What do you do when….

you are a homeschool mom, book lover & pack rat? That’s what I was talking with my friend about today. I was looking at our homeschool bookcase, and there were so many books in there we won’t use again, that are too young for our kids or we are just not interested in. But see, I’m a pack rat, and the first thing that goes through my mind is the pack rat motto, “What if I need this in the future?” Then, if I can get my mind past that thought, my next thought is that of a homeschool mom, “Maybe I should make the kids use these books?” or “Maybe my grandkids could use these books?” Then if I get past those three questions, and might possibly get rid of the books, the booklover in me comes out with, “But they are books, we never get rid of books!”

I wish I had a picture of my father’s bookcase when I was growing up. It was a whole wall that he turned into a bookcase with cinder blocks and 4×2’s, and it was from floor to ceiling. Wouldn’t it be so great to be able to have a whole wall, from floor to ceiling, as a book case? I know I would like it. (I guess I get my love of books from him ). But alas, I only have a simple bookcase with 5 shelves, so some books have to go. But I have made a compromise, I boxed them up to sell them in the future, because right now I have no time what so ever to try and sell them. I have 2 Usborne books, one history, one science and a Saxon 3 math teachers manual. Plus some odds and ends phonics manuals, but the rest are all old disney books. I don’t know if they are worth anything, but I just hate to get rid of them. So I packed them all up, labeled the box, and put it in the garage. Ok, so maybe that’s not a huge step, since I didn’t really get rid of them, but it was a huge step for me.

Now believe it or not, I completely forgot to take a before picture. So, when you see these pictures, just know that the ‘before’ had each shelf completely full.

So this is the ‘in the middle of cleaning’ picture:
And the next two pictures are the box & mess of the middle of cleaning:

And now the after pictures:

And then I cleaned the top of his dresser. Again, no before photos, but believe me, you couldn’t see an inch of the top of his dresser, not an inch.

So besides the normal cleaning and laundry, I decided to tackle this today. And it went smooth & quickly. Now tomorrow is park day & grocery shopping in the afternoon.

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