Look at your bookshelves => Make some cash, reduce clutter at home & maximize return from your local taxes.

While the above might sound like a lot - I can assure you that is exactly what you can accomplish if you decide to take a good long look at your bookshelf at home. If you're like me you accumulated a dearth of books all around your home that in many cases have only ever been read once. Several years ago, I decided it was time to try and consolidate my book collection and set about culling my personal library. Here is how I went about this transformation.

Step 1. Time to Purge = I started going through our books and piling all those that I hadn't looked at in the last year into one grouping. My culling was thorough and ruthless this is not a time to reflect on how it would be great to go through this book - there is likely a reason you haven't read it yet. My simple advice is put it in the "to go" pile.

Step 2. Time to Sort = Once you've accumulated a pile of books to go you're best to start by identifiying all those books that can be sold. Through my process I discovered that Amazon for the most part has the most active marketplace for reselling books on the Net which is part of the reason that their fees are so dear. My experience indicated that you're best to check out the available stock already listed on the site you can get a gauge for the prices that others are asking for similiar texts. My goal was clear to recoup some cash but primarily to be rid of books that were just taking up space - with that objective in mind I set about putting my books on Amazon as the lowest priced offering in their respective used category. The way Amazon sets up its book sales is that you're paid a flat fee for delivery of ~$7.00 so its worth checking online with your post office to get a sense of the various shipping rates around the country. If you're like me it will end up taking a while to clear the backlog of unused books but once you receive that first payment you'll find your resolve to get rid of these books moves higher.

Step 3. Dust off that library card = The biggest and best change that we made was the decision to maximize our use of our local public library. When I look at the amount that I pay in local property taxes in my city and the services available to me - I was surprised that we hadn't taken action earlier. Over the past few years, I have become a big user of the library getting books and DVDs = allowing me to explore new topics, revisit classics all the while save money and reduce clutter at home.

What are you waiting for - start shedding those excess books.