I Finally Did It ...
 

I got the 'let's throw out something' bug last night and dumped most of my 'collection' of travel magazines, dating back to 1993 and before.

I did keep the recent years of course - I'll dump them in ten years or so ;-)

I had boxes and boxes of neatly dated and labeled International Travel News (ITN), France Today, Paris Notes, La Belle France, Consumer Reports Travel Report, Conde Nast, etc..

As if I would ever use them for a 16 year old restaurant or hotel recommendation.

DH says the next major purging should be my travel books - YEAH RIGHT!! I know that someday I will need Let's Go France 1994, or Frommer's Europe on Twenty Dollars A Day - in my mind, that one is a collectors' item ;-) I love those books so much, as most of them have traveled with me and are part of my travel memories.

What have you finally thrown away or are 'planning' to throw away?

Nina

I treasure my "pack-rat-ness", hanging on to my "Let's Go Europe 1969", and enjoy browsing through it every once in a while.

Best wishes,

Rex

Hi N,

>What have you finally thrown away ...

I recently threw out a copy of "Back Roads and Country Inns" from 1984.

((I))

Test

I'm keeping my "Europe on $5 A Day" from 1970 unless you'd like to buy it!

We have among our "travel library" a book called Crown Insiders' Guide to France - 1987-88.

There is a sale sticker on it that says $2.20.

We also have our daughter's Fodors Paris 1994, with which she and her husband planned their honeymoon.

My husband maintains that any travel book which still talks of francs and lira isn't worth shelf space, but I don't know.

It's just hard to throw away books!

Byrd

I never ever throw away books. I only donate them to Salvation Army or Goodwill. Someone out there will buy it from them!

I recently put about 8 travel books in my "to donate" stack. My husband, who hates to get rid of anything, objected. I told him, "If we didn't use this 1988 'Dollarwise Guide to France' to plan our LAST trip to France, when ARE we going to use it?"

Think I'll follow your lead and do my travel magazines. Thanks for the good suggestion. I only have a few years worth but I always subscribe to 2-3 different ones so they DO tend to stack up!

Yes, those magazines do pile up quickly.

We have a little food pantry down at our church once a week, and I usually take my magazines there for our "clients" to take as they wish.
They (the mags) are gone in no time!

Friends who are "Pink Ladies" at the local hospital take magazines to the various waiting rooms.

Of course, we live in a very little town, but even in cities, there should be some places (like shelters?) where reasonably recent magazines would be enjoyed.


Byrd

A prominent member of my collection is 'California on $5.00 a Day' - I think that was around 1969. That's what a cable car ride costs today!

We too donate our books (regular not travel). Books are the hardest things for me to part with. DH freely gives the books that he enjoys most away to friends - I on the other hand, hate to even lend them.

I lent my most recent books on Paris, 2005 editions, to my neighbor for her upcoming trip in October. Two days late, we decided to go there over the Holidays - now I have no newish books to research and refer to for my own trip ;-(

I hate to ask her to give them back so soon, but I am absolutely lost without them.

Come on ... there must be lots of old travel stuff just sitting out there - anyone else got the bug - I need a buddy. The garbage truck is picking up my stuff as I write.

Nina

A few months ago I piled up all my old magazines: Frommer's Budget Travel, National Geographic, Conde Nast and Food & Wine, went through them and cut out what I wanted to keep. I have file folders for countries we're interested in and that's where the clippings went, hopefully for future reference.

I too have a real problem with throwing books away, but have parted with a few old travel guides. Wasn't easy!

You have inspired me. Into the recycling with Fodor's Pocket Puerto Rico (1991), Gault Millau Best of Paris (1994), and the 1993 Eurail Guide to traveling "Europe and All the World by Train." But I just can't throw out the guide to Thailand I purchased for our honeymoon in 1988. My kids will have to throw that one out some day when they're cleaning out my house.

