Decluttering - Getting Rid of Books & DVDs?

[jeff2017]

As a kid, I liked to watch movies and would often wait until ones I liked were marked down to $5 or less and buy them from places like Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. I've been trying to declutter and noticed I have a DVD tower, but have not opened up most of the DVDs in years. Similar situation with books, I found I rarely re-read a book, but part of me likes having them around in my bookshelf.

Part of me wonders if this is just unnecessary clutter and if I should get rid of/donate/sell these things.

What are some of your rules on when to keep/get rid of items like this?

[Zola.]

I have a few shelves of books that I may never read again, but I do like the look of them all together, nice and neatly placed...however it is ultimately clutter.

I have gotten rid of all of my dvds though!!

[jeff2017]

Random idea on the books. Quite a few of them are Business books, maybe a good alternative might be to donate them to a high school Business teacher as a "Library" for their business students. I have a few friends that are teachers, maybe I'll run the idea past them.

[joonifloofeefloo]

My rule is simple: If I don’t need them, I release them.

A thrift shop can be a one-stop drop for those.

[rubybeth]

Only tip you ever really need: unless you have to keep it for legal reasons or it's an absolute necessity, if it doesn't make you happy, then let it go. This is a very boiled down version of "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo.

If the books are old, recycle them. If newer, see if your local public library or Friends of the Library group would be interested in them as donations. Same for DVDs. If they are older but in good condition, libraries may want them or be able to sell them.

[Blueberries]

If I don't like it, I don't keep it.

For the DVDs, keep the movies you'll actually watch again and buy a DVD binder for them.  You could call your local thrift shop(s) and ask if they will take the empty cases (mine did!).

As for the books, if you don't like them or wouldn't read them again, check used book shops online to see if you can make some money.

[RyanAtTanagra]

I think it was Jacob at ERE that talked about how he considers the public library his own personal library.  If he wants to read something, he goes there and gets it, so no need to keep it in his house.  It changed how I viewed books (used to want a huge personal library), and now I own maybe 12-18 books that I use for reference or that have legit personal meaning (as in written and signed by a friend, not just 'this book was a meaningful read').

For DVDs, I digitized my movie/tv show library onto a home theatre PC (XBMC/Kodi on a Raspberry Pi).  Depending on your level of technical acumen (it doesn't take much), and desire for a computer project, I'd highly recommend it.  Cleared up so much space.  I hate physical media.

[Sugaree]

I'm part of the Oregon Trail generation so I find that I'm Millennial enough to prefer to have all my movies in digital form, but Gen X enough to still want to have that physical backup just in case my online account gets torched for some reason. 

I'm also a total sucker for the $5 and $3.75 movie bins at Walmart, so I try to stay away from that part of the store. 

[jim555]

I digitized all CD, DVD, tapes into computer files and dumped the physical.  Papers, statements, scanned and dumped.

[Kl285528]

Just finished a move to a smaller place, and it created the necessity to do something with the hundreds of books and DVDs and CDs. Boxed up most of the books and donated to public library branches, where they will put them out on their "Books for Sale" cart and try to sell them for $1. Not as burdened with too many DVD's. Anyone found a market to sell CD's or DVD's anywhere?

[AMandM]

We have a lot of books and want to keep them. Many of them we do read and reread.  Many are reference works that we consult fairly often. Many we keep because we want them available to our kids and grandkids as well as ourselves, to be pulled out in a moment of curiosity or to fill an idle minute.  The public library is not useful for that kind of opportunistic reading, and anyway my public library is pretty weak on the kinds of books we like to read.

DVDs on the other hand I would happily get rid of almost altogether, but then we rarely watch movies.

[ketchup]

I got rid of most of my books, DVDs, CDs, and older video games about five years ago. 

If I decide I really really want one back, I can always re-buy it.  They'll always exist.

That hasn't happened yet.

[Rosy]

I'm a bibliophile, so I was forced to deal with my book addiction - you can only fit so many books into a small house:).

Admittedly, it took time and caused me a lot of anxiety in the beginning, but now I have four bookcases and a "one book in" and "one book out" rule that I live by.
Still, I purge occasionally as my interests change or I find a better book to replace a reference book.
Since I have a fair amount of different interests not satisfied by the offerings of a library I do require my own mini-library. I also might need a particular herb book/herb recipe to have at hand and refer back to, etc.

I have a few books which I re-read from time to time, but overall my books relate to my interests. The leisure reading books are read and immediately passed on to friends or donated to the library or the thrift store.
I simply no longer have the desire to hang on to the complete series from my favorite romance or sci-fi author ...

Movies - I do have a couple of drawers full, that I will donate with the next purge. Now that I have Netflix I'm good - more storage space for me:).

[Roger D]

I did a clearout of books and DVDs and got paid for them by zapper.co.uk - I didn't earn a lot, but it was a straightforward process.

You scan all the barcodes with their app, then it tells you which ones they can use and how much they will pay. You print off their address label and send the box of books/cds/games/legos, and a cheque comes in the post.

The ones they didn't want were mostly older ones without barcodes, which I donated to the local charity shop.

[des999]

I got rid of most of all my old movies/books.  The ones I keep now are ones that I keep out visible on a shelf b/c it reminds me of something I should remember.  Also, it often reminds me to re-read them.  This is typically the case with books more so than movies. 

[adventurestache]

Unless it's a movie you watch at least once a year, I'd get rid of it. You can always check it out from the library if you want to watch it in the future. I find having minimal clutter around helps me keep focus on important things, so I think it's worth it to get rid of anything you don't use regularly!

[ketchup]

Unless it's a movie you watch at least once a year, I'd get rid of it.

What adventurestache means is that as long as the DVD isn't either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, you can get rid of it.