Speaking of book sharing, most large campgrounds have a "leave one, take one" shelf in their common area where travelers can take books or leave some. Very handy and nice to see books being shared.
I agree. We all benefit when reading is turned into a communal activity. I'd much rather see that than a video arcade.
There are a couple of residents who have a library about the size of a large manila envelope outside of their homes at the edge of their yards. I thought that was a neat idea for children in their neighborhood.
World Book Encyclopedia was my bible, when I was a kid. I loved reading about everything under (and around) the sun, in its volumes. This thread brings to mind a conundrum I'm currently facing: I am doing a massive decluttering at my house, where I've lived for thirty-one years. This coming week I'm taking on my home library shelves. I love old books, but I am facing the reality that almost all of the books I have can be found online or at the library. Yes, I have many obscure books, but the odds are very strong that I'll never read any of them again. Why keep them? In the end, I'll probably cart almost everything to Goodwill. I strongly dislike Half Price Books, due to bad selling experiences I've had there. In a few weeks, I'll face the challenge of thinning out my record album, cassette and CD collection. Again, most of them are available for listening, online. Why keep them? The above presupposes that the internet will be a constant for the rest of my years on this planet. With the way the world is going, who knows if that's really true!
The books that are easiest for me to let go of are general reference books. I include old college textbooks and cookbooks in that category. Those things are somewhat sterile in nature, are guaranteed to be available on a website, and are only briefly read until you've got your answer or you've made the meal. It's the pleasure reading stuff that has the most emotional attachment, and that I'm most likely to not want to sit in front of a monitor for extended periods of time to read. Plus there's the tactile experience of holding a favorite book. Now I know how a man must have felt struggling to clean out the stable after buying his first Model T.
It's inevitable when downsizing that you will find that you should have kept something. I made 3 sorting piles for throwing out... yes, no and maybe. If I have not needed the maybe for a while, out it goes.
I moved into my current house in 2010 after being in the prior one for over 30 years. When I organized my new kitchen, I did exactly as you've done, Ed. I kept the minimum number of spatulas, turners, slotted spoons, etc., and put the rest in a box. Then I lived with it for a while. I grabbed stuff from the box and put into the drawers as I found I needed it, and eventually the box of remaining stuff went to Goodwill. There's still darned little else I'll part with, because I know I'll need it as soon as I discard it. Whoever comes after me will just have to deal with it.
I need to do some cleaning out and re-arranging of closets, etc. I have no intention of down-sizing anything because I'm still alive and I like my stuff. The kids can take what they want and set fire to the rest when I'm gone.
I've been lucky. My mother owned our family home and the adjoining property as a rental. When she retired, she sold them and they were both knocked down and a cul de sac with 6 homes was put on the lot. She took what she wanted and the rest went to the landfill with the rubble. She flipped the two houses for another residence and rental. When she died, a brother bought the rental (he was living in it), and her residence was knocked down to put up a larger house. We took what we wanted and the rest went to the landfill with the rubble. When I moved into this home, I had been in my tiny house for over 30 years. When I sold it, it was knocked down to put up a larger house. I took what I wanted and the rest went to the landfill with the rubble. I have no idea what "downsizing" and "organizing" mean. That's what landfills are for, right? back on topic: I always rescued the old books. They never went to the landfill.
Before carting your books to Goodwill, you might want to try listing them for sale on eBay. Particularly if there are no markings in them, they will sometimes sell for a surprisingly large amount of money. I bought a book for five cents at a library sale and sold it for nearly $40 on eBay. That was unusual, of course, but my wife has been selling books on eBay for quite a while now. She buys them at yard sales and second-hand stores, and sells them at a profit. In my job, I have to describe categories covering a wide range of topics, including cities and towns. I often buy a book on Amazon or on eBay to get information for the category description, since information that I can get online isn't so helpful for SEO purposes. After writing the category, I re-sell them and usually get at least what I had paid for it, and often more.
I've shied away from selling on EBay because I've gone into the Seller's Forum there and read horror stories of them getting ripped off. Basically, if a Buyer is disappointed, EBay seems to side against the Sellers too easily, and the Seller loses his money and his goods. A friend goes to estate sales and auctions and asked me to research some purchased books for her. She has 2 that look like they may be worth as much as $100. Before COVID, I was gonna find a local shop to sell them through because of my EBay paranoia. Is it unfounded?
No. They do that. Whenever there is a dispute, they will side with the buyer. But if you drop them off at Goodwill, they'll sell them on eBay. Goodwill sells pretty much anything of value on eBay now.
So what has your experience been? Have you had unscrupulous buyers screw you out of your merchandise and money? I imagine the risk is lower with books than it is with electronics. But I've read of it happening with used children's clothing.
I haven't been cheated but my wife has. She sells a lot more on eBay than I do. Some buyers will claim that what they bought wasn't what they were looking for after receiving it, despite it having been described accurately. Then eBay will reimburse their payment and the seller is out the shipping cost, and if they want the product back, they'll have to pay the cost of shipping for the return, as well. It doesn't happen often but it is unfair.
My concern would not be losing the freight costs, my concern would be the jail time involved (and maybe the cost of gas) when I hunt the dishonest S.O.B. down. But I worked retail a long time ago. This behaviour is nothing new. Neither is my anger at it.