Cynthia’s Blog

We’ve been slowly renovating our house, and have been working on the living/dining room for the past year. To make it easier to do this, I packed most of our large collection of books and movies into boxes and put them out in our storage shed. The movies ended up coming back in, but when it was time to create a lot more dust, I packed them up again and stacked them in our hallway….

Let me first explain: we do not watch TV. At all. Ever. But we do have a tv hooked up to DVD player and VCR so that we can watch movies from time to time, and for DVDs associated with my kids schoolwork. We live in a small town, a reasonable drive from any other town, and while we used to have a small video store here, it has closed down. Because of these things, I have slowly built up quite a collection of DVDs, so our family would have some good, fun and uplifting movies to choose from.

A few weeks ago, one of my teen son’s friend and his brother were staying for a week. It was pouring with rain, so we decided to watch a movie. I got the boxes from the hallway, opened them all on the table, and we all began browsing through looking for something we felt like watching. But somehow I found we were all going “Nah, not that one. Not that. Nope. Doesn’t appeal. Can’t be bothered.” etc. And I suddenly asked myself WHY do we have all these movies?

Sure, the above reasons are valid. But there is a downside:

1. They take up quite a lot of space - we had an entire 6ft x 2ft bookcase CRAMMED with DVDs and videos.
2. While movie watching was supposed to be “occasional” or at scheduled intervals such as “family movie night,” it had become to easy to default to watching a movie in the evenings, and the kids would tend to put one on when bored or not in the mood for other things during the day. Result: reading aloud as a family had gone by the wayside, games, conversation, or other pleasant activities were happening very infrequently, and too often we stayed up later than intended watching a movie.
3. Because of the desire to be entertained, and because one tends to want something new from time to time, I was too frequently succumbing to the temptation to buy or hire a new movie - thus spending quite a lot of money on this form of entertainment.
4. While we certainly were picky about what we watch, for the most part, and aim generally for uplifting or informative movies, it is easy to have a lapse in judgement and end up watching something of lower quality for it’s entertainment value, or because it wasn’t as it seemed.
5. None of the above is the end of the world, but I feel strongly the desire to forsake the merely good in favor of the best - it’s far too easy to get this in reverse!

So, in the interests of more space, simplifying, spending less money, and having more time for the best - family read-alouds, games, conversation, quiet companiable individual reading or craft etc, we decided to eliminate most of our DVDs, keeping only a few of truly excellent quality that we wish to be able to loan to others, or that add something to our history studies etc. And as a bonus, selling off these DVDs presented an opportunity to raise some needed funds towards the cost of attending the annual Student Convention where my kids compete in athletics, academics, music, drama, photography and craft!

I began listing our DVDs on Trade Me, the NZ equivalent of ebay. And so far have gained some $535 towards our fund raising this way. Best of all, the remaining DVDS take much less space, we’re watching less, I’ve stopped spending money on movies, we’ve started reading aloud again, the kids are reading more books, and more games and craft are happening.

Yesterday I unpacked all our books from the boxes, and am working on downsizing and simplifying those too. A post on that soon.

It occurred to me recently that I have only 5 years of homeschooling left - that is, 5 years until my youngest child will be 18, and potentially ready to leave home or move on to other things independant of me. When you are surrounded by young children, those years of childraising can seem to stretch before you into infinity, but it is true that the years flash by all too fast! My eldest will be 21 next week - the age I was when I gave birth to him, and had already been married 2 years!

The realisation of how close to the end of this season of my life I am has caused me to do some deep thinking and re-evaluating. I’ve always desired, and worked,  to live with less clutter, to live more simply. But the desire to make the most of these last few years with the children had made me think even more deeply on how much “too much” can interfere with the important things of life! To that end, I am determined to throw off all that hinders!

I’ve believed, too, for quite some time, that the ability to TRUELY let go, and eliminate begins not in the doing, but in the heart and mind. If you haven’t got past a general desire to reduce to a deep, abiding BELIEF that it’s the only way to live, you won’t be ready to fully let go. Sure, you may “declutter” in spurts, tossing out trash and giving away things, but somehow you won’t quite get THERE - to the place where you live simply and with little or no clutter, until the heart transformation happens.

Reading good books and blogs can help with this slow heart transformation. Recently I’ve been re-reading over and over my very favorite book on living simply - In Celebration of Simplicity by Pen Wilcock. This little book is a true gem, and a must-read for any Christian who desires to live simply!

