Lightening the Load: Phase One

One "adventure" of this year's project is lightening the load--in many aspects. I hope to emerge from my 50th year on Earth a lighter person--not necessarily body wise, but certainly stuff-wise. 

While we were on a trip to Cincinnati a couple of years ago, we had the Ikea experience. We entered that huge store/museum and were amazed at how people in other parts of the world, i.e Scandinavia, lived in such small spaces with such ease. I was immediately intrigued and felt somewhat challenged by this compactness. Since then I've been giving thought of how to bring more compactness to my stuff. Anyone who has been to my "playground" in the basement is probably chuckling that this even enters my mind. The basement will indeed be a challenge, but what's life without a good challenge once in awhile? Obviously, that's not phase one; I like a challenge, not a battle.

For my birthday, I purchased a Kindle. I love the idea of compactness of my library; most of the actual weight of my travel comes from hauling books and magazines along. I'm not a single book/magazine reader. I read four or five different ones at a time. So, I'm minimizing my library. I did this once already last year and paired things down quite dramatically; I realize now I'm ready to pair again. So, phase one of lightening the load will be books. I don't want them to be destroyed--that would be a travesty. So, first I'll offer some to the local library and to friends who come our way.  The rest I'll donate to St. Vincent's. They'll get more use than just sitting on my shelf. I like that idea.