So I know I’m a little late to the party but I finally watched Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. I saw a lot of discussion about this show on Twitter, particularly people not agreeing with the idea of getting rid of books that don’t ‘spark joy’.

I am a complete and utter book hoarder. I love wandering through bookshops and I adore second hand book shops and charity shops. I currently have six full length book shelves that are bursting at the seams with easily 1300/1400 books. (There’s also quite a few stacks in the spare bedroom). I am also known to buy special editions of books I already own and if a publisher kindly sent me an ARC I often go out and purchase a finished copy too.

So sitting down to watch Tidying Up with Marie Kondo I was very much in the ‘you should keep your books forever’ category. I watched a few episodes and it really did get me thinking.  My house has kind of been taken over by books and I don’t often see my favourites sitting on the shelf because they are jammed in by so many others, I started to wonder if I’d be able to part with some of them and if I could rid myself of a bit of clutter.

Completely shocking to my boyfriend and all my friends, taking them all off the shelf and looking through them actually worked. I found books I read for University that I know I won’t read again, books I didn’t even like and books that I did enjoy but I know I’m going to pick up again – so why am I holding onto them?

Now I’m not saying I got rid of all of my books. I still am very much in the hoarder section but I did manage to take 348 books off my shelves! It meant all the stacks on the floor are now actually on shelves and I can see my favourites as well as all the books I’ve still got to read – some that I was really excited for that then got lost in the abyss.

After decluttering my shelves I also made a catalogue of all my books (which currently sits at 960 books), meaning I could much better keep track of how many I had and how many I have to read.

My shelves definitely look so much better and it’s so much easier to find things, so if you’re skeptical about the Marie Kondo method I absolutely recommend giving it a go. I never thought in a million years I would be the person passing 300+ books to my local charity shop! I’m probably still going to buy tons of books but hopefully now I can periodically remove the ones I’ll never read again or have lost interest in and someone else can love them instead.

If you do regular book unhauls or you’ve tried the Marie Kondo Method definitely let me know how you got on or what your secrets are for keeping your shelves in order!