The only thing that helped me were if they were not antiques and the paper quality was poor, they got chucked. No one would want to hold and read them.

Looking to the rest of you for more great suggestions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just purged several hundred books when we downsized. I took them all to McKay's out in Manassas and sold them. You won't make a ton of money doing this, but you will get something for them and know that they will have a second life.

on average how much did they give you per book? contemplating a trip out there.

I can't really say how much they gave on average per book because it varies a lot. Some might get you 20 cents and some 8 dollars. A recent hardcover blockbuster bestseller is going to get real money and a paperback book on gardening from 1981 won't. I'd say I got between $20 and $35 per trip, with each trip being 3 - 4 of their buckets filled. I was happy to get the money for it, but the big thing was getting rid of them in a systematic way that wasn't contributing to a landfill.

I would purchase anything available via Kindle in Libby/Hoopla. Then I'd purge anything rated under 4.0.

Anonymous wrote:I just purged several hundred books when we downsized. I took them all to McKay's out in Manassas and sold them. You won't make a ton of money doing this, but you will get something for them and know that they will have a second life.

on average how much did they give you per book? contemplating a trip out there.

Doing this for my parents now. Thousands of books. None are valuable, all are heavy, and they don't want to get rid of any.

There are apps like Book Scout where you can scan the isbn number and see what second hand copies are selling for and whether second hand dealers are willing to buy these books.

When I scanned mine, very few were valuable or sought after.

I used to have about 400 books. They were mostly books that I intended to read "someday" when I retired and had more time. I retired a few years ago and now I am old and can't read small print anymore. So they all got donated to the thrift shop.

It's tough! I had to do several iterations, sorting into "keep," "maybe," and "give up" piles. Then you have to go through the "maybe" pile until it's the right size. Once the "keep" pile matches your linear footage of shelving in the new place...the rest are goners.

I just purged several hundred books when we downsized. I took them all to McKay's out in Manassas and sold them. You won't make a ton of money doing this, but you will get something for them and know that they will have a second life.

I used to collect series or authors.
The series like Ellis Peters I just donated.
But I literally had every John D MacDonald book ever. In paperback. I donated that to the Travis McGee Fan Club, which donated some to fill in the UofF archives and the rest to fill in members' collections.

I used to have so many books and I experienced such freedom when I got rid of them! I still read, but I either use the kindle, the library, or give away any book I end up buying. You might feel so much better without them!

I'd prioritize those that are easy and inexpensive to replace. I'd guess that of books published more than a couple of years ago, you can order a used copy of almost all for about $5-$10 if you want to own it in the future, and of course you can get most from the library if you just want to reread it once.

Have you read them? Are you really going to read them again? If you need to read them again, could you borrow it from the local library?

I'd start with ditching books I didn't love. No point in taking those with you.

Then I'd get rid of books that were forgettable or didn't give you something to think about.

For nonfiction, get rid of books that are dated/irrelevant now.

We have a large bookshelf with various books. We are moving soon and have to downsize, as we are going from a larger suburban home to a smaller city apartment. I’m getting rid of 1/3, donating to various Little Libraries.

Of course I’ll be keeping our favorites and anything first edition or worth money, but what about the rest? Having a hard time parting with anything. How would you purge?