane all night and feel the need to start cleaning. So I got up early Saturday morning, told the kids that they WERE going to help and were NOT going to complain, and we set to work.

While Ryan was cleaning the kitchen and Nathan was cleaning the bathroom, I decided to tackle the mess that was our bedroom. I took a bunch of “before” photos specifically to post here so you could see just how bad it was (click to embiggen):

And then I started on one side of the room armed with Swiffer cloths and Pledge, a trash bag and another big “donate” box. The first thing I did was fill a smaller cardboard box with about 20 magazines that were piled up on the floor by the bed gathering dust. I didn’t even stop to look at them or tear out any articles to keep, I just put them in that recycling box and didn’t look back. That huge box at the foot of my bed was filled with clothes I had been tossing aside knowing they will be too small in the Spring, so I filled the “donate” box with those.

I dusted and vacuumed, I used the hose attachment to get the dust bunnies around the edge of the bed frame and between the wall and the dresser. I pulled out all my shoes and put three pairs in the donate box and one in the trash (trust me, they were beyond saving). I cleaned off the top of my dresser and my bedside table, and finally I pulled paperbacks I didn’t want anymore off of my bookshelf and tossed those in yet another donate box. When I was done, the bedroom looked like this:

The last couple of months of my life have been one surprise after another. I don’t know why, but I’m changing things for the better. I’m letting go, I’m making tough choices, I’m sticking to my plans. And you know what? It feels really, really good. Did you tackle a project this past week? Write a post about it and link it up on Tackle it Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom!