Cleaning = Letting Go

Today I sorted the boxes of books and magazines I’m getting rid of. I tore off labels or blacked out addresses to anonymize them and sorted them by title. I posted a long description on the Freecycle lists I’m on (see the extended entry for that) and hit “send.”
Simple, right?
Hah! I am a packrat by nature and getting rid of all this stuff is at once liberating and terrifying.
It’s liberating because I no longer have to worry about what happens to the magazines – they will soon be someone else’s problem. I don’t have to find a place to keep them, wish they were better sorted, consider indexing the articles. I’m freeing up space in the house here, eliminating clutter (which I hate), and generally making things better.
But I kept thinking: what if I want this magazine again? What if I want to look something up in it? What if…?
I kept telling myself that I haven’t needed them in the year or so they’ve been boxed up so I probably won’t be needing them in the future. Besides, there’s always the internet, right? I can find info there if I need it.
*deep breath in* *deep breath out*
Anybody want any of these? Please take a look at the list and let me know… you can come get ’em or I can mail ’em to you (you pay postage). But they’re free. I just want them out of here.

I have a ton of old mags I’m trying to get rid of. I have:
Rolling Stones in the high 800s and low 900s (I’ve sorted them by issue number, so if you’re looking for a particular issue/s, please let me know and I’ll look to see if I have it!)
a bunch of miscellaneous magazines (one or two issues of things like SCRYE, Femme Fatales, Mad, etc mostly covering The X-Files, actors like Ben Stiller and Vin Diesel, Star Wars, etc)
a ton of Entertainment Weekly issues (which I haven’t sorted)
a handful of Psychology Today issues
and more!
I also have a bunch of books.
Random nonfiction:
A Painful Season and a Stubborn Hope by Abeba Tesfagiorgis
How can I be over the Hill When I Haven’t Seen the Top Yet? by Patricia Wilson
2000 California Labor Law Digest Vol. 1 and 2
Time Life Mysteries of the Unknown: Mystic Places
Cassell’s Latin Dictionary
The Avon Book of Beauty
The Pocket Camera Handbook by Michael Langford
Please Understand Me: Character Temperment and Types by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates
“If There’s Anything I can Do…” An easy guide to showing you care by Susan McClelland and Susan Prescot
Religious:
Depths of Glory, by Irving Stone
Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell
Pilgrimage of a Country Preacher by Father Ralf W. Beiting
A Woman’s World: Traveller’s Tales
Ruth and Esther: Women in Alien Lands by Johanna Bos
In my Father’s House by Carrie ten Boom
Mister Leprosy by Phyllis Thompson
Gifted Hands by Ben Carson, MD
Amos: Window to God by Dow Kirkpatrick
Sing, Shout, and Clap for Joy by Eunice Blanchard Poethig
Women’s America: Refocusing the Past by Linda K. Kerber
Preaching in Two Voices: Sermons on the women in Jesus’ Life by William D. Watly and Susan D. Johnson
Mary of Jerusalem: A Novel by Gloria Howe Bremkamp]
Kid/young adult:
Monsters you Never Heard of (by Raymond Van Over
Three Dreams and a Nightmare and other tales of the Dark
Ghosts, Ghouls, and Other Horrors (young adult scary stories)
Little Pilgrim’s Prgress by Helen L. Taylor
More Tales for the Midnight Hour by J.B. Stamper
Marleen The Horror Queen by Lila Perl
The Alfred G. Graebner Memorial High School Handbook of Rules and Regulations: A Novel by Ellen Conford
Growing Pains by Joe Colman
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney
The Joker’s Joke Book
Jokesmith’s Jubilee
Amazing Real Life Coincidences (young adult nonfic book)
Scholastic’s A+ Junior Guide to Book Reports
Fiction:
A Century of Horror (70s decade), edited by David Drake
Proof by Dick Francis
Total Control by David Baldacci
MacPerson’s Lament by Sharyn McCrumb
Mordred’s Curse by Ian McDowell
The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison
Straight by Dick Francis
Ross Poldark (Poldark 1) by Winston Graham
Demelza (Poldark 2) by Winston Graham
The Secret Pilgrim by John LeCarre