So, what does this mean for me, now?

I am DETERMINED to streamline, reduce or eliminate everything in my life! I do this not as an end in itself - but as a means to and end - that is, to live fully, glorify God, and spend most of my time focussed on what really matters - people! especially my family - and not on STUFF!

So, follow along here on my blog to read about some of the ways I’m streamlining over the next while.

I’ve just finished redesigning my website - check it out at www.CynthiaHancox.com. I now have my audios available through the site, and I have a free audio (testimony) and a couple of free ebooks - one on teaching history and one that excerpts Charlotte Mason’s own words on teaching history - you will find those in the Book of Centuries section of my site. Also, all products are now available for instant download after purchase (apart from the FunnyMoms DVDs, which are shipped physical products).

More good stuff coming soon - meanwhile check out my site and let me know what you think! (Via the Contact page on the site.)

Enjoy!

Just to let you, my reader, know why you cannot comment on this blog. I used to allow comments, but I’ve been getting a ton of spam comments, enough that it’s become a major inconvenience moderating them. As I don’t have the time to waste, and the spam comments far, far outnumbered the constructive comments, I have, for the time being, been forced to disable the comments feature on most of my posts.

So, if you would like to comment on any entries, feel free to email me instead, which you can do through the Contact page of my website - www.CynthiaHancox.com

Thank you for your understanding.

Blessings

Cynthia

I am often asked how can one create a lapbook for a young child. Here I offer a series of 9 photos and instructions of a simple lapbook I made together with one of my daughters simply as an example of how lapbooking can be fun for young ones too. Bear in mind that this was put together by myself and my 13 yo, not by a preschooler, so the standards will be higher than you should expect with your little one unless you plan to do all the work yourself!

The point is to provide an example of how you can pick any topic of interest to your child and find some simple images and ideas to create a lapbook on it.

The information you include in the lapbook can be printed off the net, or better still is to read some books to your young one and then have him narrate (tell back out loud) to you what he knows about the given topic, and you write it down for him or her.

Let your child have fun coloring, cutting and glueing as much as they are able. It’s the PROCESS that teaches them as well as builds a relationship between you, not the beauty of the finished product!

Here, I simply picked a topic (Farm animals), decided on 9 typical farm animals, used images off the net to create pics of those farm animals, and wrote some simple information under the lift up flaps. A central collage and some more pictures on the cover completed the lapbook.

Have fun!!
Clicking on a thumbnail will open a larger pic.

On an internet group, a home educator asked for help with scheduling the teaching of history and science. They expressed their frustration because they had been trying to follow the schedule recommended in their history book, which was to teach history on Mon, Wed and Fri (with lessons on Monday and Wednesday, and Friday being the day for review, timeline and map work), and science on Tues and Thurs. The problem arose because sometimes they would not do school on Mondays, and this would throw off the schedule for the rest of the week, and the frustrated mother would then not do any history that week, waiting for the following Monday to start over.

The following was my response to her plea for help:

I think you need to remember something very important:

Teach the child, not the book!

Remembering this helps me not to get hung up on schedules and days of the week so much. Anytime I plan out a schedule of what MUST be done when, life comes along and interferes. Like you, I hate to have my plans messed up, and when that happens it’s easy to ditch the lot and wait until I can start again and do it “right”. End result - lots more missed stuff, being behind schedule, frustration and maybe throwing in the towel all together.

So, how to I avoid this? Well, first, I DO have a plan, but the plan is my guide, not my dictator. It’s the plan I follow most of the time, but on those days or weeks when other things come up, I put it aside, and just pick up where I left off.

Secondly, I’ve found the BIGGEST problems come when I set myself up to expect that we WILL complete a given book or course in the “recommended” time, no matter what. If a text is set up to be done on a 36 week schedule, then that is a GUIDE, and a system that is set up to give you somewhere to start. SOME kind of recommendation is needed, and some kind of format is useful to the author too, in writing the program. However, if WE see that as a rigid requirement, then we are setting ourselves up for problems. Sure, it’s nice to aim for the suggested time frame, but I’m not going to get all worked up if it takes longer.

