Aaah, books. My childhood love, my first great hobby and first autistic interest. I simply devoured books! In secondary school I read in between classes, while walking from one classroom to another. I could completely lose myself in a story and more than once I finished a book in one sitting.

So it won’t surprise you I had a LOT of books. And you know, I could never imagine even getting rid of one of them. I mean, books were supposed to be cherished, right?
Undoubtedly my relationship with books was influenced by the fact that when I was a kid it was mainly me and my books. I didn’t have a lot of friends, so my books were extra special to me.

Cue the moment I moved away for uni and started living on my own. I had to take a long hard look at what I would bring with me because my room just wasn’t big enough. So I left my children’s books at my parents’. No problem, since they had enough room anyway. Except after a few years my parents moved to a smaller house and I had to make sure all of my earthly possessions could fit into a tiny 18 sq meters (193 sq feet). Believe me, besides a small kitchen and tiny bathroom, there isn’t a whole lot of space left for stuff!

So I had to take a long hard look again, but this time to decide what I wanted to keep. Coincidentally at that time I encountered the KonMari Method™, which focusses on keeping what makes you happy and what you want to keep in your life.

That was when I first got rid of books. Books that didn’t make me happy at all because they were boring, or I had never finished them because they were just that tedious. But believe me, getting rid of those books was HARD to me.

In the past 4 years I’ve continuously gotten better at feeling what sparks joy™ to me, because I’ve had to ask myself this a couple times more since that first time. At some point my husband moved in with me, so I had to make sure there was enough room for his stuff. And then we got our little boy, so our 1 bedroom apartment now had to be home to yet another person (how do babies need so much stuff?!)

Now that my husband and I are dreaming of living in a Tiny House, I’ve started taking long hard looks at our things again. Because I’ve realised that some of the things I definitely wanted to keep 4 years ago, don’t really suit me and my life anymore - looking at you, blouse that stains when it get a freaking stain from water. Which mom needs that in her life?.

And just like that I now own less than 200 books. OK that still sounds like a lot, I know haha! But there was a time that was at least double.
Funnily enough the biggest difference with 4 years ago isn’t the number of books I own, but how my view of books has changed. I appreciate them so much more now.

”HUH?” I hear you thinking. “Appreciate them more? But you own less books now and you’re even getting rid of them?”
That’s right! And yet, I appreciate them so much more. Because the books I do own, are truly special to me. Each and every one brings a smile to my face. And who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by things that truly make them happy?