Otherwise known as the perpetual need to declutter.

I couldn’t decide whether to write this one as a page or a post, and I’d originally uploaded it as a draft under my list of pages. In the end, I decided a “post” serves my needs better as it provides a long-overdue update on the blogroll to anyone who’s signed up to receive notifications from my site. That being said, I intend to post a link to it on the menu, because some of the content might require something more permanent than a post that I would inevitably bury under newer posts.

Anywho, despite the name, “spring” cleaning is a need that randomly pops up at any time of the year. Or at least it does for me. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a website to revise, personal files to organize, or the general decluttering of the house that the phrase normally implies–poet and don’t know it, and I swear none of that was intentional–I can usually find something at any point of the year that I need to clean up.

With that in mind, I’d like to describe some of the changes I want to make to this site, and, to a certain extent, how those changes relate to the other forms of decluttering.

I’ll edit the post as I create relevant links.

Hodgepodge

Just like my primary YouTube channel, this site is something of a hodgepodge of a variety of topics. Unlike the YouTube channel, it didn’t start out that way; no, this site started out as a means to track my NaNoWriMo progress (which has since been migrated to the sister site Pioneers of the Shattered Waters) and slowly turned into a hodgepodge as I commented on whatever random topic crossed my mind. Though the random comments will likely still occur, I am trying to return the site to its roots and focus on bookish content once again.

To that end, there are certain categories that must be reorganized, as well as older posts to be removed outright. Case in point, If I Could Sell One Thing will remain a subcategory of Business and continue to focus on the quest to sell off that assorted clutter; likewise I intend to keep fellow subcategory Amazon Deals which focuses on assorted offers that Amazon wants their affiliates to advertise. But in both case, I need–need, need, need!–to remember to delete pages when they are no longer valid. A thing I keep hoping to sell that finally sold (or that I finally donated when I decided the space was more important than the money), for instance, or an Amazon deal that has long since expired.

Physical Clutter

I will also begin adding a category and posts for books that I have donated (not sold) to the general community in the form of Bookcrossing drop-offs. Besides the ulterior motive that is “more affiliate links,” the eventual goal here is to include a map of where all I’ve dropped off books, though as there are a few things I’d like to try so such a map might undergo a few revisions before I develop a version I’m satisfied with. (Bookcrossing supposedly has a mapping feature that might work but it requires a Wings membership which I have not yet purchased… so I do not have a way to tell if it would meet my needs.)

As many of my Bookcrossing books were acquired in the same way as one another (thrift shop alongside with the occasional book that’s been in our house for ages) or dropped off in the same place (the only outdoor library within a short drive), one shouldn’t expect the content for each listing to change all that much–I’d copy much of it directly from my own journals and release notes on the official site, these pages do not serve the purpose of reviews, after all–but I will provide links to the title’s actual product pages as well as a link to that copy’s journal on Bookcrossing for anyone who might be interested.

And of course, I repeat the point of the “If I Could Sell One Thing” subcategory, wherein I detail a random personal belonging of mine that I would dearly love to sell on account of potential collector’s value and/or how much space it takes up.

And speaking of ulterior motives, reviews written about (print!) books obtained from the likes of Goodreads Giveaways or crowdfunding campaigns will be updated to include the unboxing video, if one exists, for the respective title. I want a custom URL on my channel, dagnabbit, but YouTube requires that I have at least 100 subscribers to use that particular feature.

Personal Files

More to the point, “personal documents” as Amazon Kindle classifies them.

According to one of Amazon’s help pages about personal documents,

“We may limit the number of documents you send or store through Kindle Personal Documents Service”

I have not yet found anything that identifies what that hypothetical limit is likely to be, either in terms of quantity as specified on the help page, or in terms of storage space. And at well over 600 documents on my own account (buying from StoryBundle will do that) along with the continued ability to upload more, I may well be far from even hypothetical limits.

But that they mention limiting the documents even as that hypothetical, combined with mild OCD, makes me want to attempt to limit my document library of my own accord. To that end I have created three collections on my Kindle strictly for dealing with “personal documents.” The “unread” collection of course applies to any ebooks on my account, but the three collections meant specifically for documents that I’ve already read are as follows:

• Add to Wishlist:
  These would be personal documents that I would like to keep in some form and would most likely (eventually) replace with a copy bought directly from Amazon. The trouble, sometimes, is finding the correct edition; case in point, at the time of this writing this list is populated entirely by the Millennium Edition of the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane… an edition that doesn’t exist outside of Ms. Duane’s own webstore.
  I keep the books in this list at least until such time as I have bought a suitable substitute on Amazon, at which point the Amazon copy gets dropped into one of my “needs review” lists and the document deleted from my account.
• Review and Delete:
  On the flipside, these would be those documents that I acquired via Storybundle or Prolific Works, or something of the sort, books that have an official presence on sites like Amazon, books that interest me enough to be worth reviewing, but not enough to keep.
  These are kept until I’ve written the review, after which point I delete them from my account.
• To be deleted:
  These would be books that do not interest me enough to keep and I have no compelling reason (or ability) to review them. This list is mostly populated by ebooks I acquired as PDFs available for free from the authors’ own websites and have no actual presence on a store site, though there may be a few here and there that I simply chose not to review.
  The books in this list remain on my account for the shortest period of time once they’ve been read and categorized, as the only thing I need to do is access my personal document listing on Amazon’s website and delete them.

I also have a few wishlists on Amazon, centered around books that sound interesting but I haven’t even read a sample yet (I had to delete a ton of samples from my account and add them back to the wishlist just to get things under some semblance of control), books that I have read a sample for but would prefer to find at a library before I decide whether to buy them outright, and books I’ve read a sample of but could easily download via Kindle Unlimited (if and when I sign back up) before I decide if I like it enough to buy a more permanent copy.

Finally are the wishlists for books I know I want but simply have not yet purchased, categorized based on whether they are a continuation of a series I already know I like, print copies that I’m replacing with digital, or, as per the previous notes, “permanent” copies that I’m buying to replace either a personal document or a borrowed KU copy.