So, when I plan, I write a list of what I would like to get done in each subject for the week. I even plan it out into a schedule at the beginning of each week, taking into account other things I already know will happen this week. But if we get to the end of the week and have not done everything, then I simply roll those things that are not done over into next week’s schedule. So what if I start next week with a review that was meant to be done on Friday?? Life will “happen” often enough that within a few weeks I’ll be back to having it on Fridays. Each day, I tick off the boxes on my schedule of the lessons that got done, and those that didn’t I either schedule into the following week, or skip, depending on what they are, and what subject. Therefore, I do not plan specific lessons for specific days more than a week in advance, and I also remember that if I take two weeks to finish one week’s plan, then at least I’m still making progress, which is better than if the first week didn’t go right, so I ditched most of the second week waiting to start over.

I am a person who is very left-brained, very black-and-white, and very “this way is the RIGHT way”. But I’ve been homeschooling long enough (12 years) to know that I need to give myself permission right from the get-go to be flexible, roll with life’s punches, and keep going, and take as LONG as is needed to get through things, and that’s ok. If I don’t do this, then I get frustrated when MY plan doesn’t work out, and end up quitting things. I’ve done that TOO often! I’m trying to remember to surrender each day to the Lord, to do my best with what I have planned, and to relax enough to let HIS plan take first place.

As to whether to do History/Science on alternating days, alternating weeks, or alternating semesters, that is up to you. Look at what you’re doing, and what is or is not working for you, and make adjustments accordingly. I’ve personally started out this year with both History and Science planned for every day, in short lessons. It’s working fairly well. I’m considering trying a few weeks with a different arrangement to see what is better. I was thinking of the alternative days plan, but might also try doing alternative weeks. I thought about alternative terms, but decided that for us, this would be too long a gap, and my kids would forget stuff or lose the flow of what we’re studying.

Realizing that, NO MATTER WHAT, there is no way, no how, that we could teach ALL there is to know about history in 12 years of school. In fact, you couldn’t learn it ALL in a lifetime! So, we must pick and choose what we learn about, and if we miss some things here and there, it doesn’t matter! When I teach history, I have specific goals in mind:
1) To give my children an idea of the FLOW of history, and a broad outline and understanding of what happened when and where. At least the highlights, which will give them something they can fit other information into later.
2) To give them a LOVE of history - to make it alive and interesting to them, so they will continue to be interested for the rest of their lives. I think they get a passion for history best when we take our time and linger over the people that we find most fascinating, not rush on because the book says we should be up to “here”.
3) To give them the TOOLS of how to learn about history - knowing how to find information, how to relate that information to other people/places/things etc. Research skills, constructing a time line etc come into this.
4) To help them understand the IMPORTANCE of history, that knowing what has happened before helps us to correctly understand what is happening now, to see that history is a record of God’s dealings with mankind, and to realize that “nothing is new under the sun”; what you sow you reap etc.
When I keep these thoughts in mind, I no longer worry about whether we finish our spine text this year, or take two. I don’t worry about whether we will get through all of history from creation to today before the kids finish school. Because I know that I am lighting a fire that will burn all their lives; igniting a passion that will carry through. And THAT is far more valuable than completing any book. Once you light that fire, the kids will begin, once they get old enough, to dive into MORE of history than you have time to teach. They will read every book they can get their hands on about the person or time that interests them. They will make their own records, create their own projects, and bubble over with enthusiasm. They’ll read textbooks beyond what you have done with them, and dig deeper than you have time to dig. They’ll begin to teach YOU history!

J I’m seeing this with my own children, especially my 14 year old daughter, and increasingly my 12 year old son.

J

Update: I wrote the above 5 years ago. My kids are still excited about history! J My now 19 yo daughter is a walking Tudor encyclopedia, and my 17 yo son constantly tells me things I never knew. My 15 yo daughter has been studying early missionaries, and talks about them as if they were her friends. J

For more thoughts on teaching, and in particular teaching history, see my FREE ebook “History is Beautiful” HERE.

Today at church we had a leadership summit with a guest speaker who’s passions are evangelism and training and equipping leaders. He made a number of excellent points, but I just want to share one thing here…..

I’ve been mulling for a while on how the family unit is intended by God to be a mini-model of His kingdom. He uses marriage to show us truths about the relationship between a believer and our Lord. He intends the family home as a place where God’s love can be shown to others, and whether the children he blesses us with can be bought up in the love and admonition of the Lord. The Bible says that elders in the church must first have a family that works, and lots of specific instructions are given to men, women and children in regards to their responsibilities and relationships within the family unit. God created marriage and family, and it is His intention that the family unit be the foundation of society, and that He be able to bless both families, and through them, society.

