Welcome to the Book Blogger Organization Challenge!
If you haven’t heard of this challenge and are interested in finding out more, check out the intro post! But basically the concept is simple: Whether you want to dedicate a lot of time to this challenge or a little, I’m here to help you get organized and work on blog maintenance in 2015! Everything is broken down month-by-month so you only have to focus on ONE idea at a time. January seemed to kick us off GREAT! Let’s get ready for May!
MAY 2015 ORGANIZATION CHALLENGE
Spring cleaning!
Okay, let’s talk spring cleaning for May! I actually happened to tackle a bunch of this stuff in April simply because my blogoversary was last month and the giveaways helped clean off my shelves. But May is spring cleaning of all sorts! Books, catching up on things, reading borrowed/gifted books… Now’s the time!
CULLING
- Epic book culling! Okay, maybe it’s not epic, but maybe your shelves need a bit of spring cleaning. Maybe you have some books on your shelves that you bought/won/requested and you know that you won’t read. Ponder what you want to do with them this month! Hannah from So Obsessed With wrote a great post on culling & a handy set of questions to ask yourself to decide if you want to keep those books or pass on them!
- What can I do with the books I don’t want? Not everyone can afford to do a giveaway for the books they don’t want to keep (honestly. I went to the PO the other day and it was lots o’ money) but you don’t have to! Aside from hosting a giveaway you can:
- Sell them to a used book store
- Donate them to Goodwill/charity
- See if your library is accepting donations
- Post them on the YA Book Exchange
- See if anyone using Have You Seen This needs something you have and wants to trade
- Ask your friends if they want any
- See if local schools are in need
- Peruse other swap sites like Paperback Swap or Book Mooch
- Put them up for sale on Half.com (But don’t sell your ARCs!!! (of course))
- Culling doesn’t have to stop at physical shelves either… Did you participate in a previous month where you cleaned up your Goodreads shelves? Is it time to go through your TBR and part with a few? I know I need to go back and delete some series that I had added, books I just lost interest in, or things I had added on whim that I knew I would really read. I’m sure a smaller TBR will make you feel better too!
CATCHING UP ON BOOKS THAT YOU DIDN’T BUY/REQUEST
- Books Received As Gifts: If you have amazing bookish BFFs or family who knows you very well, chances are you get books as gifts… a LOT. So how many of those books have you read? How many gifted books sit unread on your shelves? I’m not saying read them ALL right away, but maybe pick a couple to try to work on! It’ll make your gifters so happy too!
- ARC catch-up: Story of our lives, right? But hey, always time to work on some ARC catch up! Take May to consider what you’ll really read — whether before pub date or maybe even at all. If you think you won’t read it soon, pass them along!
- Borrowed Books: If you’re [a terrible person] like me, you still have books that you borrowed from your friends (*cough*years ago*cough*) and haven’t read them yet. I’m going to make a valid attempt to return these books (damn you friends who keep saying “hold onto them until you read them”) or you know… actually read them. NOW’S THE TIME! Or maybe a time to attempt reading some or at least making plans to get to them soon!
MORE UPDATING AND CROSS-POSTING
- Do you have more reviews to update? More reviews to cross-post? It’s a VERY daunting task (I just finished after hard work for MONTHS)! Take May to work on those a little bit more. Maybe just one a day and then you have 31 more done! Right? Right!
Resources Mentioned: YA Book Exchange // Have You Seen This // Paperback Swap // Book Mooch // Half.com // Post on Culling (So Obsessed With)
Don’t forget to share what you’re accomplishing this month with the hashtag #BlogOrganization!
Grab the button!
NEXT MONTH: Freebie month!
June is the month to pick anything you need to work on — choose from anything we’ve already worked on, tie up some loose ends, and generally finish some updates!
4 thoughts on “Book Blogger Organization Challenge: May 2015”
another good place for selling books, especially if they are newer, is Powell’s online. I like that they pay for the postage as well.
As much as I love the idea of culling books, I just can’t do it anymore! I think I’ve done it twice and a few weeks later I regret getting rid of certain books, sad that I don’t have them anymore. My bookshelves may be overflowing, but that’s why I have a home library, right? 🙂
Reading books I’ve borrowed I will definitely take into consideration. I’ve had some borrowed books on my shelf for quite some time! At any rate, returning the ones I know I won’t get to would be a good idea … lol
I definitely need to keep working on reformatting my posts! I’ve been doing it slowly each month because it’s just a pain in the butt.
About culling shelves – I totally need to do this. We just got some new storage for books and I need to go through my shelves and decide what to keep/discard. What do you usually do with ARCs if you don’t want to keep them and they’re too old to give away or post on an exchange? I highly doubt anyone would want some of them that I have but I don’t want to throw them away!
For my old ARCs, I usually see if people want them — either Have You Seen This or some I’ve posted for trades. Others I just give away! But that also involves a lot of shipping! I haven’t done it personally but I THINK people have seen if their local library has use for them. I’ve actually found ARCs at Goodwill when I was browsing but I don’t really like that people can buy them there and then they’re out in the world and who knows what that person will do once they’re finished. (Even though the money goes to a good place — it’s more the fact that it’s a purchase made for an ARC, ya know?)
ARCs are a tough one! Giveaway is usually my go-to which is why I only do one big giveaway a year. Just so expensive to ship! Maybe we should take a Twitter poll later! 🙂