Thanks Nina, I needed that...! I have been eyeing the piles of CN Traveler and others languishing in the basement. Time to send them to the recycle bin!

When I started saving them, I don't think Internet was anywhere except on campuses, if that. Now I can find whatever I need online, and tap into Fodorites for the latest local info.

But old habits do die hard -- I save copies about 2 years back if they include somewhere that I hope to visit, or dream about.

And let's not digress to cooking magazines like Gourmet, Fine Cooking, etc. Those are the other piles, dog-eared so I think I will find just the recipe I need. ;-) At least Cooks Illustrated has an exhaustive index you can buy to help track down that recipe for the best chocolate cupcake (and boy were they good!)

Thank goodness for relocation! When we moved last summer, I spent two full days of driving tearing interesting articles from my favorite magazines since I couldn't bring them all with us.

Was it worth it? Definitely! That's how we ended up deciding to go to Florence for Christmas--Gourmet did a seasonal story on Florence in the snow in one of the issues I perused! :) --MP

Good morning Nina! When I moved (six years ago) I got rid of my large collection of travel and food magazines. I also gave lots of boxes of books to the local library.

Since than I have down a "clean sweep" of my apartment every January.

I would never get rid of all the books I have regarding Italy or the maps I have plus some special books. I have not renewed any magazine subscriptions as I find the internet has so much information. Also our fantastic library is just around the corner from where I live which is so nice.

I have gotten where I just don't like having "stuff" that is not used. I even went through my extensive collection of photos and got rid of terrible photos, lots of duplicates (how many photos does one need of the 1985 Christmas tree for example, lol). So now I really enjoy the photos that I have. I do have every photo every taken during a trip however.

Good luck with your project. You may find like I did (when I was preparing to move) that cleaning out can be fun and a good feeling.

I have a never worn Travelsmith white shirt with gussets I will glady send to anyone who would like it, seriously.

SB Travlr - Either you are a mind reader or you stole my next post ;-)

I just came aboard to write about exactly the same cooking magazines plus a few more.

Rather than throw them out, I think I may just go through them and tear out the advertisements, thus giving me even more shelf room for another 15 years worth.

Not only do I get the Cooks Illustated yearly indexes, but I also get the bound editions of the previous years individual issues at the end of each year - to save precious shelf space.

I take the previous year's individual copies to our vacation home, along with the previous yearly index, so I guess that I am a re-cycle-er rather than a pack rat.

From what I'm hearing here, I'm getting the feeling that my 1982 Eurail guide is out of date - guess I'll have to start using one of my many newer (!) ones - maybe something from the 90's.

We should store our travel books in a wine cellar - according to the year, and pretend that they age well.

LoveItaly - Good morning to you too, you are my idol - you are sooooo organized and together when you put your mind to it. I don't even want to know the temp in your area - or Cowville, as DH's cousins who live there call it. SF feels like LA.

Nina

I do throw stuff out periodically and/or sell it on ebay. When the kids left I netted over $3K on ebay and could actually walk in my attic (not to mention see what was there) after I did it.

I have huge selection of guidebooks for Washington, DC (I live in the suburbs) that I keep for home exchangers. Basically, I purchase them when they are slightly out of date. I recently pruned my collection and threw out the ones over 20 years old. I do not buy ones focussed on restaurants and hotels because exchangers stay at my house.

I probably have some guidebooks for other places that should be tossed.

And then you can clean out all the old meds from the medicine cabinet (not to mention antique cleaning supplies in the laundry room).

I just discovered a BIG red plastic basket loaded with newsletters that I had scribed to, that were suppose to have gone out with the garbage. DH put it in another room and forgot to take it downstairs.

Being the gentle loving wife that I am, I immediately called it to his attention .... His answer was, "oh, I thought that you said that you wanted to go through that basket". WRONG ...It's like asking a drunk to clean out the liquor cabinet before joining AA.


Guess what I've been doing for the last half hour. I've been sitting on the floor going through how don't know how many La Belle France, Window on France (I had forgotten that I had even subscribed to it) and several years worth of the Italian Traveler. All of the above are circa 1995, although I did find things from the 80's.

With a heavy heart, I only kept three things. But that's OK, they don't collect garbage again until next Tuesday - plenty of time for a relapse ;-)

Nina

Throw stuff like that out when they are not looking. Chances are they won't miss it for 2-3 years. When they are rooting around looking for it then, inform them you tossed it 2 years ago. It will hard for them to get angry when you tell them you tossed it long ago.

Two years after I cleaned out the house of kid stuff, my son looked for his Alf. It was gone. I offered to get him another on ebay, but he didn't want one. The fuss ended in about 5 minutes. Other than Alf neither of my kids missed a thing.

We just bought a little townhouse and do not have enough storage for all of our books. It was hard, but just yesterday, DH and I went through our books and decided to sell all but the hardcover books suitable for display in our new wall-length bookcase.

We are set to have our first ever garage sale in two weeks! We'll only throw away what doesn't sell.

Eight or nine years' worth of Time Magazines. :D

Well, I can't throw away any of my Paris books, which have expanded to fill two shelves. 13 year old grandson, who's been to Paris with me twice, has already laid claim to the whole collection as the only inheritance he wants when I go to that Great Patisserie In The Sky. (Granddaughter's got dibs on the cookbooks.)

I so love reading the travelers' tales, or browsing through the big photography books, catching glimpses of ordinary Parisians frozen in a moment of their lives, unaware of the camera's eye or the viewer's subsequent scrutiny.

I love the black and white photography books that compare images of street corners, buildings, neighborhoods, "then and now", citizens paddling through the streets in time of flood or hurling bricks in protest, or just leaning contentedly toward one another, head to head on a park bench in the sun, murmurring beneath their hats.

I love the biographies, the histories of turbulent times. The descriptive letters sent home from Paris over the centuries by visitors scrowling in disapproval or giddy with unexpected discovery. I love the archaic language, the convoluted phrasing, the time devoted to the notation of detailed observance.

I love old faded postcards with abbreviated messages from tourists who have no idea that today other people are reading what they wrote to Great-Aunt Gertrude so long ago, when they were young and enthralled. I try to patch the hastily scrawled clues into stories, imagining the rest of their lives, how things turned out for them.

My grandson needn't fear any scattering of his promised loot. Paris as it was, Paris as it is, Paris as I may find it next time, is in those books and too deeply in me.

Ah Nina, another thing I have never tossed, Croque_Madame's post reminded me, and that is hundreds of postcards that I have received over the decades from Europe. They are very precious to me. I also have all the letters sent to me from various friends in Italy, again going back decades. I am very sentimental.

Nina66, I am topping an old thread with which I think you can identify "Purging Travel Paraphernalia..."

Sue, thanks for topping your thread, it's hysterical. All packrats should read it.

Nina

Just remember, when you clean up the house, it will make eventual downsizing much easier. Almost all of us will have to face that day.

And, if you kick the bucket before downsizing, it will be easier for your heirs to throw it all away anyway.

We all have a right to our possessions only for a certain period of time after which they move on elsewhere.

Too right, FauxSteMarie. I spent a month in England last year clearing the family house so it could be put on the market. Both parents were packrats, so rejected my efforts to downsize while they lived. (And it was their stuff, after all.)

I came away from that with two things:
1. A resolution not to saddle my children with that eventual task, so simplify while I have my wits about me (well, most of them anyway!) and
2. Realization that it's much easier to purge someone else's possessions than your own... We started on our attic (done) and garage (a work in progress). Still lots to do -- project for eventual retirement, maybe? Maybe it's time for a professional organizer? :-)

<<Nina66, I am topping an old thread with which I think you can identify "Purging Travel Paraphernalia..." >>

..."topping" only works for a few hours. Providing the URL works forever.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34722265

:)