Anyhow, with these kinds of thoughts in the back of my mind I saw a direct relationship between something shared today and how we can improve our own focus and management at home….

The speaker was sharing about how he was pastoring a church, and he had a man who was serving as assistant pastor, whom he was mentoring and training. Now, we’re talking Salvation Army here, and there are certain things about the Army that are different from most other denominational structures. In particular, while enormous support and resources are available through the extended leadership, there are also requirements to meet in terms of paperwork and programs. This new assistant pastor came to the pastor, and said to him something like “How on earth do you DO all this? There’s this to do and they want us to do this, and there’s all this and this and this.…” The wise pastor said “Wait a sec! There are only TWO things that really matter - to win souls and make disciples. All the rest of that stuff, just get it done, and get it off your desk as fast as you can, so you can go back to focussing on the things that truly matter!”

In our homes, which are God’s kingdom in miniature, there are only three things which really matter:

First, our own personal relationship with Jesus.

Second, that we love our husbands and children as Christ loved us, and lead them to our Lord.

Third, that we disciple our children, helping them to grow in the Lord and develop in wisdom and stature, that they are equipped to take their place in God’s kingdom in the world.

(And that we do these same things for other people whom God brings across our paths).

All the rest, sure most of it is important in some way, but it’s all nothing compared to the above. All those things, we ought to do them as quickly and efficiently as we can, and get them off our desks (to-do lists) so we can focus on what really matters!

Lord, help me to keep the main thing the main thing! All the other things, grant me discernment to know which ones I can just let go of, and wisdom to know the most efficient way to handle the rest. Give me strength to carry out my daily tasks, and prevent me from being side-tracked by the urgent into losing sight of the truly important. Above all, dear Lord, draw me ever closer to you so that you may be clearly reflected in me to those whom you have placed around me. Use me, Lord, to draw my children and others to you. Help me to cast off everything that hinders, and run the race you have set before me, bearing only your light yoke. Father, I also pray your blessing and grace upon all these other dear women who also love you and long to raise their children and keep their homes for your glory. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Written Oct 25th 2011

Don’t you just love new beginnings? A new year, a new month, a new week…..? These things make us feel as if we have a chance to start over, start fresh. Today is the start of a new school term here in New Zealand. Everything we didn’t get done last term no longer matters. It’s time to start fresh - to pick up where-ever we are at and work towards new goals for this term.

Life if full of times where we decide on a certain goal by a certain time, and then “life happens” and we don’t make as much progress as we’d hoped. But we don’t need to beat up on ourselves, because we can start fresh. Today I just want to remind you that God gives us new beginnings each and every day. God’s mercies and compassions are new every morning (La 3:22-23).

So, if you’ve been struggling or feel like you failed, or if you’re just behind and feeling down or pressured, then stop and turn your heart afresh towards God. Let your failings fall away and be embraced by His compassion. He knows you are a human being. You’re not perfect. You fail. It’s ok.

And then, my friend, arise! Embrace this new day, this new beginning! You can start right where you are! You CAN work towards the goals and callings God has confirmed in your heart. Go out in joy and be led forth in peace! Hallejuhah!

How often do you write vital information down on pieces of paper, only to not be able to find them when you need the info? How much time do you waste hunting for information you know you have SOMEwhere……? Have you ever wished you could remember the details of that quote you asked for, or those details someone told you 6 months ago? Let me share about one of my favorite ways of overcoming this problem, something that was a vital step for me and prevented me regularly losing my mind back in the days where I was plagued by chaos. I call it “The Captain’s Log” because of the article I read that first inspired the idea, but I’ve also been know to refer to it as my “Random Access Memory” or simply “My Brain!”

Think for a moment about a large oceangoing vessel. The person in charge of this vessel is the Captain, and the Captain always has a Captain’s Log, which is, of course, a book in which every detail of the voyage is recorded - heading, speed, location, problems encountered, interesting or important events and so on and so forth. Whenever the Captain is not on deck (after all, the poor man can’t run the ship himself 24/7!), the First Mate takes over, and also keeps the log. If any question ever arises about anything that occured on a journey, the log is referred to.

Now, there’s a lot of analogy here that could be applied to running a home, but I won’t belabor that point for now. Suffice it to say that I was inspired to think how useful a Captain’s Log could be in a home! No more random pieces of paper, no more lost information…..

