What Do/Did You Do When You Run/Ran Out Of Space For Books? (12/14/25)

[Marc]

If you've ever run out of space (physical or digital) for books, what did you do? If it hasn't happened to you, what might you do? Did you switch from physical to ebooks? Did you buy more memory/storage? Did you donate some books? Did you buy/build more shelves? Did you force a family member to move out to make more space? Do tell!

[Sam]

My problem with space is mostly digital. I dump physical books soon after I read them and don't buy too many in advance. For digital, Cloud storage helps so while I have over 1000 Audible books I only have about 15 downloaded at any time. Flash drives are also useful and I keep a bunch of books on these.

[Franky]

This is a question I am still trying to figure out as I look at my bins of books everywhere... I have been donating books for the past few months so I am making some progress.

[Emmeline]

I do donate a lot of books, but there always seem to be piles everywhere. Sam I WISH I didn't accumulate physical ones in advance, but I seldom pass a bookshop without buying at least one. Ebooks are the opposite: I only buy them if I plan to read them right now.

[Hugh]

Make another pile!

[Jenna]

I’m with Hugh, plenty of room for piles!

I do donate books I didn’t really like or would never lend out, but I’m of the philosophy that it’s not hoarding if it’s books. Recently we go rid of our tv (my mother-in-law broke hers and so we passed it on) so the tv room got a new bookcase and is now the library annex 😂

[Franky]

Jenna wrote: "I’m with Hugh, plenty of room for piles!

I do donate books I didn’t really like or would never lend out, but I’m of the philosophy that it’s not hoarding if it’s books. Recently we go rid of our ..."

Jenna, your attitude about hoarding I love. Makes me feel a lot better lol. :)

[Robert]

Every ten years , I have a huge book purge and donate. My last one was in 2021 so I’m still good for now

[Emmeline]

I feel like some of you live in houses though! I have a two bedroom apartment and three kids and as much as I love books, I want some places that don't have books in them. Also I have mild humidity in one of the bookcase walls, and those books are (very slowly) getting their little age spots and things and ... it just kind of turns me off keeping them forever.

But we still have thousands. Not like we're minimalists or anything.

[Marc]

Hugh wrote: "Make another pile!"

OK, I laughed aloud at this... BUT... it's essentially where the overflow starts and I'm frequently moving piles, re-arranging piles, etc. until I either donate some books to clear shelf space, acquire more shelves, or clear out other "areas" (which has included everything from a "workbench" in the basement to dresser drawers to temporarily store/keep books).

I try to get rid of any book that is a 3-star read or less. As for ebooks, thus far, I have no storage/memory issues but my collection is probably <200 titles there and a good 75% of those were free (and still unread!).

[Alwynne]

I hope all of you with huge piles of books have had decent surveys done! A friend who has a large collection including a number of books kept upstairs found out that her old house wasn't able to cope with the added load when her floor caved in and the ceilings underneath collapsed!