Hello! I have read some of your posts on clutter and found them very interesting. I don’t have a lot of clutter in my home except I do have a lot of books. What are your thoughts on books and how this relates to clutter?

Thank you for your question! I think a lot of us tend to accumulate books. There are always a lot of new books you want to get, and people give you books...and suddenly you have way more than you’ll ever be able to read! I notice that I start to feel a little stressed around my books because I feel like there are so many that I should be reading.

On one level, books can create a lot of clutter, so that’s something to think about. On another level, those books might be preventing you from purchasing and reading the books you really want to read, because you feel like you need to get through the books you already have. In this way, you might be limiting yourself. The books on your shelf served a purpose at one time, but that doesn’t mean they are useful to you now. Some of your books may have also been given to you by other people, and are not things that you really wanted in the first place.

Books also represent knowledge, wisdom, and information. This is true of fiction, too, since they often include metaphors that can be sources of wisdom. Something to pay attention to is whether you have any books that represent old ways of thinking. If you are holding onto books with ideas that no longer resonate with you, you may also be holding onto old ways of thinking that could be holding you back. It’s really important to revisit the structures in our lives, and choose which ones we want to keep and which ones we want to let go of. Letting go of books can be a beautiful way to let old ideas go as well. By making space on your bookshelf, you’re opening yourself up to new ideas and innovation.

I invite you (and everyone reading this!) to give away one book today. You can donate it to a used book store, your local library, or another organization that accepts used books. Choose a book that represents an old way of thinking, or a part of your life you're no longer resonating with, and let it go with the intention of making space to invite in something new. Instead of filling our lives with preconceived notions, we can make space and be an open container for new ideas.

How can you make space to receive something new, maybe something that you couldn’t have even imagined?

by Anjie Cho