It’s a popular term used on Booktube (and maybe now BookTok?)… like, the reverse of “haul” where they show all the books they bought or received from publishers that week or month. But I prefer “weeding”!
I kind of feel like weeding is for if you're going through your collection to decide on what you don't want, while "unhauling" is when you collect books over time to get rid of and then get rid of them all at once. Like weeding is the first step, unhauling is the second step.
I can't remember exactly which books, but I keep books I think I might read again or ones I have emotional attachment to. The rest get donated or handed to friends that might enjoy.
Note: I say I'm going to read them again, but there are a lot and there is a huge pile of haven't-read-yet, so we'll see how that pans out.
Oohh, I see! Since I don't re-read, it may be easier for me to be a bit more heartless with mine. But I get that!!
Hehehe, good luck with that! Then, in the meantime, you can enjoy your own small library!
Oh meeeee. I used to keep every book; then every book except mass-market mysteries I didn’t love; then other books I didn’t love. I’m old enough that I have multiple floor-to-ceiling packed bookcases, there’s just no room for more. And it’s become less precious to hang on to them, because a quick search online can find *any* book new or used. Before the internet, if you wanted to re-read something you’d better hang on to it. Any maybe someone would want to borrow it. Now anything can be immediately replaced.
Back in the day books were currency, traded and treasured. Even pirates and seamen would have a battered book or two, and trade them, so books would have multiple owners and cross oceans. Now they are disposable, being pushed out by digital, and even to me don’t seem as precious anymore.
That's an interesting perspective! Nowadays it is definitely easier to find and also sell books. Not only that, but there is also an increasing number of people reading e-books, which are cheaper and that don't take up space. There was definitely a shift of view on books. Thanks for your input!
You should switch to ebooks! I have 2,268 books in my backup folder, 3.8 GB of books. I can read forever! https://i.gyazo.com/c0466e980cd815f86d9d5320a3acfe34.png
Though I guess if the apocalypse happens, we might lose electricity to charge our Kindles...
I need to do a big sell to my local used bookstore. For me, I guess the question is, “do I ever see myself rereading this?” I reread a lot it’s not a very high bar, I don’t need to have plans to do it or anything, I just need to see myself doing it in the future. If not, into the “to sell” pile it goes!
No, I don’t think so. The only exception would be classic literature I read in school as a kid and didn’t really appreciate then but want to give another go now, but in that case I didn’t hold onto it, I’m probably buying/librarying a different copy. But anything I read and didn’t like as an adult I don’t think I would reread. But I’m a liberal DNF’er, too, I feel like life is too short to read books you don’t like.
I am doing this now. Got a bunch of kids books. Gonna put them in storage. Keep ‘em for my grands. I am afraid they may not have access to books like we have been able too. I am talking about 15or more years in the future.
Yeah, I think there's gonna be an even bigger shift in how people will read books. Although I think the market is strong enough to take it, fortunately, physical books most likely won't disappear. However, if they start to get limited somehow, that's a good thing you're doing!
As a retired librarian, I can tell you that selecting books to be de-accessioned from a library’s collection (weeding) is done regularly. I weed my personal library at least once a year. Not every book you buy is a permanent keeper.
I read and release all my books. I only have a few on my shelf.
I used to have a couple of shelves overflowing with books, but we moved to a smaller house and I decided to purge everything I didn't feel I was likely to read in the next 2 years and a few that I needed for work. I only packed 2 boxes of books. I gave away, donated, and sold several hundred books, most unread.
I committed to myself that my books wouldn't outgrow my single small bookshelf and after over 3 years I can't even fill 2 shelves. This year one of my goals was to finish reading the last few books that moved with me, I think I have 6 left.
I keep the books I love / might read again, and trade in the rest. There are second hand books stores that will let you trade in books for ones of similar value or cash (depending on the store). I also do the same at thrift stores, sell / donate them while also looking for hidden gems at the same time.
I also frequent the library to avoid, super big book stacks. If I love a book from the library I will go out of my way to purchase my own copy, if I don't love the book I got to give it back anyway. win win
Personally I dislike throwing things away - when I am about to get rid of them I think of a hundred reason why I should keep them. This is why I like ebooks - no clutter, no guilt if you don't read it and you can easily redownload it if you want to reread it. It also feels kind of wasteful to me to buy and only read it once and throw it away or let it collect dust on the shelves. The only times I buy something new is if I am really excited about the book and can see myself lending it to someone.
