Too Many Books

Childrens hospital, the library, goodwill, salvation army. ALL will take books that are in good condition.

Other than that I can't give you any suggestions. I have approximately 1,200 books in my house and would never consider giving away books I'd been given (except for copies). But I'm an obsessive reader LOL

Keep just the signed ones and donate or sell the rest. A hospital might be a good place to donate to.

Well, I wouldn't think of this as a burden but an incredibly luxury. There are so many children who can't afford a huge library and this is such a blessing to have such generous friends and family. Cycle out ones you don't want--even the signed ones. Donate them to the library or the children's hospital...I used to work for the bookstore attached to the library where they sell old/used/donated books and that money goes to literacy programs through the library. If you go every week, just drop off ones you no longer want.

I will add, though, that my dear friend growing up had an entire wall of books and he and I would pour over them on weekends. It was amazing to have them at my fingertips, no barriers...just a beautiful skylight, a soft carpet, big floor pillows and book after book...all day.

I'm a little floored... but I lost 17 boxes of books in a flood (abotu 1/4 of what I own, and worth about $8,000 that I'll probably never be able to replace... stupid insurance, the water came through a loophole in the policy!), and my mum owns something around ten thousand books at last count. 250 in children's books is only about 1 shelf's worth.

If you don't have the space... ask your MIL if she'd be willing to keep them for your daughter.

It's probably less that people don't understand the volume, and more that they see the volume as a good *start*. Readers just don't get nonreaders. Yes, we really DO keep books for generations!!! I have children's books from the 1800's!

If you don't want the actual books, there's almost no way to stop getting them... but you might cut down on the space by asking for Kindle Books, or NookBooks.

I donate our excess books to my sister's daycare centers. The majority of their students come from low-income homes, and my sister has set up a classroom library for each classroom so that the parents can check out books (without having to go to the actual library). I worked at one of the centers for a few years and I know that most of the families don't have much free time, so anything we could offer them right there at the center--at pick up or drop off time, was very appreciated.

The public libraries already receive a ton of donations, so I like to spread my donations around to less obvious places.

We have way too many books. I am afraid our floors are going to buckle.
We also go through them and either give them or sell them..

Our daughter can never have too many books, thank goodness our relatives learned not sign them so we could exchange them. They knew she was a bibliophile and had literally 1000's of books through her childhood.

I was given an ipad this summer and am now asking for the books to be for my ipad. It has been great.

I have small hands anyway so those 500 page books are just to big and heavy for me.

We have so many books, but we feel like we could NEVER have enough. In fact, I just ordered 100 more from a used bookstore. Obviously, that's our personal preference, though. Not everyone wants their house to be a library :)

I am with the camp of buying cute name plate stickers and giving them as gifts. I know libraries and half priced books do book drives, as well. Children's hospitals and advocacy centers, always need books. You can also sell them back to used book stores.

We donate our doubles.
We have soooooo many. Too many. What a dilemna to have though.
Could you try selling your "excess/extras" to a used bookstore?
Have a garage sale & sell them for cheap.
That way.....they are passed on AND someone else can appreciate them.
Giving you some breathing room.

yeah...books are so great, and everyone thinks every kid just needs more and more of them. we have probably around as many as you do - and we are not ones to read every single day. we should! i know we should. but we read maybe a few times a week tops. i have stopped buying books long ago, because we already have so many i'm afraid we'll never get through them. sad, but i guess it's not a terrible problem to have. maybe you can find a way to donate them to kids who don't have any.

You can sell your excess books.
Check out what you need to do to become a seller on www.alibris.com
I've always been a major reader and my son is book crazy, too.
We've converted the dining room to a library - book shelves everywhere - and the books still overflow everywhere.
But we read them all!
As your son gets older - see about getting an eReader and tell people if they want to give book gifts, they can give gift certs so you can download the files.
It'll save you lots of shelf space.

You can donate them to schools (preschool & elementary) - find one in need, that could really put them to good use. Or children's hospitals love book donations.

However, I think it is special to have books that are signed from grandparents, and other family. I still have all of mine from my grandparents and have passed them down to my kids (8 & 4 year olds) who LOVE seeing that they were signed by their great grandparents. Maybe hold on to the more special ones, or the ones with the more famous titles and donate the rest. Both my kids have large bookshelves in each of their rooms that are bursting at the seams! They love it because it's like their own mini library. Both of my kids have a love of books and reading, so it's worth hanging onto them for that reason alone.

Good luck! There's nothing wrong with purging. Maybe just ask the MIL to limit to 1 book a year? You know you'll end up with hurt feelings and/or a rift in your relationship if you flat out tell her to stop. I'd rather the MIL buy books than some stupid toy that eats batteries. That's my take!

Does your local library hold a used book sale? You could donate them to that cause.

Would you be able to donate any to your local library for circulation?

How about the local children's hospital? I think it is Half Price Books that will often place books in some waiting rooms at the hospital for kids to take home.

Donate them to a literacy program.

Donate them to a preschool.

Donate them to the waiting room of your pediatrician's office.

Holy Bookworms! Cover names and donate, or become an Amazon bookseller.

Donate them to the library. They'd love to have them...and since you're so close, it's like you've extra shelf-space there. You can always check them out if you'd like to see them!

