Downsizing -- Exactly What Does It Mean?

The word "downsizing" kept popping into my mind today.  I couldn't get it to stay away.  While it was popping in and out, I was sorting through the mountain of books that we have collected over the years.  Not quite the height of Mt. Everest but seemingly close when you compare the relative space we have for storing them and the number of books we have. 

Downsizing over the last decades has meant quietly removing employees from top spots in an effort to cut overhead.  Downsizing could relate to weight loss in some circles.  Downsizing has definitely come to mean to the baby boomers what we want to do before somebody has to help us do it because we've already helped someone else do it and it isn't any fun.  Maybe we've helped grandparents, parents, siblings tote out years of accumulation of household goods and memories as life requires a move to a smaller space.


So, we've decided to attack our downsizing efforts by hitting the books first.  We checked with a couple of places to see what we might get in the way of a monetary return on our previous investments -- not much.  And by the way, they can be rather picky at these places that advertise "we buy used books."  Part of my sorting has been into various stacks:  Church library, attempt to sell to one of the "we buy" places, local library for shelving or annual book sale, or not worth going anywhere.

Some are hard to part with no matter which stack they likely fall into.  Some are family treasures and won't go anywhere, like the quilt book given by my husband's aunt to another of his aunts.  Loving the art of quilting as I do that book is staying on my sewing room shelves.  And then there are those among my husband's books about classic cars.  There are some he won't be able to part with.  That's just how it goes with trying to downsize!