So, I purchased a spiral bound notebook (A5 size, which is to say, half a normal page size), with a brightly colored cover. The reason for the bright cover is that it makes it easy to spot if you happen to put it down somewhere, and when one log is full, it is shelved, and the next one has a different colored cover. I was often heard to say to my kids “Kids, have you seen my brain? It’s got a pink cover…..”

In this book, I wrote down EVERYTHING:

Phone numbers someone gave me, recipes I was told, phone messages, notes while talking to someone over the phone about something, library books I wanted to look up, to-do lists, shopping lists, where to find X place of interest, professionals I had dealt with or who had been recommended to me, phone messages, children’s measurements, etc, etc, ad infinitum. I would often date an entry, usually I ruled off after it. This way, I did not feel guilty for wasting space like I did when I tried to use a diary to record things - no more blank, unused space because I didn’t write anything on a given day.

In my more organised moments, I might transfer some of that info to it’s “real home” - phone numbers to address books, recipes to recipe books, whatever. But it didn’t matter if I didn’t do that right away, because meantime the info was safe. When the book was full, I would place it on a certain shelf, and keep it for 12 months or so. It was amazing the number of times I would recall speaking to someone about something important on the phone last year, and want that info - all I had to do was look back through the relevant log, and there were the details - who, their phone number, and basically what was said. After 12 months, I would take one last browse through the log for any info I wanted to extract, then toss it out.

The notebook didn’t have to be perfect - I could scribble and cross out - it didn’t matter. It didn’t have to be alphabetised, categorised - just USED! And because I kept it simple, I DID use it! I’m sure you can see why I called it my Random Access Memory (after the computer term) - because I didn’t have to rely on my actual brain to remember things, and I could randomly access any required information when needed.

I’ve moved on to more sophisticated organisational methods since, though for at least 5 years, my R.A.M was the only thing that kept me sane! I’ve got better at using a diary and calendar, I set reminders on my phone etc. But, you know, I miss my Captain’s Log, so yesterday I bought a new, bright purple notebook. There’s always lots of stuff I need to write down that isn’t necessarily best placed in my diary! How about you? Could you benefit from having all that random information in one, accessible, easy to find spot?

Start a Captain’s Log today!

The Captain’s Log and other ways to keep yourself organised are covered in depth in Goodbye Chaos, Hello Peace! Go HERE.

Recently I’ve read two books about the 80/20 Principle. This principle was discovered by a guy named Pareto. Wilfredo Pareto was an economist, and he observed that 20% of the population in Italy had 80% of the material wealth. Over time, and much testing by various other specialists, it was found that this proportion could be extended to other areas of observation, including:

20% of clients account for 80% of sales

20% of the workforce does 80% of the work

20% of a book contains 80% of the information

20% of your priorities result in 80% of your profitably productivity

At home, 80% of dirt is found in 20% of the total area

and so on….

What the Pareto principle is basically saying is that 80% of results or outputs flow from 20% of inputs.

The numbers 80 and 20 are not “magic figures” - sometimes the actuality may be 17/83 or 25/75 or whatever. This is a general principle though, and it does remain approximately true in most situations.

Perhaps now you’re asking yourself “So what?” Why should you care are about the 80/20 principle? Let me tell you why - because once you grasp this concept, if you choose to apply it to your life, you will find it makes it MUCH EASIER TO DECLUTTER, and helps you to focus your time on things that really matter. In short, this principle can help you turn your life from one of chaos to one of calm and productivity. Let me explain:

If I were to count every single book in my house (a number doubtless in the 1000’s), and if I were to diligently mark each book we actually USE over the next year, and then count them, are you willing to believe that the second number will probably be around 20% of the total number of books? I am! How about in YOUR house?

If I were to really look at all my cookware and kitchenware, I sure it would be true that 1 in 5 of the items would get 5 times as much use as the other 4! Take my pots for example: I have 5 pots in various sizes. 1 of them gets used ALL the time - usually every day, and often many times during the day. Because it’s the perfect size for me to cook potatoes, stews, pasta, porridge, bulk lots of whatever used in other recipes and so on and so forth. Most of the rest of the pots have really only a couple of things I use them for, and so are used much less often. So it would be true that 20% of my pots (1 in 5) produces 80% of the cooking done in pots in my house. How about in your house? Do you have any pots that are used so seldom they are really not needed at all?

It’s probably also true that……..

