A few weeks back, I posted about what to do with old/out-of-date travel guides. (I would love to live in a house with miles of shelves to keep every book I've ever owned, but that has never been and never will be the case.) I also had several language tutorials on cassette tapes, a few maps I knew I'd never need, etc. It had been a loonngg time (in some cases years... even decades!) since I referred to any of these things, so I knew that "missing" them would be all in my head.

(And, warning, that thread got dispatched to "Travel Tips and Ideas" forum.)

Anyway, the volunteers at my local library were thrilled to receive my stuff and don't have a sell-by date for travel books. So, they'll make money at their book sale, and there will be people who can start their own travel dreams.

I understand the longing and nostalgia for past trips, or future ones that may or may not happen. But for me it's not tied to travel guides. I'm at a point where it's more important to me ("big picture") to get rid of stuff than to keep it around. You can get rid of a LOT and still have an apartment full of memories and meaningful mementos, or at least that's what I've been working towards.

Buena suerte!

Thanks, Suze!

In addition to the books, (between cookbooks, travel books, and design books, the many shelves are jam packed, not to mention old issues of Cook's Illustrated, Cond� Nast Traveler, and the magazines I wrote for in another lifetime!!). Not to mention the cabinets stuffed with paper maps!!

I also have file cabinets filled with trip memorabilia (each one in a zip loc bag) with receipts, hotel brochures, etc etc..dating back now about 40 years or more...I've looked at these in all that time maybe once or twice to dig up a name of a restaurant that I enjoyed in Florence, lets say, in 2001, to give that info to someone here on these forums...). I'm now thinking I could much better use that space, as my NYC is jammed in every corner and on every shelf with "stuff". Things not yet unpacked, things carted home, things due to be packed for next trip, etc. I am very messy and that creates anxiety as the apt does not feel relaxing or peaceful....

Oy vey!!

My dear Rhody accepted every flyer handed out, kept every receipt, and all his loose change. I always bought the guide for places we visited. Like vickiebypass, I did a purge to make more shelf space for the scrapbooks mentioned upthread. I put all the guide books into a basket and they live in the guest bath...A friend of mine had here cookbooks in the loo also! Tossing the flyers and receipts made even more room. The computer makes online storage a breeze.

I wonder if a school could use the binders???

Some old guidebooks, I feel, are rich resources for those who like slow travel. Although the logistical information may be outdated, there�s a lot to be found in the old Michelin Green guides and older Lonely planets ( those are old to me!) pertaining to history and the import behind some small town that one happens upon, or a Ruins in the middle of seemingly nowhere.

I also enjoyed Karen Brown�s itineraries back in the day. I still have a few of her books, even though many of the places she recommended are not high on the tourist interest map these days. Maybe that is what makes them attractive to me!

That is not to say that I keep my old books, but I do think they could have value to someone. I just don�t have the room!

Every once in awhile, I will read through my old trip reports�now those are really trips down memory lane. But they are digital copies, not paper.

Then there are those of us who simply love the books themselves -- I mean the physical volumes. I had to purge a few shelves worth of books during a recent move and I had a struggle with each title I gave up. Now, I hated West Africa -- to paraphrase Jim Hawkins, "Oxen and wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed land" -- but could I easily give up my 30-year old Lonely Planet and Shoestrings guides? Not a chance.

I still have Rick Steves' first book, "Europe through the Back Door."
Before he became "famous," he invited travelers to write to him with questions or thoughts.
I still have a cassette tape from him, responding to my trip choices, mode of travel, etc. 1980-ish.
Wonder if it would be worth anything? 🤪

I mutilated some of my old guides removing pages to pack instead of the entire book, but most I took along. They were traveling companions - old friends. How could I get rid of a friend?

I grew up a "purger" as there were 8 people in my house when I was growing up and very little storage space. My mother had us go through our belongings twice a year (at the beginning of summer and before Christmas) to free up some space. Having emptied my parents' house and my aunt's apartment, I don't want to leave a lot of "stuff" for my family to deal with. I certainly still have plenty of things that I am sentimental about that I'm sure my kids will be happy to toss.

Guidebooks are easy for me to let go although I keep them for a few years in case someone else would like them. They then get donated to the library. I have a computer file of the hotels where we've stayed, and any advance reservations we made, and do refer to those from time to time. Most of our photos are now scanned and digitalized but I'm not about the throw out any photo albums.

This all being said, iI think it would be very hard to let go of the idea of traveling as I am always happy when I have at least the idea of a possible trip in mind. This growing older business is for the birds. OK, time to do my physical therapy exercises - groan!

I have plenty of papers from my own travels, a folder of some sort from each trip - with ticket stubs, business cards, maps, hotel reservations, handwritten notes, postcards. I feel very different about those (much more sentimental) and they would be a lot harder for me to toss than publications.