Well, anything signed or written in, I would certainly keep. It may not seem that important to you, but your kids may really appreciate them when they are older and who knows - if they are still in decent condition, they may keep them for their own kids. My mother passed away unexpectedly last year and I would love to have at least one book from her to my daughter with a handwritten message in it.

Then decide which ones are really worth keeping and which ones you think are better off donating. But it almost sounds like you need a better system for keeping and organizing what you have already. Time to invest in more shelves! Or maybe store a bunch of them and then "rotate" the books, like toys. Or try selling them on-line.

At our old house, we lived in the downstairs apt and rented out the upstairs. Each apartment had their own huge recycling bin out by the curb for pick-up every week. Our upstairs tenant had 2 little girls - around 6 and 2. One day I found a ton of perfectly good children's books tossed into their recycling bin outside. They were all the older daughter's books and I couldn't believe they wouldn't want to still keep them for the younger one. I don't know if the mom decided she needed more room, or thought they would somehow be donated rather than recycled. But instead I spent a good hour hauling all the books out of there - there had to be over 200 books, I lost count. Some I ended up keeping myself for my daughter and the rest got donated to the local Goodwill store.

I understand the "overwhelmed" feeling, but I would rather be overwhelmed with books than anything else.

I've bought signed/dated books from yard sales, so just because they're written in, doesn't mean you can't sell them. However, you won't get much for them at a yard sale, so regifting them would probably be a better idea, if you can get a decorative sticker to cover up the original inscription so it doesn't look bad.

i understand... my family is the same way with coloring books.... i could wallpaper a room. it is not a matter of not being grateful for the thought...it is being overwhelmed.
Donating is probably your best bet...you mentioned you live near you library...ours takes donations that they sell twice yearly to raise money. local childrens hospital takes books but with a lot of restrctions on topic.... homless shelter, domestic violence shelters, your school library....
as far as the insciptions....our library will take those, my son's classroom put a sticker in when you donate a book with their name and year... maybe a sticker like that will cover MILs inscriptions?
Good luck decluttering

See what is available near you. There may be more options than you think. Our public library accepts used books and resells them in its shop and at its big book-sale events. My church has an "exchange" (like a yard sale, but with no money involved) twice a year, and people love to take other people's books home. There is a wonderful second-hand book store in my neighborhood where I can take books and get store credit. If you just want to move the books out, rather than make a profit on them, check around and ask around where you live. Many people would be interested in reading these books.

Keep some of the signed copies. Your children may be glad to have something of their grandma's later on when she's not there to give them anything. Those books will be special to them. Let Grandma know that, although you can't keep everything she gives, you are setting aside special books for your children to remember her by.

People don't give me books. I'm much, much too good at finding them myself! So I have to discipline myself to confine my personal library only to the space dedicated to it.

My husband and I both collect books. However, we have about 20 on our bookshelf( the must have ones), and the rest are all in storage containers( about 4). One day we hope to have a book room, but not now. I donate some to our library, especially the ones that we have duplicates. I don't donate or give away the ones with inscriptions.

What a strange "problem".
I would venture to say that most people don't care what's written in the book unless they're a serious collector....I know we don't care. Lots of our books are from used bookstores and libraries. There have been books from my childhood that are now out of print that I dug up on amazon and ebay, and I couldn't care less if some "To Tommy" is written in the cover.
I went to a used bookstore one day and there was a 8 year old girl and her father in there. He was beaming with pride when he told the clerk that he made shelves so his daughter could have some books, he wanted her to be able to indulge her inner bookworm but didn't have much money. Something about his being so proud of her for reading touched me, and I walked over and asked if she liked mysteries. We talked a bit, and I met them back in that store's parking lot an hour later...I had a 36 book collection from my childhood that predates the Nancy Drew series, in good shape, and I gave them to her. I knew for sure they were going to a good home. Some people really want/love books. Why not donate since you're so richly blessed? If not donate, yeah you can sell on amazon, ebay, halfpriced bookstores, etc. Or Riley had a good idea with the kindle/nook books. It is true that readers can't really understand what a nonreader is thinking. They think they're giving a gift that will keep giving, something that will bring enjoyment, something that will help encourage reading and education, something that may leave its mark on a child. I very distinctly remember how The Giving Tree, The Wish Giver, The Little House on the Prairie series, The Hiding Place, etc made very distinct impressions in my childhood and helped shape me into who I am. I think gift givers who give books just want to be a part of that.

It's hard for me to get rid of books, I love books and look at the board books and say Oh remember when that was his (now 6.5) favorite! However what motivates me is thinking about kids that dont have any. I just packed up and sent a box of toddler/preschool books in good condition to a reservation in S.D. where they are all living below poverty level, the Head Start program there accepts books and gives books to the children to start a home library. let me know if you want an address.

Donate donate donate. We give all the books we've outgrown to the early childhood program for special needs. Hospitals and other programs take them too. As to getting them to stop? Thank them politely and tell them the truth: you have more books than you know what to do with, and you don't like seeing them waste their money. Perhaps the money spent could go into a college fund instead. You may have to repeat yourself often. I am still begging my mom to stop buying toys for my girls. Good luck.