Overcoming Overconsumption

Last discussion post I mentioned that I’d been just buying blindly via retail therapy when it came to books. I’ve slowed down so much in the last year, I still order more than I probably should but trust me, it’s down A LOT.

But that makes me keep coming back around to the overconsumption. I think about it a lot as I stare at my shelves. I am much better on avoiding duplicate copies and even parting with books that even if they’re pretty I didn’t enjoy them. I don’t NEED to hang onto them all.

It was something that wasn’t healthy for me. But more than that, holy crap was I running out of room lol.

Personal libraries are great, if you have one it’s fantastic but you don’t need to have one and you also don’t need to purge yours in guilt or shame if you read this and are like ‘well shit.’ This is all just about my perspective and if you have a different one, I want you to embrace it and always feel free to discuss in the comments.

For me, all of this was just putting a bandaid to cover up a much bigger problem and that’s why this wasn’t the right thing for me to continue.

It wasn’t just the books though, it was everything. I was getting too many full book boxes and so many items in them that I was just at a loss. I have enough damn mugs to last an apocalypse, and notebooks too. I love notebooks, I love coffee but uh…I will never get through these all in my lifetime.

So. I cut down on the boxes, even if I just switched to book only. I use Instagram and FB groups to keep a pulse on duplicate books from subs and try to cancel/skip as needed and I stopped looking at preorder incentives entirely. I’m trying to limit myself to mostly only preordering sequels from now on or something I’ve read and loved/already had on my TBR. Other exceptions would be like my favorite auto-buy authors but no more buying for the sake of buying. FOMO is real but I can’t let it rule me right now.

I’m trying to be a better version of me and I’m also trying to at least read a 1/3 of my own books before I leave this planet lol and at the rate I was going, I wasn’t even going to read 1/6 of them.

Even now, I’m still looking at what subs to cancel to try and wheedle it down more and just recently canceled one last week. It’s a work in progress, but so am I.

Reading’s never about the amount you read or own, it’s from the enjoyment you get from reading (no matter the format) and I lost that along the way.

I don’t need to get what everyone else does just to feel like I’m joining in, we all like different things.

Now if only working on the rest of my habits were this easy lolol.