It just breaks my heart

The decision was long overdue and it's like losing an old friend...or two or three...hundred.

I'm talking about the boxes, yes boxes, of books I have stored in my basement. We've lived in this house nearly 30 years now and I do believe we haven't thrown anything out. We're pack rats pure and simple. But this year we're turning over a new leaf (I believe I mentioned in an earlier post about FlyLady.com--if you're a pack rat or your house work has gotten the best of you, go take a look at her site.) We're trying to de-clutter our home and lives.

Unfortunately, the basement rec room has been the recipient of all the things that didn't really have a place to be. When my lovely daughter cleaned out her room, you guessed it, she put her stuff in the basement. Then both my parents and my husband's parents died and there was a mass migration of more stuff. Into...my...basment.

Sigh.

Seriously, it was so bad there wasn't even a path. But I want to upgrade my cable, get a cablemodem for my computer and, darn it, I want to be able to use that rec room the way it was intended to be used! So my dh and I have been working on it--there's now a section of clear floor :-) and he's as committed to cleaning it up as I am (I suspect he's more committed to helping me get rid of any of 'my' stuff but this won't work until he removes all the tools he inherited from his father, goes through the stack of newspapers he saved for the articles and, don't ask me why we have this, a garbage bag of paper clutter from his poor deceased mom, bless her heart.

I just have to be patient and nag him until that's gone...and that brings me back to my books.

I just don't have anyplace to store them so I'm sorting through keeping obvious reference books and fiction books that I dearly loved. I've already entered over 460 into a database, identified a little over 100 of them as keepers, but the others...I'm donating to a good home at the library. True, they won't be shelved but will go into the libraries used book sale. That's fine. They'll help support the library and that's a very good thing.

Still. I'll miss all those wonderful books.