Here’s an idea for getting started on spring cleaning and enriching your town at the same time: go through your bookshelves at home and distribute unneeded reading materials throughout the community to people who need it.
Just like the tender plants in a spring garden, the books and ideas in your library need space and time. The ones you decide to keep will have more value in your home once the ones you discard are in the hands of those who will need them and use them.
A Local Example
At an ecumenical center that houses an interfaith library collection, one of the students who makes use of the facilities adjacent to our large university campus practices judicious placement of books in public.
For instance, he’ll take one book at a time to the Amtrak station where people waiting for their trains often look for something to read. Or he’ll leave them on the end tables at waiting rooms on campus, without any staff members noticing, of course.
Book Deliveries to Social Service Agencies
Stimulating minds outside of scholastic institutions also works by approaching agencies that provide for other needs as well, such as homeless shelters, after school programs, boarding schools and other child care facilities.
One Director of a Boys and Girls Club hesitated before listing the needs of the children in his care, but soon realized that an art project using collage techniques was underway at his facility. He then decided to ask for materials with bold, colorful visuals depicting many cultures, as well as fiction for youth like the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
Keeping Relevant Categories
In the practice of the ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui, books, especially exposed books, create unwanted energy that often disrupts the peaceful flow of Chi (life force) in the home environment. For this reason, it is wise to keep open bookshelves to a minimum in the home.
Toward this end, sloughing off unneeded materials will help to focus the energy of your home library, and this can be accomplished through categorizing what you feel you must keep.
To determine a list of relevant categories, ask yourself: What is the main theme of this library? Does each book or magazine contribute to this theme? Do you need these materials and use them regularly or occasionally? If not, why keep them when others may need them and use them more?
An Organized Space is a Peaceful Space
As your spring cleaning project progresses, it may help to keep in mind that your home is part of a larger living entity. Written material (as well as other things like clothing, blankets, etc.), if organized and distributed to those in your community who may be in need, contributes to the education level and also the peaceful energy surrounding your home.
Simultaneously, the space within your home becomes clear of clutter and easier to keep clean throughout the rest of the year. Starting with your library, organizing becomes a peace mission on the inside as well as the outside of your mind, your home and your environment.
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