Tiny Task #1: Purge Cookbooks

So, my first Tiny Task on my road to simplification & getting rid of stuff is to purge my cookbooks. I haven't touched most of the cookbooks on my kitchen cabinet shelf in years! Most of my recipes I get online and I save the ones we like in a binder organized by category. I ended up keeping 13 cookbooks, my binder, and my recipe card box. This still seems like a lot to me, so I may end up purging it even more in the future. I was able to put 15 cookbooks in my donate pile. I can't believe I had 28 cookbooks! Crazy! Here's what my cabinet looks like now:

The top shelf has our lunch boxes and aluminum foil (which is huge - won't fit in my drawer!). Middle shelf now houses all 13 cookbooks, the cookbook stand, recipe card box and I now have a nice easy place to set my binder down on (it won't fit right side up on the shelf.) I used to have to struggle to get that thing in the cabinet - no more! The bottom shelf houses all of my coffee & tea necessities.

I shared about my cookbook purging on my Facebook page & had a few friends share their great ideas & what they are doing with their cookbooks. I am amazed at the creative ideas these ladies shared! Here are some of them & some ideas of how to simplify your cookbook stash:

1) Donate to your local library or thrift store.
2) Find friends that would use them.
3) Post them on Freecycle.
4) List them on Half.com to make some extra cash!
5) If you've got a lot of hand written, favorite, or family recipes in a box or binder and you'd like to put them in a nice format, check out Tastebook! You can make your own customized cookbook & make it look so pretty!
6) Check out paperbackswap.com to swap books! This is for all kinds of books!

So, Tiny Task #1 is complete! I am donating my cookbooks to a local Thrift Store run by the National Charity League, Fibber McGee's.

I've been trying to think of how I am going to apply the 100 Thing Challenge to my own simplifying. I've decided that I am going to keep track of how many things I am getting rid of. In the last few years I have donated a ton of items to the thrift store, library, charity sales, and even sold things through a consignment service, and had a garage sale. Just the other day I dropped off 5 boxes of baby stuff to be sold at my MOPS Sale coming up in December. I wish I would have started with counting all of that stuff - I'm sure the numbers would be breathtaking! But, I'm starting today with the following list of what is currently in my donation box. It will be fun to see how high I get even though I've already gotten rid of a lot!

Stuff I've Gotten Rid Of:
1 piece of Christmas Decor
15 cookbooks
1 photo album
1 calculator
TOTAL = 18