Day 19: Go through books and Day 20: Go through DVDs

I desperately need to catch up, but I don't want to do too much in one post so I will just try to be more diligent about blogging.  I'm also working on a post about Micah's 2nd birthday.  Hopefully I will get that in soon, too.  Anyway...

Day 19 the task was to go through our books.  Both Brad and I really enjoy reading and we have quite the collection of books.  I remember hearing a sermon once and the pastor mentioned that what is in the center of your living room is a good reflection of what you value.  So many people have a TV in the middle of their living room and that says a lot.  Admittedly, we do have a TV in the middle of our living room, but it is surrounded by books and games.  Our entertainment center has six shelves of books filled to overflowing.  Most of the books are more reference-type books, not fiction.  We have a lot of books about ministry and Bible study as we have both served in several different leadership roles in different ministries.  I also have several books from college that I loved.  But the truth is we have a lot of books that we just will never read or never read again.  While I love Jodi Piccoult, the chances of me re-reading any of her books are very slim.  So why keep her books?  If I do ever decide to re-read one I can always get it from the library.  In fact, a couple years ago Brad and I committed to not buying any fiction books because we rarely re-read them.  We always get them from the library in order to save money.  So why were we holding on to so many books that will never be read again?  Isn't it better to share them with other people who maybe have never read them?  So, we went through all of our books and got ride of three shopping bags full of books.  This was the first time, however, that our donation did not go directly to GoodWill.  I had a bag for GoodWill, but I also gave a bag to church.  This bag had a lot of our ministry books that I think other people at church might find useful (including some books that I picked up at a Children's Ministry conference--the church may or may not have footed the bill for those books anyway...).  And the third bag was full of books to give to friends and family.  Books that I liked and thought others might enjoy reading, too.  I'm glad to get all of these books out of my house and even more excited about reading the books I haven't yet and finding new books to read now that we have more room!

Day 20 our task was similar except this time we went through our DVDs.  Since we don't have TV, Brad and I have purchased several different TV shows on DVD.  We still kept many of our collections, but a few of them we've decided we no longer enjoy so they weren't holding on to.  We didn't get rid of a lot of DVDs, but every little bit helps, and my DVD drawers actually look nice and organized now--with room for more!

I am seriously loving all of the space that I am gaining by donating so much.  And we're not missing anything that we've given up.  It's all stuff that we weren't using anyway.  A less cluttered house definitely makes a happier Mom!