How many books does a book lover need?

Recently, it was International Book Day, according to...whomever makes all of the "whatever whatever" days. (note: there are days for ANYTHING. Like, there is probably a day to celebrate the keyboard that I’m typing this blog post on right now. It’s kind of crazy.)

This professional organizer LOVES books. This is my "library" room at my house (goodbye, formal living room, hello, glorious bookshelves and comfy chairs.)

When we were going through our 2018 full purge of our house, and I was following the KonMari Method® very faithfully--I thought going through books was going to be challenging. I was like, EVERY SINGLE BOOK SPARKS JOY—and there is no way I can say goodbye to any of these books, I’m sure I’ll keep all of them.

That was before I started actually emptying my shelves.

I divided the books into categories (which is the REAL magic of organizing—when you’re overwhelmed, you JUST have to categorize!!) I divided them into fiction and non-fiction, then hardcover and paperback; I separated kids’ books (which at that point were more sentimental items as my kids were older) from college and grad school textbooks. After I got things into the categories that made sense to me, I started deciding what stayed and what I was going to say goodbye to.

What I found out was that I had a LOT of books that didn't really spark any joy for me any longer--ones that were just there for decorative purposes or to take up space. There were some that I had loved, but that I also realized I could send in gift bags to other book loving friends and THEY could enjoy them and then gift them to someone else. (please note! this is not a forever strategy for your whole home—that’s something we will talk about a different day, called “gifting your burden”—but for friends who love books, I did some specially hand-picked books for them and it made a lot of people happy!)

I ended up with just the right number of books for me. One of the most misunderstood concepts of the KonMari Method® is that you have to become a minimalist, or you can only keep a teeny number of any certain thing. You keep the number of things that works for YOU and what you need. This may be 100x the number of books you want in your house--but it's great for me.

As you can see from this photo, I still have LOTS of books in this room. I have a few more spots throughout the house with other books (like my nightstand or the family room.) I kept what I truly loved and then filled the bookshelves with decor and other things that sparked joy for me.

Here's to all my book lovers today!