Many of us love books and find them incredibly hard to part with. But if you've made up your mind to declutter your shelves, these top tips will enable you to release your treasures to new homes without an ounce of guilt or trash!
When you consider that only 24 books are produced for every tree felled, it makes sense to spread the love by passing our books on to other people.
Throw a book swap party. Get a few bottles of wine ( and fair trade, of course) and get together your friends, family or neighbors for a book-swapping party. You can make up "rules" if you wish, or just let people dive in and help themselves. Donate your books to your local library. You can feel great knowing your old books will be read by hundreds more people. Take them to your local charity, thrift or goodwill shop. Profits raised from your books can help other people benefit from a better life. Donate on . You might even find yourself a like-minded friend from your neighborhood in the process! Sell them on Green Metropolis. If you're in the U.K., you can sell your books on , which donates money to the Woodland trust for every book sold. Sell on the Internets. Make some money on eBay, Amazon or in a second-hand bookshop. ReadItSwapIt. Do as the name suggests, and . You'll meet a virtual community of people who want to read your book and swap their own. offers a swap site for U.S. readers. Become a Book Mooch. offers a similar system, but instead of swapping, you earn "points" for every book you give away, which you can use to "buy" other people's books. Set your books free. is a wonderful idea — you just leave your books on a train seat, in a restaurant or at a hotel for a new reader to find! You can "tag" your book with a unique code and follow your book as it travels across the world. Share the love. A local hospital or hospice would love to take your old books from you for patients to enjoy. Educate others. Take children's books to a local school and specialist textbooks to a local college or university.