I have been helping our twenty something nieces with the logistics and planning their post University Gap year RTW trip. I offered them any of my extensive collection of guide books to help with the process. They looked at me with amazement/amusements and said that they were doing most lf their research online, not with websites , but with Pinterest, TicTock, instagram and YouTube. Never had I felt so much like a dinosaur!

Part of the enjoyment of travelling long term as we did was to pick up (and leave) guide books novels along the way. The novels provided a means of finding other writers that we had not read before and the guide books often inspired us to visit place we hadn’t heard of , as much from the notes in the margins as the text’s themselves. When we left a country we would reciprocate by leaving our used books behind in hostels and hotels.

my plan now is to remain only the books for destinations we are likely to use and take the rest to charity (thrift) shops. If I need another guidebook, my first call will be those shops.

When it comes down to guidebooks being old, 90% of teh stuff remains the same , the only things that really change are the prices and how touristy places are.

I am currently planning our return to Mexico using 10/15 year old LP and a Fodors guide (from the good old days way back when Fodors used to dish out free guides to forum members!) . I supplement this by asking questions and seeking opinions here and on TA. I have to say that, despite the lack of activity on these forums the info I have got here has been better than on TA. Thanks baldone , mlgb et al.

I'm at the age where almost every place I go, I think I'll probably never go there again. I'm also in the process of paring down all my possessions so that my children will have less to throw out.

I just gave several boxes of books to our town library. I asked them if they wanted guidebooks, but they were hesitant. They don't have a guidebook section. I'll probably end up throwing them out.

There are a several places I wanted to return to, but probably never will. China is high on that list. I've been there five times, for seminars, courses, and conferences, but never as a tourist.

I was first there before China was open to tourism, and the other times I couldn't spare much extra time. Once when I was in Guangdong for a conference, I arranged to return from Hong Kong, and a colleague and I travelled to Hong Kong by overnight boat. That was very interesting. I think we were the only foreigners on the boat.
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Bokhara- I love the idea of using postcards for bookmarks. Every time you open a book you have a wonderful memory of a trip taken.
Thank you.

About 25 years ago, my daughter was studying in Germany. She arranged with an American friend to meet when her course finished, to tour Germany and Austria. She asked the friend to pick up a guide book in the US. The friend got a guide book at a yard sale. However, all the telephone numbers had changed in the meantime. An example of costly thrift.

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I don't remember when I last received a postcard.

Two different friends happened to send me postcards from the UK this summer. I was thrilled to receive personal mail and loved the postcards, which are now on my bulletin board. Since then I've asked friends who are traveling to send me postcards. I'm still waiting to receive the postcards my friend sent from Italy 3 weeks ago!

I was in a used bookstore recently and purchased a Baedeker's guide to Central Italy and Rome, published in 1896. I like to think about the many hands that the book passed through and what travel experiences the owners may have had. I also picture Lucy Honeychurch in Santa Croce without a Baedeker, although her story turned out okay.

The art and architecture of Italy may be timeless but the instructions in the book's introduction show the passage of time with headings like "conveyances," "brigandage," and "intercourse with Italians."

That would be a fascinating guidebook!

My wife & I worked pretty hard to become fluent in Spanish, at least to speak it well enough to not have to rely on guides or group tours. So we made a bucket list to visit every Spanish-speaking country in the world. We were planning on Spain next before we ended up moving to Mexico. After the move, only made it to Colombia. Set foot in Bolivia, but that wasn't for pleasure travel and is another story. Anyway, out went all the guidebooks we'd collected and kept, hoping for some return trips to Guatemala, Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica. As age creeps up on you, one just reaches a point where long-distance travel for pleasure just isn't as pleasurable as it once was. At least in our case. We now settle for touring Mexico mostly by car, which is still enjoyable and interesting enough to keep us from hanging up our traveling shoes altogether. For that, I've hung on to old print magazines from Mexico Desconocido. I used to buy it every month at Mega, and found a whole stack of issues I didn't have at a book exchange. But as we get older, the possibility of moving back to the states for health reasons is not out of the question. So far, not on the horizon, but we realize downsizing isn't the worst thing. One "book" I did recently throw out was the Guia Roji of Mexico. It's a comprehensive road atlas of the entire country, with mileage tables, lists of hotels in major cities, the works. It was big & bulky & dog-eared and was my go-to guide for planning road trips. Now, Google Maps is my friend, both on my tablet or in the car. It was sad to see her go, but technology does make things simpler. Sometimes.

I put mine up on garage sales, but no one’s interested anymore. Some say they’d rather bring extra clothes instead of a guidebook, while some say everything’s digital nowadays. Even my nephews and nieces do not want them. 🙁 I still want them, I just thought someone else may find a better use for them than collecting dust. I’m keeping them for now until I really need to dispose of them.