Decluttering – CHE continuation thread

[Chris J]

I am going to declutter some of my bedroom today as opposed to spending too much time on my online course load.

[histchick]

My husband and I are in the process of decluttering.  We are mostly teleworking during the pandemic, which helps in terms of "seeing the stuff" and realizing what we don't need.  We're also able to contract several jobs to make home improvements.  Yay!

Then again, I'm also buying furniture, books, and other things. 

Perhaps I'm just upgrading the clutter and ways to organize.  "Clutterswapping"? 

[apl68]

My husband and I are in the process of decluttering.  We are mostly teleworking during the pandemic, which helps in terms of "seeing the stuff" and realizing what we don't need.  We're also able to contract several jobs to make home improvements.  Yay!

Then again, I'm also buying furniture, books, and other things. 

Perhaps I'm just upgrading the clutter and ways to organize.  "Clutterswapping"?

In the library world we speak of getting rid of old, worn, no-longer-read books to make way for new ones as "weeding."  I don't like that term so much, because the stuff we're getting rid of usually had a good reason from being there.  It's just outlived it.  I prefer to think of it as "pruning"--removing no-longer-viable branches in order to better nurture newer, healthier growth.

Maybe you're just pruning your belongings to create a healthier and more pleasant home environment.

[mamselle]

I like the distinction between "weeding" and "pruning," (or, I also like "culling") for the reasons you state as well.

Long ago, I started on my own books. I'm still only half-way through the second shelf....only 5 more, no, 6, um, 7...no, 8, now....9 shelves to go...

M.

[Dimple_Dumpling72]

I don't post often, but "clutterswapping" is my new favorite word.  It will be very useful in my life :)

[apl68]

I don't post often, but "clutterswapping" is my new favorite word.  It will be very useful in my life :)

It really is a good description of what sometimes happens.

[histchick]

I don't post often, but "clutterswapping" is my new favorite word.  It will be very useful in my life :)

It really is a good description of what sometimes happens.

Y'all just don't tell my nephew.  He's eleven, and loves to collect old cameras and other technology.  His parents are trying to encourage his interests but keep a handle on the clutter.  I've convinced him that getting rid of some of it is culling and curating his collection.  I do like "pruning" more so than "weeding," so I am going to hold on to that one in case his parents get desperate.  :-)   

[apl68]

We're in the middle of a major pruning job at work.  The nonfiction collection is far overdue for it, and we want to do a thorough job of it before shifting the stacks.  So I'm devoting many of my afternoons to pruning.  In a typical afternoon I prune around 90-100 items.  I'm finding great gobs of low-hanging fruit to withdraw.  Adult nonfiction is the one major area where I've never before done a comprehensive weed.  I get the distinct impression that my predecessors NEVER did one anywhere.  They seemed to have a real pack-rat mentality toward library collections.

[mamselle]

I wonder if that may come from specialty non-fiction areas like the sciences and math, which have a certain level of, "How would I (i.e., a non-specialist, non-scientist librarian/bookowner/bookstore person) know if this is out of date or not? Or whether it might sometime be proven to have been correct after all, when people now are doubting it?

Or "Maybe its format is unique enough that it deserves not to be tossed?"

I know that's what I say to myself when I consider getting rid of my dad's WWII GI calculus, history, and shorthand books.

M.   

[apl68]

I wonder if that may come from specialty non-fiction areas like the sciences and math, which have a certain level of, "How would I (i.e., a non-specialist, non-scientist librarian/bookowner/bookstore person) know if this is out of date or not? Or whether it might sometime be proven to have been correct after all, when people now are doubting it?

Or "Maybe its format is unique enough that it deserves not to be tossed?"

I know that's what I say to myself when I consider getting rid of my dad's WWII GI calculus, history, and shorthand books.

M.

At our library I think it was a couple of factors.  First, there was a prolonged period from the late 1960s to the late 1990s when the library's funding did not keep up with its needs.  Acquisitions became almost entirely demand-driven--ordering only what patrons specifically asked for--which meant popular fiction, the latest fad diet and cookbooks, etc.  There were wide areas of human knowledge for which virtually nothing was purchased during that 30-year period.  The limited funds for collection development probably also encouraged a sense that they needed to hang on to everything they had in perpetuity.

I've seen financial statements from the period that indicated that they had enough hoarded cash for emergencies that they could have done a little better at keeping up with core collection nonfiction than they did.  That brings us to the second factor--the librarians during that time, although very intelligent and conscientious, weren't all that well educated.  I don't get the impression that they, personally, had a lot of interest in most areas of nonfiction.  If somebody ordered a book on a particular subject they'd check a core collection guide and find something based on that recommendation, and that was about it.  They would also add donated textbooks on this or that subject to the collection, so that there'd be something on that topic on the shelf.  I've been finding dozens of those, all now decades old and out of date.

In the late 1990s the city passed a bond issue to build a new library, and an increased library millage to run the new place.  The librarian at the time used the new collection development money to order lots and lots of new reference sets and junior and young adult nonfiction sets.  So when I came on about 15 years ago there was a lot of new material in those areas, alongside the old and ancient stuff.  I've tried over the years to beef up all of our nonfiction collections.  Some years back I did some serious weeding in the juvenile nonfiction area.  I've done some in the adult area too, but not enough.

Frankly it's embarrassing now to see just how much junk has been left on the shelves.  All those old textbooks, truly ancient books on science and medicine, a bunch of outdated engineering texts that somebody must have donated long ago, all sorts of fad diet and exercise and cook books, yearbooks from decades ago.  A lot of them got barcoded when the library got a computer cataloging system in the 1990s and were never checked out after that.  They could have saved themselves the trouble and expense of barcoding and entering them into the system!  Other stuff could have been just as well left behind when they moved to the new building in the early 2000s.  I'm partly to blame for not having done a more comprehensive weed years ago. 

[mythbuster]

In the vein of Marie Kondo, anyone here watch the new show on Netflix, The Home Edit? If find these women to be the least organized organizers I've ever seen. And their obsession with organizing books by color is ridiculous.  Marie was soothing and inspiring to watch, these two are not.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I 'decluttered' and organized the junk drawer in the kitchen. It's a red letter day!

[hmaria1609]

Apl68, I've referred to CREW for weeding adult non-fiction over the years. (My best subject area is history since that was my undergrad major) There are some titles you can keep for their classic value/seminal work in the subject area. The rest can just go!
Adult fiction is easier to weed by contrast.

Weeding is slow work but it helps to clear the shelves.

[apl68]

Apl68, I've referred to CREW for weeding adult non-fiction over the years. (My best subject area is history since that was my undergrad major) There are some titles you can keep for their classic value/seminal work in the subject area. The rest can just go!
Adult fiction is easier to weed by contrast.

Weeding is slow work but it helps to clear the shelves.

Yes, I learned the CREW method in library school.  Our problem is we don't keep up with the "C"--"Continuous."  I've been weeding in fits and starts over the years, as I have opportunity and need.  The weed we're currently doing in the adult fiction section is like passing a pig through a python.  I estimate we'll end up getting rid of something like 150 linear shelf feet of material.  It'll be good to have it done, though.

[Parasaurolophus]

I need to re-de-clutter my desktop. Already.