20% of our clothes are worn 80% of the time…

20% of our DVDs/CDs etc produce 80% of use and enjoyment

20% of toys get played with 80% of the time

20% of makeup, lotions, personal care products etc etc gets used 80% of the time

1 in 5 cookbooks in my kitchen get referred to regularly

etc

So, if 1 item out of 5 similar items produces most of the results, do we need the other 4? Good question! It depends. If we still do use the other 4 reasonably often, and there is no double-up in what they can do, then yes, probably. (For example, I do need all 5 of my pots, and some days have all of them in use at once). In other cases, that other 80% is mostly excess - clutter - stuff clogging up our lives! Can you wrap your mind around that:

80% of the stuff in our homes has very little benefit!

If this is true, then wouldn’t it make sense to let go of most of that 80% as soon as possible, so we can find and concentrate on benefitting from the other 20%? Yes, yes, I know you can’t really get rid of ALL 80%, but surely we can realise that most of the 80% is simply not valuable and important, and let go of a good deal of it?

I don’t know about you - but I’m totally fed up with living in a home with TOO MUCH STUFF, one where it takes too long to clean up, too long to find things, where too much of my time is spent dealing with STUFF. I want more freedom - freedom to focus on my family, freedom to have folk over on short notice, freedom to serve my Lord in other areas, freedom to begin to disciple others as I’m called to do, freedom to LIVE!

There are three principles I’m working on implementing into my home as I declutter and re-arrange:

• 1 item in 5 is very beneficial - the rest are optional and most should be cut down as much as possible

• We only have the space we have - and we need to live comfortably (not crammed) within that space. How much we keep of anything must be limited by the amount of space available to keep it in.

• In every room of my house, I should think about all the activities that room is supposed to be used for (according to our family goals, plans, intentions). Then, all the items needed to carry out those activities should be kept IN that room, if at all possible, or as close to it as possible. That way we’re not having to carry things back and forth to other parts of the house. Plus, I’ve always found that if the place something belongs is close by and easily accessible to all family members likely to use it, it’s much more likely to get put away.

There’s an example of how I’ve been applying this recently:

In a hallway off my living room, I have what I call “my library” - this is an entire wall of 6 foot high shelving full to overflowing with books. There is also another unit of 9 shelves which is used for school supplies etc. Craft and stationary are down there too, and junk there’s nowhere to put also tends to migrate into this area “until I deal with it”.

Now, the wall the bookcases are against is due to be demolished, along with another wall, to create a more open living/dining area and give us some much needed light and space. The room behind it and the “hall/library” together will become our new living room. So, I’ve needed for a while to move those bookcases and sort through the books again, and reduce them back to fitting properly.

But, armed with the above principles, I decided to think about this a bit differently:

Those bookshelves will be lining one wall of our living room, which is also part of our dining room. What activities are or will be carried out in that room?

Playing games

Reading books

Doing jigsaws

Knitting

Sewing

Watching DVDs

Listening to music

Relaxing

Snuggling on the couch together

So, what items are needed for these things to happen, and DO THEY HAVE A HOME IN THE LIVING ROOM? (Or can I create one). Now, I have a small house with VERY limited storage. So I decided my wall of bookcases should contain not only the books, but also the games, my knitting wool/needles, sewing machine and supplies, DVDs, puzzles etc etc. Obviously, this requires that I eliminate some books (ok, a LOT of books) to make room for the other things.

And that is what I have done over the past couple of weeks. I emptied and moved one bookcase at a time to it’s new wall. Then I went through the books that came off it and identified the ones that REALLY get used and enjoyed or constantly referred to and put them back on the shelf. Then I went through the rest and ruthlessly asked myself WHEN they would get used, and for WHAT and how, truthfully, likely it was I would NEED them in the next year or so. I also asked the kids which ones of “their books” they really cared about or where interested in reading. Doing this I didn’t eliminate 80% of our books, but I did eliminate about 50% - leaving 15 bookshelves now free to house other things.

As a bonus, I’m advertising those books I removed that are worth selling online, and have gained a couple of hundred dollars so far which will go towards the costs of my kids going to Student Convention.

Now I’m working my way through the rest of the house, looking for the 20% (or 1 in 5) of really useful things, then eliminating as much as possible of the rest.

I find this principle freeing! Only 1 item in 5 of all I own (on average) is really very beneficial. I can let go of the rest!

How about you?