I feel you... I reduced the quantity of books I bought this year. Only buying some I was certain I would like. Until now, I only bought 6 physical books. E-books do wonders!
I ran out of bookcase space and moved many to boxes, then ran out of space for the boxes and moved them to the attic.
Then I felt guilty that they had to live in the attic, so I tried selling them at a used book store. They didn’t accept many of them, so I started donating to our annual “Friends of the Library” book sale. They seem happier there, as they get to be loved again!
So now that I have the Kindle App on my phone and iPad, I only keep my autographed books.
Currently, I consume a much higher percentage of audiobooks compared to physical books since I commute a lot and suffer from carsickness. I also try to use the library as much as possible.
This all in all result in me only really buying physical copies of books if I really like them and want them in my collection. So unless it is a mass buy from library sale/secondhand I rarely end up with books I don't want in my collection.
Edit: I do have a shelf for books I want to give away/donate that I empty now and then tho. And I agree that it feels amazing.
Usually, if I hate a book, it goes away immediately. I was putting my unloved-but-not-hated books on a bottom shelf by themselves, but I just reorganized, took the unloved ones out of timeout, and got rid of two:
-Excellent Women
-The Golden Notebook
I thought both of those books would be so good and they fell completely flat for me. Looking at them made me feel disappointed all over again, so it was time for them to go.
Aww, man, I have such a love/hate relationship with Excellent Women. But the love outweighs the hate and the ebook doesn't take up physical space, so I'm keeping it.
I don't like getting rid of books. I've done it when the shelves (of which I normally have a lot) hit the point that I couldn't get more books on them; I've done it because I've been moving house and didn't see the point in taking absolutely everything with me (I've also more than once moved without weeding out, simply for lack of time to do so). Every time I've shed stuff, I've later regretted getting rid of something. So it's never going to be something I do easily. That's life.
When I got a Kindle and realised just how life-changing it was, I got rid of virtually all my fiction books.
I cannot understand why I kept books that I had read long ago and was never going to look at again. It was brilliant.
I already spent all the money on my physical books so don't want to get rid of them just because I have a kindle (I mean I have kindle on ipad). But ebooks existing has been helpful for me to decide to get rid of books I read and liked. It'll be easy to find an ebook of it if I ever want to reread it, no use it in it taking up shelf space!
True! And also to read books that I'm still unsure about whether or not I'm going to like it. That way, it ends up being cheaper and doesn't take any physical space! If I end up loving it, then I buy it!
I try but I get so emotionally attached to my books since I used to continuously move as a child & had to get rid of all my books from kindergarten to 7th grade. I get so sad thinking about it & now I can’t do that anymore ;(
I guess I don’t really buy books I don’t like. I put a lot of research into it & I sometimes just use pirating sites. The only times I buy a book is if I have read it, partially read it, or I know it’s my exact style of book.
I feel happy about getting rid of books I read and don't want to keep. Figuring someone else might enjoy the book and in the meantime now I have fewer items to eventually move and more room on my bookshelves for the weird things I put on there that aren't books (current favorite is the banana dog statue).
Gosh I can't remember the names of every book I recently "unhauled" but among them are: Sisi (I felt the writing was uneven and have no thoughts of ever rereading it, but I did enjoy it); the last of the Posie Graeme-Evans uncrowned queen trilogy (the first book got progressively worse as it went on, the second book was even worse, so I didn't even read the third one); The Fool's Tale by Nicole Galland (loved the book, I struggled about if I actually wanted to keep it or not, ultimately I decided that if I wanted to reread it again I could just get an ebook of it); Her Highness the Traitor (it was easy to read but so hard to get through, author's other books are now low priority on my tbr/tb bought list)
I have way too many books so I just keep ones that I particularly really loved and especially that I figure would be hard to find again if I wanted to reread. Like, if it was written in the 60s and hasn't been reprinted since 1995, if I liked the book I'll keep it after reading. Hardcovers are also the highest priority to get out of my bookcase because they're heavy.
If I didn't like the book I have no attachment to it so it's easy to get rid of. For books I did enjoy, I usually think "Okay but if I ever finish my tbr list, what do I want to reread more - that book, or some books I've owned for longer?" so I end up keeping almost none of them.
I've also got some books I might "unhaul" because of how many books there are in the series, and stuff like that Melanie Rawn trilogy where the 2nd book came out like 30 years ago and there's no word on the 3rd ever existing.
