Nesting Instict Is DEFINITELY Kicking In - I Am Selling Old Books!

Over the weekend, Hubby and I decided that we should probably unpack our guestroom. It has only been four months since we moved into our new house - no big deal. With the prospect of houseguests in the next month when baby Z arrives, I felt compelled to actually do a good job.

As part of this unpacking, my pregnant brain decided that I needed to go through all of my books. My parents brought four boxes of old books (that I had never moved from their house) a few months ago, and I felt compelled to go through each box that they brought, as well as all of the boxes from our old place, and decide on a case by case basis how I was going to categorize each book -

• Keep Out - These books make the cut to be left out on our scarce shelving in the guest room/office.
• Keep In Storage - These are books I want to keep but don't have room to keep on shelves. My series of Harry Potter books falls into this category.
• Try to Sell
• Donate

I actually was really excited about the options I found for what to do with my "Try to Sell" books. I looked into listing books on Ebay and Amazon, but fees and the hassle of packing and shipping each individual book was more than I could deal with. Then, I found two online book sellers on whose sites you can provide the ISBN numbers of your old books, and they will tell you whether or not they are buying and for what price. Abe Books was the best for me, but Cash4Books also looked promising. The best part of these services is that they pay for the shipping to send books out to their stores. All I have to do is pack them up and drop them off for Fed/Ex. Sweet.

For the books I wanted to sell but Abe Books was not buying, I turned to PaperBackSwap. This online club, which has been featured in all sorts of news stories across the country, allows users to swap books. You list what books you would like to offer up, and when another user requests it, you mail it off to him. For each book you mail, you get credit to request a book from another user. I listed my books last night, and it was super easy. Someone already requested one of my books this morning, and the process of mailing it off couldn't be simpler. You can print off a label and wrapper for the book all in one, and you can even have the service add postage to the label for you. Because most books are under 13 oz., you don't have to do anything special with them other than drop them in your own mailbox for your carrier to pick up. Quick and easy! Love it!

Here's to developing OCD tendencies during the last month of pregnancy!