Less than two full weeks ago I made the decision to purge 27 boxes of books. I needed to get rid of them, either donate them to the library or sell them. R recommended selling. I took three boxes of the best books to 1/2 Price and got $20. So forget that. The library can make more money on them than that at a quarter each.

The first official week (which was from Wed. to Fri.) I packed up four boxes of books and took them to the library.

The second official week (which was Wed. to Sat., since I was out of town Sun-Tues) I packed up six boxes of books and split them between the library and the store.

Today, the first day of the official third week, and a week when I will be home most of the time, I have eight boxes of books.

So, to date, I have 18 boxes of books purged.

Now, my original goal was 27 boxes, three a week, but when I realized I could do more, I changed my goal to 30. Thirty still seems doable.

Then when I started computing how many boxes it took to empty a single bookshelf, I figured out that I needed to get rid of 63 boxes of books to lower my bookshelf rate to where I need it to be. Now, I’m not planning on doing that because I think that 63 may be more books than I am able at this point in my life to get rid of. However, it is a measurement of how much I need to do this that my “big” goal for the summer was less than half of what was necessary to cut down on my bookshelves.

Despite this, I am celebrating the fact that I have 18 boxes of books purged from my shelves. I actually have three entirely empty shelves in the living room. I could have four, perhaps, if I mixed the books.

I went to the teen room to work on purging there, but the heat trapped in the room was too intense. I left the door open to cool it off some and I will take a fan up with me and get to work there later this evening as things continue to cool down some.

I also went through the big pantry and pulled out about half a box of stuff for the give-away pile.

I obviously need more boxes.