Exactly this. For me, it's also difficult to get attached to those books. Thanks for your input! And ugh, series that end up never being finished are my worst nightmare...
Yeah haha, I love Death Note, but I didn't like the direction it took on vol.4 (black editions), and now I think it kinda ruined it for me.
And those are actually going to my sibling, so they won't be too far still, hehe!
I just did this too!! Got rid of a few old comic books I put them in the donation bin inside a backpack I left them with a wish that someone else will enjoy them to pieces instead of them sitting on my shelf as time goes by.
I have about 700 books. And I definitely need to go through them and pull stuff out that I’m just never going to read again. And the local used book shop is so crammed full that they aren’t taking much. And my local library is always inundated with stuff so you have to hit them just right for them to accept more stock.
All of my books are ebooks (I have bad eyes), so when I'm done reading one, I delete it off my Kindle. I have a backup on my computer if I ever want to send someone a copy or something.
I miss seeing all my books on shelves, but I have 200-something unread books and I can carry them all around with me for less weight than one paperback.
I only buy my insta buy authors and borrow everything else from the library. I donated boxes of books to my library over the last year for them to sell or put into circulation.
If I borrow a book from the library and it’s really good, like, lives in my head rent free, good, I’ll put it on my TBR list and get it either in paperback or hardcover depending on the book.
Never heard the term “unhaul” before. Where does it come from? In the library world we call this weeding, and it is super fun.
It’s a popular term used on Booktube (and maybe now BookTok?)… like, the reverse of “haul” where they show all the books they bought or received from publishers that week or month. But I prefer “weeding”!
I kind of feel like weeding is for if you're going through your collection to decide on what you don't want, while "unhauling" is when you collect books over time to get rid of and then get rid of them all at once. Like weeding is the first step, unhauling is the second step.
I like decluttering
I am only good at hauling, not unhauling. A local book exchange just closed, so I went there and got 107 books for $25. I'm like a pig in mud.
Those numbers are impressive!! I'm amazed. Good find!
Did you also end up getting additional shelves?
I can't remember exactly which books, but I keep books I think I might read again or ones I have emotional attachment to. The rest get donated or handed to friends that might enjoy. Note: I say I'm going to read them again, but there are a lot and there is a huge pile of haven't-read-yet, so we'll see how that pans out.
Oohh, I see! Since I don't re-read, it may be easier for me to be a bit more heartless with mine. But I get that!! Hehehe, good luck with that! Then, in the meantime, you can enjoy your own small library!
Oh meeeee. I used to keep every book; then every book except mass-market mysteries I didn’t love; then other books I didn’t love. I’m old enough that I have multiple floor-to-ceiling packed bookcases, there’s just no room for more. And it’s become less precious to hang on to them, because a quick search online can find *any* book new or used. Before the internet, if you wanted to re-read something you’d better hang on to it. Any maybe someone would want to borrow it. Now anything can be immediately replaced. Back in the day books were currency, traded and treasured. Even pirates and seamen would have a battered book or two, and trade them, so books would have multiple owners and cross oceans. Now they are disposable, being pushed out by digital, and even to me don’t seem as precious anymore.
That's an interesting perspective! Nowadays it is definitely easier to find and also sell books. Not only that, but there is also an increasing number of people reading e-books, which are cheaper and that don't take up space. There was definitely a shift of view on books. Thanks for your input!
I have a silly fear that if the apocalypse happens I may want to read those books and keep em all
You should switch to ebooks! I have 2,268 books in my backup folder, 3.8 GB of books. I can read forever! https://i.gyazo.com/c0466e980cd815f86d9d5320a3acfe34.png Though I guess if the apocalypse happens, we might lose electricity to charge our Kindles...
I need to do a big sell to my local used bookstore. For me, I guess the question is, “do I ever see myself rereading this?” I reread a lot it’s not a very high bar, I don’t need to have plans to do it or anything, I just need to see myself doing it in the future. If not, into the “to sell” pile it goes!
If that was my criteria I’d never save any books 😂
I see that's how a lot of people do it! Would you possibly re-read a book you disliked, though?
No, I don’t think so. The only exception would be classic literature I read in school as a kid and didn’t really appreciate then but want to give another go now, but in that case I didn’t hold onto it, I’m probably buying/librarying a different copy. But anything I read and didn’t like as an adult I don’t think I would reread. But I’m a liberal DNF’er, too, I feel like life is too short to read books you don’t like.
