What would you do?

drdfblackm

TJ Enthusiast
Original poster
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2025
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146
Location
Flagstaff AZ
Dad passed away a few years ago and I have mom in a new place. I am trying to clean their old place out and one thing that is a problem for me is dealing with all of dad's books. A lot of car, motorcycle, locomotive, military and WWII books. Not time life crap....just a collection that he came up with throughout his life. I really would like to keep them....but honestly....too much and not enough room. This isn't like a library's worth of books, but too much to drop off somewhere but too much for me to just keep.

What would you do....how would you deal with it? Seems like sure if there was someone local that would be great but I am fairly certain that piecemealing it selling and shipping would be pretty much a waste of my time.

I live in Arizona and have to come home here to Indiana and help out mom and also working on cleaning out this house....so my time is limited while I am here.

What would you do?
 
I dealt with this a few years ago when my dad passed. He loved reading and admitted he bought around 5 books for every 1 that would get read. If he ran out of room on bookshelves, he would buy a new bookshelf. He was in a 3 bedroom house by himself. Most walls were lined with bookshelves.

Used books don't sell quickly anymore. Most get their info online. I dropped all of his library at goodwill. You could try doing a garage sale. That would assume the books are worth more than your time.

I looked into selling some of them, but decided it's not worth the effort. Shipping for a consumer often makes it not worth it.
 
It might be worth talking to a local library or school and see if they are interested. I know the library in my town has had a ton of books donated to them that they used for various school projects and displays when I was in school.
 
Donate. I just dealt with the same situation. Brother, sister, and I each kept anything of interest to us and I donated the rest - some to the library and the rest to the assisted living where my mom moved.