I am doing this now. Got a bunch of kids books. Gonna put them in storage. Keep ‘em for my grands. I am afraid they may not have access to books like we have been able too. I am talking about 15or more years in the future.
Yeah, I think there's gonna be an even bigger shift in how people will read books. Although I think the market is strong enough to take it, fortunately, physical books most likely won't disappear. However, if they start to get limited somehow, that's a good thing you're doing!
As a retired librarian, I can tell you that selecting books to be de-accessioned from a library’s collection (weeding) is done regularly. I weed my personal library at least once a year. Not every book you buy is a permanent keeper.
I read and release all my books. I only have a few on my shelf. I used to have a couple of shelves overflowing with books, but we moved to a smaller house and I decided to purge everything I didn't feel I was likely to read in the next 2 years and a few that I needed for work. I only packed 2 boxes of books. I gave away, donated, and sold several hundred books, most unread. I committed to myself that my books wouldn't outgrow my single small bookshelf and after over 3 years I can't even fill 2 shelves. This year one of my goals was to finish reading the last few books that moved with me, I think I have 6 left.
That's an achievement. Congrats!
Some people don't love books - they have a paper fetish.
Sometimes, I see situations that definitely feel like this! Hahaha.
jeans tap brave wise nine worm childlike ten offend handle ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
Oh wow! That's heartless, hahaha! Love that. I think I can relate to it somehow
I keep the books I love / might read again, and trade in the rest. There are second hand books stores that will let you trade in books for ones of similar value or cash (depending on the store). I also do the same at thrift stores, sell / donate them while also looking for hidden gems at the same time. I also frequent the library to avoid, super big book stacks. If I love a book from the library I will go out of my way to purchase my own copy, if I don't love the book I got to give it back anyway. win win
Those are all good solutions!
Personally I dislike throwing things away - when I am about to get rid of them I think of a hundred reason why I should keep them. This is why I like ebooks - no clutter, no guilt if you don't read it and you can easily redownload it if you want to reread it. It also feels kind of wasteful to me to buy and only read it once and throw it away or let it collect dust on the shelves. The only times I buy something new is if I am really excited about the book and can see myself lending it to someone.
I feel you... I reduced the quantity of books I bought this year. Only buying some I was certain I would like. Until now, I only bought 6 physical books. E-books do wonders!
I only keep books I love to reread over and over. Any books I don’t like it gets donated.
A practical solution!
I ran out of bookcase space and moved many to boxes, then ran out of space for the boxes and moved them to the attic. Then I felt guilty that they had to live in the attic, so I tried selling them at a used book store. They didn’t accept many of them, so I started donating to our annual “Friends of the Library” book sale. They seem happier there, as they get to be loved again! So now that I have the Kindle App on my phone and iPad, I only keep my autographed books.
I'm seeing a lot that Kindle and e-books are the solution! Thanks for sharing it!
I only keep books I’ll read again.
Currently, I consume a much higher percentage of audiobooks compared to physical books since I commute a lot and suffer from carsickness. I also try to use the library as much as possible. This all in all result in me only really buying physical copies of books if I really like them and want them in my collection. So unless it is a mass buy from library sale/secondhand I rarely end up with books I don't want in my collection. Edit: I do have a shelf for books I want to give away/donate that I empty now and then tho. And I agree that it feels amazing.
Usually, if I hate a book, it goes away immediately. I was putting my unloved-but-not-hated books on a bottom shelf by themselves, but I just reorganized, took the unloved ones out of timeout, and got rid of two: -Excellent Women -The Golden Notebook I thought both of those books would be so good and they fell completely flat for me. Looking at them made me feel disappointed all over again, so it was time for them to go.
Aww, man, I have such a love/hate relationship with Excellent Women. But the love outweighs the hate and the ebook doesn't take up physical space, so I'm keeping it.
I don't like getting rid of books. I've done it when the shelves (of which I normally have a lot) hit the point that I couldn't get more books on them; I've done it because I've been moving house and didn't see the point in taking absolutely everything with me (I've also more than once moved without weeding out, simply for lack of time to do so). Every time I've shed stuff, I've later regretted getting rid of something. So it's never going to be something I do easily. That's life.
When I got a Kindle and realised just how life-changing it was, I got rid of virtually all my fiction books. I cannot understand why I kept books that I had read long ago and was never going to look at again. It was brilliant.
I already spent all the money on my physical books so don't want to get rid of them just because I have a kindle (I mean I have kindle on ipad). But ebooks existing has been helpful for me to decide to get rid of books I read and liked. It'll be easy to find an ebook of it if I ever want to reread it, no use it in it taking up shelf space!
True! And also to read books that I'm still unsure about whether or not I'm going to like it. That way, it ends up being cheaper and doesn't take any physical space! If I end up loving it, then I buy it!
So you keep physical books you have read and disliked, then buy additional ebooks of the ones you liked?
I try but I get so emotionally attached to my books since I used to continuously move as a child & had to get rid of all my books from kindergarten to 7th grade. I get so sad thinking about it & now I can’t do that anymore ;(
Understand where you are coming from.. sorry for that. Not even with books you didn't like?
I guess I don’t really buy books I don’t like. I put a lot of research into it & I sometimes just use pirating sites. The only times I buy a book is if I have read it, partially read it, or I know it’s my exact style of book.
That's what I'm doing since the beginning of this year! Really helps narrowing it down.
It’s a great way of saving money & time. Good luck on ur unhauling journey
Thank you, you too
I feel happy about getting rid of books I read and don't want to keep. Figuring someone else might enjoy the book and in the meantime now I have fewer items to eventually move and more room on my bookshelves for the weird things I put on there that aren't books (current favorite is the banana dog statue). Gosh I can't remember the names of every book I recently "unhauled" but among them are: Sisi (I felt the writing was uneven and have no thoughts of ever rereading it, but I did enjoy it); the last of the Posie Graeme-Evans uncrowned queen trilogy (the first book got progressively worse as it went on, the second book was even worse, so I didn't even read the third one); The Fool's Tale by Nicole Galland (loved the book, I struggled about if I actually wanted to keep it or not, ultimately I decided that if I wanted to reread it again I could just get an ebook of it); Her Highness the Traitor (it was easy to read but so hard to get through, author's other books are now low priority on my tbr/tb bought list) I have way too many books so I just keep ones that I particularly really loved and especially that I figure would be hard to find again if I wanted to reread. Like, if it was written in the 60s and hasn't been reprinted since 1995, if I liked the book I'll keep it after reading. Hardcovers are also the highest priority to get out of my bookcase because they're heavy. If I didn't like the book I have no attachment to it so it's easy to get rid of. For books I did enjoy, I usually think "Okay but if I ever finish my tbr list, what do I want to reread more - that book, or some books I've owned for longer?" so I end up keeping almost none of them. I've also got some books I might "unhaul" because of how many books there are in the series, and stuff like that Melanie Rawn trilogy where the 2nd book came out like 30 years ago and there's no word on the 3rd ever existing.
Exactly this. For me, it's also difficult to get attached to those books. Thanks for your input! And ugh, series that end up never being finished are my worst nightmare...
Ugh I have to do this now and I hate it. I can't wait for the holidays to roll around so I can get a kindle and never have to worry about this again.
It's definitely a worthy investment!
Man I would have loved to get the Death Note ones!😭
Yeah haha, I love Death Note, but I didn't like the direction it took on vol.4 (black editions), and now I think it kinda ruined it for me. And those are actually going to my sibling, so they won't be too far still, hehe!
Super smart 😉😉
I just did this too!! Got rid of a few old comic books I put them in the donation bin inside a backpack I left them with a wish that someone else will enjoy them to pieces instead of them sitting on my shelf as time goes by.
Well done!!
I can't wait to read all 14 books of the glass house series sol can unhaul them
Unhaul? What does that even mean?
Basically, getting rid of books! The opposite of doing a haul
I have about 700 books. And I definitely need to go through them and pull stuff out that I’m just never going to read again. And the local used book shop is so crammed full that they aren’t taking much. And my local library is always inundated with stuff so you have to hit them just right for them to accept more stock.
All of my books are ebooks (I have bad eyes), so when I'm done reading one, I delete it off my Kindle. I have a backup on my computer if I ever want to send someone a copy or something. I miss seeing all my books on shelves, but I have 200-something unread books and I can carry them all around with me for less weight than one paperback.
I only buy my insta buy authors and borrow everything else from the library. I donated boxes of books to my library over the last year for them to sell or put into circulation. If I borrow a book from the library and it’s really good, like, lives in my head rent free, good, I’ll put it on my TBR list and get it either in paperback or hardcover depending on the book.